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Comment by rodelrod | Hacker News Reader

> Is there a better way of doing this?

Yes, you don't overtake if you don't have visibility because of a hill or a bend. That is enforced by traffic regulation and road markings in Europe and most of the places I've driven. And yes, that means that sometimes you get stuck behind trucks for a long time but it also means that nobody gets killed.

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If you read my comment carefully, I understand that and I know how it happens around the world. But I personally would prefer to sometimes hear a horn rather than having to drive behind a slowest moving truck for hours because the hilly road has road marking catering for the worst case.

What I say above makes it sound like I think that it's sole responsibility of the drivers to keep to the rules but I do understand that the rules are much easier to follow when the vehicles are in good condition and the roads have amenities like escape routes for trucks and occasional third lanes to allow overtake, both of which require wealth and strong institutions that are not present everywhere in the world.

Still, from my experience in India (mostly in and around Delhi) what you get is not an occasional honk, it is a permanent infernal cacophony that pierces through your skull day and night.

Modern trucks in the western world have plenty of power to be surprisingly nimble negotiating ascents, it is downhill that things get more complicated for modern trucks.

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