5.2 Overtaking on the Right

Overtaking on the right

Overtaking is not a Guyana shortcut around keep-left. It is a temporary move onto the off side, then a return to the near side without cutting in. The Road Traffic Code groups the rules as Rule 22(d) plus numbered overtaking lines. This section teaches that cluster as independent study of the GPF Code. The full road-markings chapter later unpacks colours, widths, and yellow-bordered areas; Rule 38 already tells you to obey white lines before you overtake.

Quick Answer: Overtake on the right / off side. Do it only when you can see there is no danger. Do not overtake at or near a corner or bend, a road junction, a pedestrian crossing, a bridge or narrow culvert, or the top of a hill or rising of the roadway. Do not overtake where the road narrows, where you would force others to swerve or reduce speed, or past a pedal cyclist if traffic is approaching from the opposite direction. If in doubt, hold back. Never cut in. Watch white lines.

The default pass is the off side

Rule 22(d): when overtaking another vehicle, you must do so on its right or off side. In left-hand traffic that is the side toward the centre on a two-way road, and the side away from the kerb on a one-way road unless markings say otherwise.

Never turn out sharply from the near side. Give ample warning. A sudden swing from the left without a signal is how you collect a motorcycle in your blind area or meet a vehicle that was already overtaking you. Signals belong in Chapter 10; the overtaking rule still requires them in good time.

The right-turn exception

The Code's overtaking line numbered 36 says: overtake on the RIGHT except when the driver in front has signalled that he intends to turn right. If that driver is committed to a right turn, passing on the off side puts you into the path of the turn. Do not invent extra left-side overtaking habits the Code does not spell out (for example "always pass minibuses on the left in Georgetown"). The printed exception is the signalled right turn ahead of you. If you cannot complete a safe pass without using the off side into that turn, hold back.

See that there is no danger

The overtaking cluster opens with a condition, not a location list: never overtake unless you can see that there is no danger to yourself or others. Be specially careful after dark and in rain, when it is more difficult to judge speed and distance.

That sentence is doing real exam work. An empty-looking off side at night on the East Bank is not automatically a pass. Rain on the Soesdyke–Linden Highway is not automatically a pass. If you cannot see far enough to know the oncoming lane is clear, you have already failed the Code's first overtaking test. The keep-left page of Rule 22 also told you to drive at night well within the limits of your lights and to be specially careful when headlights are dipped. Overtaking is often the manoeuvre that outruns those lights.

The Code's "do not overtake at or near" list

The Code then prints a closed list. Teach this list. Do not pad it with extra places the PDF does not name.

Do not overtake at or near:

• a corner or bend
• a road junction
• a pedestrian crossing
• a bridge or narrow culvert
• the top of a hill or rising of the roadway

Each item is a sight-line or conflict problem. A corner or bend hides oncoming traffic (the Code also tells you elsewhere to slow before a blind corner or sharp bend). A road junction is where other vehicles, including those from your right on a doubtful major road, enter the carriageway. A pedestrian crossing is where people have a dedicated claim on the surface; overtaking through it puts a hidden pedestrian on the far side of the vehicle you are passing. A bridge or narrow culvert is a width trap; the Demerara Harbour Bridge and Canje Bridge are named Guyana structures where the Code already demands care and the posted limit, and a bridge is on this overtaking ban list whether or not a sign also says overtaking prohibited. The top of a hill or rising hides whatever is coming the other way just beyond the crest.

"At or near" matters. You do not get a free pass because you started the overtake one car length before the junction mouth or because the pedestrian crossing stripes are only just ahead. If the hazard is at or near, the Code's answer is do not overtake.

Narrowings, forcing others, and pedal cyclists

The Code then adds three further overtaking limits that are not the "at or near" bullet list but are still bans:

• Do not overtake where the road narrows, or when to do so would force other vehicles to swerve or reduce speed.
• Do not overtake a pedal cyclist if traffic is approaching you from the opposite direction.
• If in doubt, hold back.

Forcing a minibus into a drain so you can "make the gap" is not a legal pass. Squeezing a cyclist against the near-side kerb while an oncoming hire car closes the off side is the exact pedal-cycle ban. Doubt is not a tie you win by accelerating. Doubt is an instruction to stay behind.

The illustrated Code also shows plates such as overtaking prohibited, overtaking by lorries prohibited, and overtake with caution. Those signs do not replace Rule 34's place-list. A silent country road can still be a no-overtake corner. A signed "overtake with caution" stretch is still subject to danger, white lines, and the cyclist rule.

Never cut in

The Code defines the phrase so an exam item can quote it. Never cut in, that is, do not pull in sharply in front of a moving vehicle which you have just overtaken.

A completed overtake ends when you can return to the left without forcing the overtaken driver to brake or swerve. If you can see that vehicle's headlights in your interior mirror as a whole vehicle, you are closer to a safe return than if you can see only a sliver of bodywork. The Code's own words are the test: no sharp pull-in in front of a moving vehicle you have just passed. Cutting in is not "returning to the near side." Returning to the near side is required. Cutting in is the violent version.

White lines — preview of the markings chapter

Rule 38: observe the rules regarding white lines on the roadway when you wish to overtake. Details sit under traffic signs, signals, and road markings. Preview the Code's own short marking language so you do not treat a painted line as decoration:

• A broad white line defines traffic lanes and permits overtaking if the opposing lane is clear of traffic.
• Double solid lines mean traffic should not cross either side except to enter or leave a driveway on the opposite side of the roadway, or on the direction of a Policeman, or to avoid an accident.
• Solid and broken lines mean overtake only if the broken lines are on your driving side.

The Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Regulations go further on yellow lines, continuous lines left of a dotted line, and yellow-bordered areas. Those details are the markings chapter. For this overtaking chapter, the exam-level duty is: a pass that ignores a forbidding line is not saved by "I could see ahead." If the line on your side is continuous in the Code's double-solid or solid-and-broken sense, you do not overtake across it except the Code's named exceptions (driveway access, a police direction, avoiding an accident).

Being passed, again

If you are the slower vehicle, you still have overtaking duties:

• Give the appropriate signal if you are ready to be overtaken.
• Do not increase your speed.
• Courtesy includes slowing so the other driver can pass safely.

That is how keep-left (section 5.1) and overtaking fit together. The passer uses the off side. You stay left and do not race.

Overtaking checklist from the Code

Independent OpenExamPrep study of these overtaking topics follows the published Code list. It does not add extra banned places, and it does not treat a Georgetown custom of squeezing through on the left as Rule 22.