Talk

In the inside lane I suppose it is ok as there is no legal minimum speed as far as I am aware. Personally I find the middle lane hoggers more dangerous

I guess a minimum speed would be hard to enforce due to jams, etc when you can't do reasonable speeds. I made a long journey last week and encountered several crawling jams with no obvious cause (other than the flashing lights and suggested speed signs which I suspect cause half the jams anyway!)

Yes, middle lane hoggers are a pain.
I was pleasantly surprised by there not being many of them out today.

I think there is a minimum, and 40 is it. I'd have to check, but absolutely, it's dangerous. Im sure there is a rule of the road that you keep up with traffic.

I'm sure I've read that the police can and have pulled people up for driving too slow in comparison to the other traffic.

Yep

Although there is no minimum speed limit on the majority of UK roads, you can still be fined for driving too slow if it is seen that you are a hazard to other road users. There is no specific penalty for driving too slowly and as such, penalties may be as little as a verbal warning by a police officer along with a lecture of the dangers of driving too slow and in more serious cases, a motorist may find themselves in court charged with driving without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other road users (penalty code CD30)

www.drivingtesttips.biz/minimum-speed-limits-driving-too-slow.html

Googled it. There is no minimum (as it would be unenforceable, esp on the M25!)
But- not driving to the conditions is classed as unsafe, be that firing along on an icy or foggy road, or our example here of doing only 40 on a freely flowing motorway. And that, they can and should pull you for.

X post waffly

A few weeks ago, we were driving along the M4 near Newport and the traffic slowed down. It got really chaotic, everyone had to slow down as there was a micra in the outside lane, doing 40mph! We were stuck behind her for ages, and she would not move over. She finally moved to the middle lane, but stayed there and would not move. All the other traffic had to slow down and move to the outside lane to go around her. It was really dangerous.

I agree, there needs to be a minimum speed, although it wouldn't have been so bad if she'd been in the left lane!

It's pretty dangerous. Had a scary one recently, brand new car, 100 miles on clock went into limp mode doing 75 in the overtaking lane! Scary as shit losing power when overtaking and trying to cross 3 lanes at 40mph. Another ocassion driving with an elderly relative when they became disoriented and slowed to a crawl on the motorway. Downright scary and dangerous.

My MIL has been pulled over by the police for driving too slowly, so it does happen

I think it's dangerous even when they are in the inside lane. Especially if you're on the slip road trying to join the motorway (at an appropriate speed) and you get stuck behind someone driving incredibly slowly when trying to pull out because you don't expect them to be tootling along so slowly and you inevitably can't pull into the middle lane because the world and his wife are overtaking the slow driver!

Anyone driving a car, van or minibus so slowly that lorries have to overtake them is driving too slowly and causing chaos for everyone else on that stretch of road. Selfish twats.

Argh, I saw some ace slow driving this weekend, all on the same stretch of road.

Car 1: 35 mph on 60 mph good country road. Slowing to about 25 mph around corners. Maybe they once saw a sheep or something. Or thought their spanking new Focus couldn't handle corners at such dangerous speeds.

Car 2: 30 mph around corners, and flooring it to 60 mph on straights, thus thwarting any attempt to overtake.

Car 3: Head of a queue stuck behind a lorry. Clearly didn't want to overtake, but left exactly the wrong amount of space between them and the lorry, forcing anyone overtaking to have to get past both of them, rather than being able to pull in between car and lorry. If you don't want to overtake, people, leave a gap between you and the car in front.

Car 4: 50 mph in the fast lane of a motorway. After some advice here a couple of months ago, we flashed them, and got the finger in return

Can I just point out that in Northern Ireland when you pass your test you are restricted to 45mph for the first year. Including on the motorway.

So providing they are in the right lane I don't really see the issue

Is there as much traffic in Northern Ireland as there is over here?

There is no minimum speed, but if a driver is travelling in a manner as to impede traffic, they are a road hazard, and as such liable to sanction.

If a driver is traveling at a significantly slower speed than the rest of the traffic in good driving conditions they are likely to be stopped by the police to check for drink/drug driving or to make sure the driver is not unwell.

Just yesterday we were behind a driver doing 40 on a country road where the limit was 60. No reason for him to be so slow. No safe opportunity to pass him. The boy racer behind us decided to overtake us and the Sunday driver as we approached a bend - I'd already decided it wasn't safe for me to overtake as you could not see what was coming.

Boy racer overtakes as car comes round bend in opposite direction. Sunday driver is forced almost onto the verge to allow boy racer to fit between his car and the oncoming one.

It was very scary and arguably the fault of the driver in front. If he hadn't been so slow the other driver wouldn't have been desperate to overtake.

Just yesterday we were behind a driver doing 40 on a country road where the limit was 60. No reason for him to be so slow.

It's a special kind of entitled. Nobody owns the road, fast or slow. If you want to pootle about on a Sunday drive, knock yourself out. But the mantra of "People need to have patience, enjoy the scenery, what's the rush?" doesn't apply when the people you're holding up are doing a seven hour trip up the country and trying to get home to get to bed at a reasonable time.

I failed my first driving test for doing 55 in the left hand lane of a 70mph dual carriage way. It is very unsafe to drive that slowly on a motor way.

joan Had a scary one recently, brand new car, 100 miles on clock went into limp mode doing 75 in the overtaking lane!

There is no legal minimum, but there is a max and doing 75 is speeding and just as dangerous.

It was very scary and arguably the fault of the driver in front, for doing 40 on a country road?

There is no legal minimum, but there is a max and doing 75 is speeding and just as dangerous

I think you've missed the point. Whether the OP was excessively dangerous doing 75 mph compared to 70 mph is one thing, but at either speed, in the fast lane, having your car go into limp mode is terrible.

And rather ironically, I think you'd find yourself retracting your assertion that 75 mph is "just as dangerous" as doing 40 mph in that scenario.