Overtaking rules: when you may and when you must not

Overtaking means passing a moving vehicle by leaving the lane you occupy — any lane, not only the oncoming one (Rules of the Road, point 3(11)). It is allowed only when four conditions hold at once: the oncoming lane you are about to take is clear far enough ahead, the vehicle ahead has not signaled overtaking, a left turn or a U-turn, the vehicle behind you has not started to overtake you, and you can get back into your lane without obstructing the vehicle you passed (point 73). It is prohibited at intersections, on pedestrian crossings, on railway crossings and within 100 m before them, in tunnels, on and under overpasses, bridges and viaducts, where the road narrows, and at the end of an uphill and on stretches with limited visibility when the overtake means entering the oncoming lane (point 77).

The Rules of the Road are Annex 1 to RA Government Decision No. 955-N of June 28, 2007; every point below refers to it. One logic runs through the bans: never overtake where the lane you would move into is not visible, not free, or not yours to take.

Before you start: four conditions

Point 73 requires the driver to make sure of four things before beginning an overtake:

1. The oncoming lane you intend to take is clear far enough ahead, and moving into it will not obstruct oncoming vehicles.
2. The vehicle ahead has not given a signal of overtaking, a left turn or a U-turn.
3. The vehicle behind you in the same lane has not already started to overtake you.
4. You can return to your previous lane at the end of the maneuver without obstructing the vehicle you overtook.

If even one of them fails, starting the overtake is prohibited. Exam questions show exactly these situations: the car ahead has its left indicator on, and "you may overtake" is the wrong answer.

Where overtaking is prohibited

Point 77 lists eight cases. Learn them with the reason for each:

• At intersections. All of them — no exception for the main road, none for an unregulated junction. The situation at an intersection changes in an instant.
• On pedestrian crossings. An overtaking car cannot see a pedestrian stepping out from in front of the vehicle it is passing.
• On railway crossings, and within 100 m before them. The 100 m counts before the crossing only.
• When the vehicle ahead is itself overtaking or going around an obstacle.
• In tunnels, on and under overpasses, bridges and viaducts, and where the road narrows.
• A vehicle with a blue flashing beacon and the special sound signal switched on.
• A vehicle with blue and red flashing beacons and the special sound signal switched on, or a vehicle escorted by one.
• At the end of an uphill and on stretches with limited visibility — when the overtake is done by entering the oncoming lane. Near a dangerous bend where visibility is under 100 m in at least one direction it is stopping that is prohibited, not overtaking (point 84(5)); the two get mixed up constantly.

Sign 3.20 "No overtaking" and a solid line apply on their own, on top of that list. In the zone of sign 3.20 you may still overtake slow-moving vehicles, horse-drawn carts, two-wheeled motorcycles without a sidecar, mopeds and bicycles; under sign 3.22 "No overtaking by trucks", only motorcycles, passenger cars, buses and trucks with a maximum authorized mass of up to 3.5 t may overtake (Form No. 1). Solid lines 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 may not be crossed (Form No. 2).

Which side you pass on, and the overtaken driver's duty

You overtake a non-rail vehicle on the left. The one exception: if the driver ahead has signaled a left turn and has already started the maneuver, you overtake that vehicle on the right (point 74).

The Rules bind the other driver too. The driver being overtaken is prohibited from obstructing the overtake by speeding up or by any other action (point 75). Exam questions regularly ask it from the other side: "what must the driver being overtaken do?" And when you move back into your previous lane, give way to vehicles already traveling in it without changing direction (point 39).

Overtaking and passing: do not mix them up

In the language of the Rules, overtaking is passing a moving vehicle by leaving the lane you occupy — whichever lane that is. Going past a moving vehicle without leaving your lane is a different maneuver with its own name: passing (point 3(14)).

The consequence is what most learners get wrong. Moving into a neighboring lane of your own direction to get past a car — without ever touching the oncoming lane — is overtaking, and every ban in point 77 applies to it, intersections included. Only staying inside your own lane the whole way keeps it out of point 77. Read each picture carefully: does the car leave its lane, or not?

How to lock it in

Overtaking questions are almost always pictures, and the right answer turns on the details: markings, signs, visibility, type of intersection. In bibip's practice the official overtaking questions are mostly collected in Group 9 · Signals, lights, overtaking and railway crossings, free without registering; the same rules with their point references are in the Group 9 theory chapter. Revise speed limits and right of way at intersections alongside this one — the exam keeps weaving them together.

See also: Stopping, parking and overtaking: hardest test questions.