Overtaking Rules

The short version

Normal side to pass on

The rightRegulation 298(1)

How far out

A safe distance, and stay out until safely clear of the vehicle passedRegulation 298(1)

Passing on the left

Five listed cases only, and only if it can be done safelyFirst proviso to regulation 298(1)

Never, for four of those five

By driving on the shoulder or the vergeSecond proviso to regulation 298(1)

Prohibited outright

Approaching the summit of a rise, a curve, or any place where your view is restrictedRegulation 298(2)

If someone wants to pass you

Move as near the left edge as you safely can, and do not accelerateRegulation 298(3)

The rule: pass on the right, and finish the job

Regulation 298(1) states the whole of the ordinary case in one sentence. A driver intending to pass another vehicle going the same way "shall pass to the right thereof at a safe distance and shall not again drive on the left side of the roadway until safely clear of the vehicle so passed".

Two obligations there, not one. The first is the side and the distance. The second is the ending: you do not cut back in. "Safely clear" is the standard, and on the test as on the road it is judged from the vehicle you passed, not from your own bumper.

All of it is subject to regulation 296, the keep-left rule, which is what makes overtaking an exception in the first place — you are briefly on a part of the roadway you are otherwise required to stay off.

When you may pass on the left

The first proviso to regulation 298(1) is a closed list. Every one of them additionally requires that you can do it with safety to yourself and to other traffic or property.

The second proviso applies to (a), (b), (c) and (d): in no event may that passing be done by driving on the shoulders of the roadway or on the verge of the public road. Only case (e), an officer's direction, sits outside it.

Why "undertaking" is normally an offence and sometimes is not

On a single-carriageway road out of town, passing a car on its left is simply not on the list, and there is no version of "he was going slowly" that puts it there.

In town on a multi-lane road it usually is on the list — case (b) or (c) — because the roadway is built for several lines of moving traffic and lane discipline replaces the pass-on-the-right rule. That is why a car flowing past you in the next lane in traffic is not committing an offence, and why the same manoeuvre on the N-road shoulder is.

Regulation 298A is the separate provision behind that last point. Driving on the shoulder of a public road is prohibited. The one narrow exception is a road designated for one lane of traffic in each direction, between sunrise and sunset, while your own vehicle is being overtaken by another — and only if you can do it without endangering anyone and if persons and vehicles on the road are clearly discernible at at least 150 metres. It is permission to move over, not permission to pass.

Where overtaking is prohibited outright

Regulation 298(2) blocks passing when you are approaching the summit of a rise, a curve, or any other place where your view is so restricted that passing could create a hazard in relation to traffic that might come the other way.

It gives two ways out, and both remove the head-on risk rather than excuse it: you may still pass if you can do so without encroaching on the right-hand side of the roadway, or if the roadway is restricted to vehicles moving in one direction.

Two other prohibitions sit outside regulation 298 and catch people. A no-overtaking line painted on the road is a regulatory marking with its own short list of exceptions — overtaking is not one of them. And regulation 315(4) forbids passing a vehicle that has stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let people cross, which is the manoeuvre most likely to hit somebody you cannot see.

The signs do it too. Sign R214 prohibits overtaking any vehicle, and R215 prohibits a heavy motor vehicle from overtaking another heavy vehicle; the learner-driver manual gives the distance they cover as the next 500 metres. Temporary versions, TR214 and TR215, carry the same force at roadworks.

The duty of the driver being passed

Regulation 298(3) is the one most drivers have never read, and it is an obligation, not a courtesy.

On becoming aware of traffic behind you that wants to pass, you must cause your vehicle to travel as near to the left edge of the roadway as is possible without endangering yourself, other traffic or property — and you shall not accelerate until the other vehicle has passed.

On a freeway there is a stricter version. Regulation 323(5) says that if you are in the right-hand lane, or the lane furthest right, and you become aware that another driver intends to overtake you, you must steer into a lane to the left, safely, and not accelerate until they have gone by. Regulation 323(6) lets the driver behind tell you so by flashing their headlights.

Two more, both about what you are passing rather than who is passing you. When you are about to meet oncoming traffic you must make sure your vehicle does not encroach on the roadway to your right in a way that obstructs or endangers it — regulation 298(4). And passing a stationary bus must be done with due care for the safety of people approaching or leaving it — regulation 298(5).

On a motorcycle

Regulation 309(6)(a) requires motorcyclists on a public road to ride in single file, except in the course of overtaking another motorcycle, and forbids two or more motorcyclists from overtaking the same vehicle at the same time.

Where a road is divided into traffic lanes, each lane counts as a public road for that purpose — so the single-file requirement is read lane by lane.

Common questions