Dan W

I need to travel about a 40 mile round trip to work and never cease to be amazed at just how slow some drivers are. And it seems to be getting worse. Much worse.

My commute is in a pug 106 diesel. Hardly a pocket rocket but I find myself overtaking loads of people. Sensibly I might add.

The speed limits on my commute vary every few miles. I leave the house at 6.15 purely to not get caught in the rush hour but as the time has gone by I have noticed an increasing amount of congestion caused purely by some idiot doing 40ish in a 60 zone. The worst was yesterday at 6.30am with a woman doing 30 on a sraight piece of NSA road. The queue of cars moved as if we stuck behind a bloody tractor. The woman appeared oblivious as to the chaos she was causing. Got stuck behaind another today.

She managed 40 -bless her.

This is now happening daily. WTF is wrong with these people. When I look down the queue of cars that is stuck behind then you car see by the way the cars are being manoeuvred that most of those stuck in the slow moving queue are not happy. But still the slow driver persists.

I think its time we urged the police to enforce minimum speed limits on some of our roads.

Ok I accept that this has been discussed here before but I had to get it off my chest.

MrLouKnee

a few years ago, an elderly woman was driving in the outside lane of a motorway at 70 mph, causing a 5 mile tail back. Eventually, Dibble caught up with her and pulled her over.

She was convicted of driving without due care and attention. Her defence that she was driving at the speed limit was rejected as the road conditions meant she should have drove faster

Dan W

as things should be

hodgy0_2

my wife drives everywhere at 28mph

never had an accident


but says she sees plenty in her rear view mirror

micahmoor

Ow mate i can't agree more. my travel to work sounds like a mirror image of yours....frustrating VERY!

Dan W

If the speed limit is 30 then 28 is acceptable.

Its those who drive about 25%-40% below the limit that are the problem.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

I drive every day through Hayes ... must be highest %age of slow drivers in the world Without fail every day I get stuck behind loads moving at circa 25mph in a 30mph zone AT 6.30AM! They also drive very badly ie almost stopping at a r/bout when you can see for miles that there is no traffic approaching

TX.

micahmoor

She must have been doing less than 70 i never thought u could get a done for doing the speed limit were does it say u can go over the speed limit if road conditions allow...

Dan W

I passed my test in Hayes. Lived in Uxbridge at the time.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

It's weird... some days it's OK, but this morning I felt like I was driving at a weekend, given the number of hesitant, indecisive and just plain pointlessly slow drivers out there. Seemed like everyone from the area with a scooter on 'L' plates had decided that a freezing cold, icy morning was a great time to wobble around on a dual carriageway too. Eejits.

will_wrx

I get wound up by this and end up shouting to myself! There are so many people on the road who find it so difficult to be at the right speed.

It bugs me the amount of people you get who just think of themselves on the road, they drive a 10mph and keep stopping because they are trying to work out where they are going or find somewhere. People on the phone. People having a full on conversation with their passenger, while being sat at a green light or doing 25mph in a 40mph.

The most annoying is dual carriage ways, the amount of people who just sit in the right lane along side the person in the left lane doing the same speed, so everyone is getting held up, same goes for motorways tbh. It just does my head in, they are completly oblivious to everything.

Rant over, Lol.

Alan Jeffery

Road rage up 28%.
Anyone surprised?

banny sti

iTrader: (68)

Thought it was only me who noticed the number of slow and inconsiderate drivers

Banny

ColiNThESTI

someone else who feels my pain - people who stop at an empty roundabout just to check its clear probably because they couldnt look up and check earlier as they were monitoring the speed to the exact mph nice one

Dan W

A few months ago very early one morning I was stuck behind a guy doing 30 in a 40 zone with no safe way of passing. As we approached a 30 zone he began slowing down further. At this point there was a short peice of straight - enough to pass him.

As I did he honked his horn and flashed his lights clearly peeved at me.

I was hardly above 30 but stamped on the anchors to get the car down to what he might accept as a safe speed (20mph) in doing so I locked the wheels up and drifted sideways (pug 106) and made sure i didn't go above 20 for the remaining 4 miles to work. I made sure he did no more than 20 also.

This was 6.30 am and we were the only cars about on that particular stretch so it made it all the more pleasurable to get my own back.

How sad am I.

STiFreak

iTrader: (4)

LOL, I have been bitching about this for years

It would be interesting to work out just how many accidents slow drivers cause (not necessarly involved in). Let's face it, if someone has been stuck behind another driver doing half the speed limit for 10 miles, how much more likely is that person to take a risk to overtake due to pure frustration!

Bring on mimimum speed limits, with as severe punishments as those issued for speeding ....... either that, or make the PIT manoeuvre part of the Highway Code

hodgy0_2

i always fantazised about getting in front of one of these idiots -- and then gently reducing my speed over the course of a mile or two -- to walking pace

and see how the f*ckers like it

lsm

iTrader: (1)

being a lorry driver and covering numerous hundreds of miles a week, this is a regular everyday thing for me, i can only go 56 mph on a motorway, yet everyday i have to overtake a CAR travelling LESS than me ? i also have to travel SLOWER than some motorists on A roads as they are not doing the speed limit etc ... i am in a 30 ton lorry !! Move out of the way lol

I consider alot of this "rubbish" driving is down to the bully tactics the police and goverment has issued on us in the past few years, the speed limits are force fed us every single day, with more and more speed camera's and vans and coppers hiding with their guns, it was only gonna be a matter of time before drivers started to drive well under the speed limit to ensure they were not "robbed" of their hard earnt cash, cause lets face it guys its not about safety is it .... coppers are now tax collectors !!

Plus with road works and new islands and traffic lights everywhere and popping up here and there, no one knows where they are going anymore lol

then we can get onto our "imported" friends, who can get on a ferry and arrive at the uk and happily drive on our roads, with no checks or even a licence check ... causing loads of chaos and usually a accident after the first 50 miles lol

Rant over guys, but just my views .... as a lorry driver, who probably holds you up aswell lol

Dan W

I have to say I have loads of patience with you truckers. I don't know what its like to drive a HGV so who am I to say how you should drive it.


Moreover - without you lot moving the goods around for us this country would grind to a halt.

So to me in a way you own the road so drive as slow as you need to .

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I'm curious, what would you do in a 50 limit?

56mph in a 50 is about on the point (10% +2mph) where any driver might reasonably expect to get pulled, yet apart from sections monitored by SPECS cameras I don't think I've ever seen a lorry slow down from its 56mph limiter. Any driver in front, therefore, has to either risk getting an SP30, or get a truck up his backside.

Motorways with road works are the worst for this... I hate to admit it but I actually prefer it when there are SPECS cameras in that case

MrLouKnee

the common law

think i hit about 50 in a 30 zone this morning, but i was getting out of the way of an ambulance, if i didnt boot it to clear the way for the ambulance, and whoever in the back of it died, think id be in a lot of trouble

Norman Dog

iTrader: (1)

This can be used when you get two lorries trying to overtake each other, neither giving way, holding up the traffic behind for miles..

Pull in front of victorious lorry, slow speed to about 25mph till he's all exasperated, flashing lights etc. then boot it, laughing to yourself that he's now got to go through 18 gears or so.

Jamz3k

I am on R plates so i am no allowed to do over 45mph on the roads or motorways. Today i believe i exhausted the potiently outta my little twinspark engine going down the motorway so you can't blame me for your delays

bugeyeandy

We don't have R plates over here, people still manage to drive slower than 45 mph though.
I've got a lovely single lane 60mph road on my route to work and every day without fail there'll be some idiot doing 40. They then continue to drive at 40 when it turns to a 30 limit.

trails

iTrader: (41)

there have alwys been ditherers but normal road users used to overtake too...

Dan W

That's the worst part of all in my opinion. Goes to show that they completely disregard the rules of the road.

If they dropped to an equally innappropriate speed below 30 I would still be peeved but at least it shows consistency.

IainMilford

iTrader: (15)

mikefyfe

Playing the role of devil's advocate here, the speed limit is a limit, not a target. Whilst it can be frustrating, some drivers obviously feel safer travelling at a speed that is less than the posted limit. Would you rather an unsure driver exceeded their comfort zone with the potential greater risk of losing control?

Just a thought,

Mike

Dan W

But if most people can drive their car at near the speed limit on a given road and one unsure driver can't should the unsure driver be driving at all?

To have passed their test they would have had to prove they were competant behaind the wheel and would have been taught that in fair conditions they are required to go with the flow and if that be at near 60 in a 60 zone they don't do bloody 40.

I am sure examiners will fail you for going innapproriately so intructors caution you from doing it. So the little buggers know better than to do it.

Jamz3k

As above your right, an examiner will fail you for being too slow, happened to a friend of mine twice. Took in another 2 goes to get his license

Also the highway code tells you if you are holding up traffic you should pull in where convienient and let others past.