Martin's driving: Did you know you can indicate 'right' as well as 'left'?

Enjoying a leisurely drive home from Ullapool just now when something happened which really shocked me: I was quite comfortable at 60mph when I noticed a car gradually gaining on me. For a few minutes the driver held back at a safe distance then, when a suitable opportunity arose, I watched him check his mirrors, indicate right, overtake me and, once he was a safe distance ahead, he moved back to the left (with no indicator). If any of you are puzzled and thinking 'Well, what's shocking about that?', the reason I found it shocking is because it was a patient, safe and correct overtaking manoeuvre (even if it was slightly over the speed limit) and that is becoming increasingly rare.

I have previously talked about what my driving used to be like, but these days I simply leave plenty of time for the journey if I have a deadline to meet. I keep up to the speed limits (where safe to do so), but accept that some people can safely exceed them. I'm not saying I condone it, I just accept it.

I'm going a bit off-track here because I wanted to talk about overtaking, and how poorly it is usually executed. It had almost got to the stage where I was beginning to worry that I had missed a new Driving Standards Authority directive, stating that they had decided on a different way of overtaking. A far more common way of overtaking now seems to be as follows:

1. Accelerate right up to the vehicle in front (ending up so close that the view of the road ahead is reduced).
2. Drive along with your head tilted to the right (because you can't see the road ahead).
3. Edge out to the right (because you still can't see the road ahead).
4. Quickly duck back in because a timber lorry is heading towards you.
5. Repeat steps 2 - 4 until you spot a tiny gap in the oncoming traffic.
6. Put your foot down and accelerate towards the vehicle in front, swerving out at the last moment (with no indicator and definitely no mirror checks).
7. Realise that you had not anticipated the possibility of oncoming cars coming around the bend ahead.
8. Indicate left (although it is BLOODY OBVIOUS you are going to return to the left).
9. Cut back in front of the vehicle you have (almost) overtaken.
10. Forget to cancel your indicator, which is still blinking away.
11. Repeat steps 1 - 10 until you have overtaken maybe a few more cars and got to your destination maybe 20 seconds earlier than if you had just accepted that the flow of traffic was fine at 60 mph.
You may have read my rants about indicators previously, but the use (or lack of) when overtaking is baffling. I would say that, usually, if a driver indicates at all during overtaking, it is only to indicate left after passing the car. Now, correct me if you think I am wrong, but surely an indicator is to warn other road users that you are about to do something they may not expect, or know, you are about to do? I know (or at least hope) that a car will return to left after it has overtaken me.
Is there any problem in indicating left after overtaking? Not usually, so long as it is soon cancelled, but it likely to be unnecessary. In fact, I once had a pupil who failed her test for doing such a thing. She was slowed by a bin lorry and indicated right to signal her intentions to overtake. As she began to pass the bin lorry she (for some reason she could not explain) signalled left. The problem was, there was a left turn ahead and a pedestrian further ahead waiting to cross the main road. Because she did not cancel her left indicator after starting to move back to the left, the pedestrian assumed she was turning left and began to cross the road. Fortunately this was all at a slow speed, so no real danger (this time), but it cost her her test.
I will quickly add that there are occasions when a left indicator IS necessary after overtaking, such as when overtaking in the third lane of a motorway and letting drivers in the left lane that you intend to return to the middle (or left) lane.
Perhaps some people don't realise that you can also push the indicator stalk up as well as down? Perhaps there is some superstition (unknown to me) that means it is bad luck to indicate right? This may explain the amount of drivers who turn right at a roundabout without a right indicator, but who then indicate left as they are leaving the roundabout (as opposed to before they leave the roundabout). What's the point?

Not a lot is happening up here. It's all quiet on the Northern front. A couple of test-free weeks, but it gets busy again towards the end of next week.

Near Randolph's Leap - The River Findhorn

Matthew and I at the River Findhorn

In fact, I even took a very rare three consecutive days off. This was due to the visit of my youngest brother, Chris, his fiancee, Sondra, and my niece and nephew, Amy and Matthew. A very enjoyable few days were spent (in surprisingly good weather) exploring Randolph's Leap (on the River Findhorn), Culbin Forest, Loch Ness, Glen Affric and the Cairngorms. It is over two years since we last ventured south of the border, so Chris has gone to the extreme step of deciding to get married next year, just to get me to step foot back in England. But, in my defence, when you see some of the scenery around here, you may understand why I am reluctant to leave (even for my brother's wedding).