maxim

if you were doing 65 in a 70 would they fail you?

Senior_AP

You are driving at 93% of the maximum speed limit in this instance.....

Too slow, not driving to the conditions??

Or an acceptable speed, within the limit??

davegtt

I wouldnt have thought so 65 in a 70 is reasonable aslong as your not sat in the fast lane of a duel carriage way holding up the traffic.

Senior_AP

The driver is doing everything within the law.

He is on a dual carriageway, in lane 1, on a clear day with normal traffic flow.

David Lock

If you don't know the answer to that then you're not ready to take a test. NO btw.

Senior_AP

He wouldn't have it !!



55mph, perhaps.......

However 65mph on a 70 is ideal.

70 is, after all the LIMIT - and not the suggested or recommended speed.

OllyK

Yes if you are in traffic travelling at 30.

They "could" mark you down as being overly cautious, if they were looking to build up enough marks to fail you, but in itself no, it wouldn't be sufficiently serious to warrant a fail.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

I failed my test by speeding years ago
bit of a con though, 30 mile limit on a very steep hill. going up the hill, went to change gear and as i did , i nudged over the 30 limit..bang fail.

barsteward !!

Senior_AP

I would strongly contest if I were to be marked a minor for doing 65. Driving at 92.8% of the limit is not over cautions, it's sensible.

I would not expect to be marked a minor for doing 28mph in a 30 zone (that to is 93% of the limit).

In normal driving conditions, I would think that 61 or 62 are ABSOLUTE minimum for being considered for "not making progress".

maxim

18 Use of speed
You should make safe, reasonable progress along the road bearing in mind the road, traffic and weather conditions and the road signs and speed limits.

Make sure that you can stop safely, well within the distance you can see to be clear. Do not speed. Remember, as a new driver, your licence will be revoked if you get six or more penalty points during the first two years, and you will have to retake and pass both theory and practical tests.

65mph in my book isn't reasonable progress. People plodding along.

OllyK

Hence the quote marks round the could

OllyK

It isn't your book that counts, it's the examiners.

davegtt

Is that sarcastic? You post one paragraph saying drive safe, you dont want to speed and get caught out losing you licence, make sure you leave enough space to stop etc etc then you say 65 in a 70 isnt reasonable progress

Senior_AP

I know you were saying could, however I do not think that 65 in a 70 "could" be considered not making appropriate progress by an examiner. If 70 is the limit, and 65 "could" be considered too slow then you have a 5 mph margin of error between 66mph (assuming 66 isn't also considered too slow) and 70.0mph. You would be driving looking at your speedo within a small margin.

An examining body wouldn't mark you down for doing 65, if they did it is farcical and needs to be changed.

Common sense must prevail.

Any FACTS on this, guys??

alloy

why not do 67mph to be sure, to be sure

Senior_AP

One would hope 65 would be enough to be sure, to be sure.

fast bloke

L drivers are not allowed to exceed 45 MPH over here. When they pass their test they get R plates, and are still restricted to 45 for the 1st year. Didn't know you guys had it so easy

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

You wouldnt fail for doing 65.

Also, depending on the road ( thinking mainly residential streets here ) you wont fail for doing under 30 most of the time - in fact you can fail for doing 30 in a 30 if its not appropriate. I was taught that on residential roads, the sort where traffic parks on the road, you knock off 5mph if there are cars parked just on one side, and 10mph if there are cars parked both sides. ( So where the road is significantly narrowed with cars parked both sides, you shouldnt be doing much over 20 ).

The speed limit is a legal maximum, not a target - there are a lot of windy country lanes that are national speed limit, but they arent safe to drive down at anywhere near that speed ( even with our 4wd ! )

What the examiner wants to see is that you can choose your speed appropriately based on the road, weather, traffic etc... just like you should do once you pass and are driving on your own. The 'making progress' thing mainly refers to not holding back when its safe to drive at speeds up to the limit.

OllyK

It is a subjective decision made by the examiner, that you are making reasonable progress and not unduely inhibiting the progress of other vehicles. It would take an extremely pedantic and **** examiner to mark you down for doing 65 in a 70. I suspect in reality you would have to be doing below 50 mph to be considered a genuine obstruction as HGVs are limited to this on dual carriageways anyway.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

That is true, I dont think any examiner would fail someone JUST for doing 65 in a 70 - but - they may fail them for not making progress if they were dawdling ALL the way round the test route and seemed nervous about getting up to speed when it was appropriate, and the 65 was just part of that.

jasey

No.

richardg

ie a 40mph phobia. there's a lot of that on our roads!

mike - are you a driving instructor/examiner?

Suresh

There's always context : if said driver was sweaty, nervous and panicky at 65, then they would deserve to fail IMHO.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF THAT ( nearly as bad as asking if I'm an estate agent or drug dealer )....

No, I'm not an instructor or examiner - dont think I'd have the patience for either to be honest ( although I would love to be an examiner just for a week, just so I could fail every chav in a baseball cap out of principal ).

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

#23 - most people are nervous and sweaty on their driving tests !!

I drove crap for the first few minutes of mine as my left leg was shaking so much it was hard to operate the clutch smoothly.

Did pass first time, and once I had settled down was fine and drove smoothly, but if they failed every person who was nervous there wouldnt be many people on the roads.

MattW

When I did my bike test I was taken down an unfamilar road from a 40 limit. I didn't recall seeing a 30 sign, and although I couldn't see a 40 repeater, it was a wide road and could have been a 40.

If I sat at 40, potential fail for speeding, if I sat at 30 potential fail for going too slow, so I sat at 35mph and passed.

jasey

Must have been a 40 then

MattW

No, went back, it was actually a 30.

jasey

So you are allowed to exceed the speed limit during your test nowadays - no wonder the Government make so much money out of speeding.

Would never have happened in my day - 1 mph over any speed limit used to be an automatic fail !

MattW

Maybe the bike test is different as the examiners tend to be enthusiasts.