vindaloo

Wind forwards to next summer and I might agree with the OP. Not approaching the speed limit on a straight, dry road or at least, not making an effort can be extremely irritating.

Look at the thermometer though, dude. It's bl**dy cold these mornings and likely to be frosty or icy. I can understand the desire to make progress but IMO you need to think more about the possibility of having a wipeout than attaining the speed limit.

J.

Dan W

I agree with you vindaloo but some people are just too slow no matter what the conditions.

burns

iTrader: (1)

This isn't in Shropshire by any chance, I catch a loony moo doing 35 in a 60 virtually every day this is made worse by the fact that there's also an old git in a peugeot sw and also a bloke in the same sort of car(vw lupo) as the loony moo. who all crawl along. aghhhhhhhhhhhhh, luckily it's before 6am so it's easy to get past,but god is it annoying.
As an aside what is the collective noun for a line of old gits in cars?
I thought a "bast*@d" might be accurate.

Dan W

Maybe they should be called a herd

As in herd of silly sheep all blindly following each other without a collective brain cell

But thats unkind to sheep. I think they may be brighter than the fools I encounter on the roads.

STiFreak

iTrader: (4)

Problem is, these days it is so easy to get done for dangerous driving or driving without due care and attention, I think people have been scared into loosing their common sense when it comes to overtaking.
Sad really ... and it completely F's up traffic flow.

Jamz3k

What would happen if you just blasted the horn at them a few times would it wake them up that they are being idiots or would it just make the situation worse?

STiFreak

iTrader: (4)

In my experience, they just start looking in their mirror more and drive even slower

STiFreak

iTrader: (4)

Actually this thread has reminded me of something I saw on TV the other day. Someone posed the question as to why there are so many really good rally drivers from Finland. They then proceeded to explain that to get your full driving license in Finland takes about 3 years (starting at 16yrs old I think) and includes the things like skid control, high speed car control, driving on dirt roads, collision avoidence, etc. I thought it was a damn good idea ... by the time you get your license, you really know how to drive. As a bonus it has reduced the number of accidents by more than 50% iirc.
I know it would be massively unpopular, but something needs to be done in the UK to improve the abilities of the average driver, which TBH are pretty poor compared to some of our European cousins.

lsm

iTrader: (1)

i consider people driving slower than the limit are as bad as people driving over the limit, i dont expect drivers to do 30 in 30 and 40 in 40 etc, but atleast make the fekin effort !!

as people state there are too many people driving in their comfort zones and doing a speed they feel safe at ... but the amount of drivers i have to overtake in my lorry that are driving SLOWER than 56 mph on a motorway !! they might think they are happy in their comfort zone and travelling at a speed they feel they are in control, BUT if they ever have the unfortunate experience of seeing what happens to a car inbetween 2 smashed lorries, they will soon realise the comfort zone aint that nice !! these drivers are at gr8 danger, if you flash them to move on they give u the fingers lol.

but lets face guys the police / goverment cannot charge these bad drivers, so they will not give a damn, but they can charge a speeder, hence the reason there is soooo much spotlight on the speeder and not the snail.

but has anyone noticed the quality of the driving from the driving instructers ? i sometimes follow a learner and think wow, ur driving bad ... and then you notice there is only one person in the car !! i think the instructers could do with a retest lol.

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

I get annoyed at the driver who is right behind the slow driver and won't overtake. This makes it doubly difficult.

SmileyScooby

Yeah...some instructers are shocking....probably because of all the adverts getting anyone into teaching....my driving instructer was a 1 man company and he loved driving and teaching....it was what he liked doing.....

there are too many instructers now that just see the advert and fancy the (unatainable) 'on target' earnings.

When it comes to speed....I must say that I drive to the limit everywhere(where there might be pedestrians and there are no overtaking opportunities )...always 40 in a 40zone and so on.... why risk getting caught for a few mph over the limit in a 40 zone....thats like getting put in jail for stealing sweets! If you are gonna get caught...you may aswell be on a nice bit of tarmac with some nice bends and scenery. An added bonus is that those places rarely have dibble on them anyways.....

SmileyScooby

In current conditions though.....I completely respect peoples wishes to drive in their comfort zone.....its been snowing like f$£k round here and even I had a slide on some snow on a short housing road.....had a gradient and I was doing 10/15mph.....need some winters treads!
Its just not worth it in snow and ice.

JPF

iTrader: (1)

Slow drivers can and are a pain especially when they do 40 holding u up in a national and then do...yep 40, in a 30 zone!, I just don't get it...

I was driving on the A1 on Sunday night between Yorkshire and Cambridge, tootling along at the limit, maybe a wee bit more in the slow lane keeping good distance from the traffic ahead. I checked my rear mirror and it was clear, then checked a few secs later and it was full of head lights, it was like wacky racers or something!, must have been around 15-30 cars closing on me, eventually passing at speeds from abt 80 to 90+!, this is at night in the wet! what the hell are people thinking! these weren't performance cars or boy racers in modded saxos, no, they were a mix of vans, people carriers and little punto type cars, normal cars driven by men and women of all ages.
I was doing 50 at one point going through some road works, there was several signs stating it was a 50 zone, I was in the left lane so not to hold up those that like to do just over(more and more people seem to be doing this ), I noticed a truck steaming up behind me, thought he might hit me at one point, he drove to what I wd guess must have been abt three feet behind me and started flashing his lights WTF!! I was doing 50!, infact abt 54 on my speedo and he stayed up me ***, don't get it.

It was the same story on the way up to Yorkshire on the Friday, thick fog this time and in the dark, people were whizzing past me at stupid speeds, unsurprisingly there was eventually an accident up ahead of me ....what scared me the most that night was the cars whizzing past were mostly big vans and rangerovers, one of them hits you at 90 then you don't stand a chance.

Personally I think the driving standard in this country is a joke, I'm by no means a perfect driver and wd never claim to be, but I drive within my limits and drive as defensive as I can(keeping good distance, looking for poss dangers well ahead etc) many people don't even indicate now, they just cut across from one lane to the next seeming to think u can read there mind or something.
My pet hate though is tail gaiters, had one guy speed up my **** as I was overtaking some cars and a lorry, I wasn't exactly going slow and I couldn't get out of his way. When I got past the cars I indicated and he nearly crashed into me! he seemed to think as I was indicating I wd move straight into the next lane!, no, I look at what's in the lane I'm about to join first to check its clear(saved my life more than once) so there was abt a second or so delay, after he went past me he started flashing his indicators several times as if I had done something wrong, I know people flash to say thank you, I do, but they don't flash continually in the way this guy did...WNKR.

Sorry became a bit of an outburst. feel better tho

stevecrc

The people that really get me are the one's that are waiting to pull out of a side road and watch you coming down the road with nothing behind you and then just as you are right on top of them they pull out causing you to brake hard and then drive at some silly slow speed. Why cant they just wait till you pass.

I was out doing a recovery earlyer with my lad, and was behind this elderly fella doing about twenty in a thirty for about a mile all the way down to a busy round about and we watched drive right out in front of two cars as if they was'nt even there, he didnt slow down not alone brake and then started ranting at the other two drivers for blasting there horns at him. how they didnt hit him i dont know, It was that close.

GC8WRX

Yes, cos if you cant do 60 on a 60 road you should be banned.

Im on the road cos i have somewhere to be 90% of the time, so doing 40mph in a 60, and either continuing to do 40 when the speed limit redices to 30, or beeping and flashing lights when they are overtaken is unacceptable.

And its always a woman.

In a range rover that is far too big for her!

Why dont these women get something small, and let the husband (who has size and space perception) drive the big vehicles?

trails

iTrader: (41)

yep, people don't look twice and take your speed into consideration when pulling out. No driving sjills at all

Red Rocket 11166

The answer is simple CREDIT CRUNCH Thats what it is all about.

Red.

Plus the bad weather,which is 90% of the year.

IainMilford

iTrader: (15)

JPF I hate tailgaters too, esp kids in total bangers wanting a race, I mean what the hell are they thinking !!!

A few nights ago I was on my way back to my mums house with her dog in the back. On the way this involves driving along a twisty road, woodland on one side and big drop onto jagged rocks on the other side The road has a 25mph limit but resembles a rally stage and you regulary get boyracers/chavs steaming down the road, (I will admit I have had my moments in the past....) anyhow about a mile before I get there a pair of headlights appear behind me right up my a**se and follow me onto the road. We're behind a car doing 30 (so only just over the limit) normally I would have followed at a safe distance, however on this occasion I let the car in front pull away, and drove the 2 miles at around 19/20mph just to really p*ss him off

Aaron1978

iTrader: (12)

this is what really p****s me off, people that just do 40 everywhere then even when they get to a 30 they still go 40, that tells me that their oblivious to what is going on around them and very dangerous and aged about a 100

JP4

iTrader: (12)

I'll def second that....there are so many drivers that do not have a clue what to do when approaching roundabouts!!

I have also noticed that slow drivers are now trying to be smart by hogging up the fast/over taking lane and then refuse to move over to the middle lane when there is a big queue of cars waiting to go past as they think they have a right to stay on it at 55 mph!

stair

I have noticed a huge increase in muppets since the price of fuel started to rocket, the smaller of brain just go into economy overdrive.

That would be fine IF they also displayed good road manners but no, the auto-pilot kicks in and they sit at 55 in the middle, or sometimes even outside lane of the motorway completely oblivious of all going on around them. There are no excuses, this is out and out BAD driving, period.

If you feel you should drive slower for what ever reason, be it rain, ice or other conditions that warrant it, then do so, drive to the conditions and display proper lane discipline. Let the idiots who think 90 through 50 limited narrow Mway roadworks is a good idea get on with it, with any luck they will shortly be strawberry jam, hopefully without taking anyone else with them, and most especially don't let it be you that gets in the way

Stair

stevecrc

Another one that get me is the numpty's that stop half way through a filter lane of a round about and f**k everyone behind them, pretty much causing everyone to get rear ended.

Brentwood in essex is always good for really slow drivers that have not a clue what hold ups they are causing.

Dan W

After posting this thread up yesterday I left work last night about 5. was heading down a dual carriage way in the slow lane pootling along about 60.

As i approach an entrance slip road to my left i see 2 cars joining the carriageway so I dutifully moved into the fast lane to let them in.

By that point I was parralell with the first car which continued straight into the fast lane wihout indication.

I was committed at this point and if I had slowed down we would have collided. I managed to gently swerve to avoid impact.

We were literally millimetres apart and I nearly ended up in the central reservation.

The stupid ****** had the audacity to put her high beam on as if to suggest it was my fault she pulled into the fast lane while I was there.

I was incandescent but kept it together.

I am pains to say it was a woman as I don't want to seem sexist.

But I have to admit the majority of bad drivers seems to be women and quite arrogant ones at that.

I hate to admit it.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Is it really legal to exceed the speed limit when overtaking, getting out of way of ambulance etc & then slow down again after?

TX.

Dan W

I dont think it is legal TBH.

There was a story some time ago of a guy who pass a car's through a red light to move for an ambulance. A camera spotted it and dutifully nicked him.

So I think it would be the same principle.

Jamz3k

Took me 2hours to get into work thismorning due to idiot drivers.

Also had a Merc driver decide to move infront of me with no indication, just happily slide into the lane i was in. he musta been no more than a foot off the front of my car.

trails

iTrader: (41)

lots of mahoosive 4x4's that do 45mph EVERYWHERE in Brentwood\Shenfield\Hutton. Ands loads of people that que up to get onto the M25 in wrong lane so you can't even get into Brentwood w*nkers

superstar1

Has anybody driven on the M4 in South Wales? Goes from three lanes to two lane with the locals thinking it acceptable to drive at 40MPH in the offside lane. They must have brass necks because they will not move over for anybody, it drives me mental, some people are so selfish, no wonder the whole countries gridlocked with the threat of road charges on the horizon.

MrLouKnee

i have the letters LLB after my name

ok, think of it this way, if one of your kids is very very ill and needs hospital treatment urgently, and you decide to take him to hospital as an ambulance will take to long, and u drive at 30 in a 30, stopping at a red light etc and the child dies.....how long do u think u would get in jail for that?

MrLouKnee

if an out of control LGV was jack knifing in your direction and u decide to get yourself out of this situation, but drive at the speed limit cos u dont want to break the law and the lorry smashes into the back of the car killing the passengers in the back...how long do u think u would do in jail for that?