Is this a legal manoeuvre??

[titirangi]

Agree and do this every day. very slow mind e.g. 10-15k. very occasionally I end up drifting an inch or two onto the left yellow line when cages are hard right in the lane.

yellow lines mean no crossing centre line. overtaking within your lane is legal.

[mazz1972]

Thanks for your comments peoples. It's a pretty basic rule, I should have known of course, not sure where my road code has gotten to! The rule makes sense in many situations, but seems friggin stupid and bloody dangerous in this situation.

I do check my mirrors, very regularly, but this person just seems to creep up out of nowhere and even passes it to very large trucks that way. Doesn't seem to make any attempt to see if the other drivers have seen him/her or not, just carries on regardless.

Personally I'd only pass another vehicle in the same lane if it was pulling over to let me pass, or slowing/pulling over to turn left or stop.

Regardless of it being legal, I still think the rider I refer to is a nutter. All the passing seems pointless anyway as they turn off at Otaki and usually only end up about 5-6 cars in front of me anyway. Seems quite a risk to take to arrive at the roundabout 15 seconds earlier!

[90s]

It's just a standard overtake. There's an example in the Roadcode. Quite legal (assuming all the other stuff for overtaking is met) . Not always a very good idea though.

And for when you mislay the code you can see it online. Here's what Ixion is talking about:
http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/roa...g/passing.html

See "Passing without crossing the no-passing line".

Seriously, I have spoken to cops that do not know details of the roadcode (one, an ex-neighbour of mine, seriously had never heard of "lane discipline" and told me "we don't have that in NZ. On the motorway you can use any lane you want like in America".
Read the code front to back and know it.
(sadly I can still recite the pointless UK braking distances, devised for 1950s drum brakes ... )