To be terrified I'll lose my license

25 mile motorway journey in heavy heavy rain today. Poor visibility. Around 45% of cars with no rear lights on. About 80% of those white/grey or black. They were effectively invisible until you got close to them. Majority sitting in middle lane for no reason. That’s fucking dangerous.

I'm fastidious in 20 and 30 mph zones.
Stick strictly to 60mph on single lane national speed limit roads.
On Motorways, when it's busy, I stick roughly to the speed limit, maybes creeping over at times, but at 5am, driving in an empty motorway to the airport, do I stick to the speed limit? Nope. I break it routinely and don't give a toss what you think.

Obviously no one on the roads around here are on MN, I can be doing 62 mph on a single track road and be overtaken by numerous vehicles.
Likewise on the motorway driving at 70, I would be amongst the slowest cars on there.

Hope all goes well for you OP.

I would have had a completely different reaction had she been doing 40 in a 30, but speeding on a quiet motorway? Nah.

Lets see the sentencing guidelines then?

You can definitely lose your licence for doing 15mph over the speed limit, at those speeds.

Are you rude to everyone?

People are being really harsh OP. But I agree with all the posters saying that the flash could have been something else. It happened to me driving home from an airport once and I was stressed for weeks - nothing happened. So try and put it to the back of your mind as it sounds like you have a lot going on.

@CagneyAndLazy spot on! I recently had a bulge in my tyre from a sink pothole. I'd never seen anything like it (in real life) and imagine it's so common for people not to spot them for ages. I imagine they can form on the inside side of the tyre too so not easily spotted at all. Also with COL, some people may think they can get away with it until payday or similar.

Some sexist but fair comments on the rest of it. My DP MOTs his car and won't do anything in between. Luckily, he drives 2k a year as opposed to my 2+k a month.

Over 20% isn't slightly over the speed limit. You realise that some of us have had family injured or killed by people driving that fast.

I agree, too.

I see so many people bouncing their cars up kerbs to park, etc., and it makes me wince. You can easily damage a tyre's sidewalls and get an 'egg' on it as a result. They they blow out on motorways and often cause serious accidents.

I have to say it's predominantly women I see bouncing up kerbs and I'd lay money on most women never checking their tyres for damage.

I do check mine each weekend when I wash my car, as well as checking for other issues. But then, I also fit winter tyres in October and do various other safety related things, which nearly everyone neglects. I don't actually know many people who even wash their own cars these days.

A lot of people seem to think that because their car is fairly new or because it passed the MOT a few months ago that it's fine. Even quite new cars can be deathtraps if not properly maintained, but let's not worry about that, instead we can vilify people who sometimes stray over speed limit because that's a quantifiable - but arbitrary - number we can measure against.

Were you pissed when you wrote this?

I agree with you @SofiaSoFar but I think you've missed the point @oprahwindsock. Speed kills (not in and of itself usually) but so do dodgy tyres and all the other dangerous things people do. No one checks their car is in a roadworthy condition each time they get in - that could cause an issue if you have a bulge in your tyre that you didn't spot.

Well now, you'll probably get points, hopefully. Next time you go over the silly speed limit, I hope you get caught, because it's not meant for you is it?

Speed kills. Fact

I really hope all you self-righteous, cat's-bum-mouthed, pant-hoikers are checking your tyres, etc., for damage, at least weekly.

A blowout is far, far more dangerous than being slightly over the limit on the motorway in good weather.

https://www.prestigecarmatcompany.co.uk/blog/can-you-trust-your-cars-speedo

It really isn't

I should add - I don’t do anything stupid like sharp braking - I would never try to cause an accident. I just sit at or just below the limit and motor on.

Yes - unbelievably stupid idiots. What on earth do they expect people to do?

The level of entitlement they display is incredible. When I was a newbie driver it unnerved me - not any more.

I live in a seaside town, dropped GS off at his job in a holiday park this morning. I have to drive about half a mile to a mile down a narrow road and due to parking two cars can't pass each other so you are constantly pulling in to gaps between cars so cars coming the other way can pass you, sometimes they pull in for you to pass. To add to the fun the road has sharp bends about every 100 yds (well I think 100 yds). This morning I had a car behind me, right up my backside flashing his lights at me. This is crazy as a. you can't drive fast as you can't see what's coming round the corner and b. if you travel in convoys it causes chaos as no one can pull into spaces so you end up with a stand off with no one able to move. I just don't understand what they think they are achieving and yes they are idiots.

@kitsuneghost the still do drive like that!

I was driving up the m1 this morning in lane 3 overtaking a van in lane 2 who was overtaking a lorry in lane 1(the van had been in lane2 for miles but that's by the by) and some absolute fuck pig in a disco came up behind me flashing. Where does he expect me to go? I have cars to the left of me and I will move over when safe to do so.

Yes - I’ve seen plenty of this, women as well as men. My speedo seems to be set higher according to Waze so if I get one of these idiots behind me in eg a 30 zone I slow down to the speedo 30 which is probably 28.

It’s a form of bullying to drive right up behind someone trying to harass them into speeding up.

OP you need to slow down. I’ve got friends who’ve been stopped for 79/80 on more or less empty motorways.

Either my speedo reads consistently high or the one on my SatNav reads consistently low. All the ones on the roadside that flash up your speed also read consistently low too.

Exactly this! I do not believe that all those handing out abuse on this thread, have always perfectly stayed within the speed limit their entire driving history. It's just people being self righteous keyboard warriors. There's a lot of them around sadly.

You are entirely uninformed. And very confident. I wonder why.

These kinds of threads always make me smile - they bring out all the Victorians who have an attack of the self righteous vapours at someone else speeding when they know they too have at some point broken the speed limit. 😂

I'm very pragmatic about these things. In general, speeding is a bad idea and in built-up areas it is an absolute no no. However at some point on an empty motorway, most of us will have done it (yes, even the 'Victorians', see above) and once you notice you're doing it, just don't do it again. Do you have a speed limiter/cruise control on your car? I always put mine on, particularly on open stretches of motorway.

I am not a legal person but I would think it unlikely you'd get your licence taken off you for something like this. I regularly do that stretch of the m62 and have noticed the lights on the gantry before but I am not sure if they are actually speed cameras or not.

The main thing is, you've given yourself a fright and from this point, you won't do it again.

My speedo shows that I'm travelling 3 mph faster than I actually am.