To wonder how so many people are comfortable breaking the speed limit?

Yanbu.
I wish the lot of them could be caught on speed cameras and the penalties much higher. I always get bad drivers up my backside if I have to overtake in the 3rd lane.

If they pull you over for your speed they aren't going to be asking your opinion. The poster I replied to didn't specify a speed just that they think the speed limit is a guideline.

I drive 80 on a motorway, I am aware i will likely get away with this. I had driven 75 past a police car and been pulled over. I am aware that the majority of police won't pull you over for being slightly over

It's not you that's the hazard if you're driving at the speed limit.

Ah, looks like we've got to the point of the thread where a reminder that two wrongs don't make a right might be in order.

Similar happened in our village. We had two fatal accidents. The council went mad with traffic calming, road humps, lowering speed limit, central islands, hash markings everywhere. Sounds sensible, no?

Well no, because both were nothing to do with speed. One was a drunk driver who ploughed into a school boy who wasn't watching what he was doing. The other was a group of teens playing idiots on the way home from the pub, and ended up wrapped around a tree. The police reports in both cited that both cars were within the speed limits!

If I don’t keep up at least somewhat with the flow of traffic ........

On a motorway the flow of traffic is not allowed legally to go above 70mph. If people obeyed the law there would be no problem of holding others up.

Dont think anybody is advocating doing 120+ on a dual carriageway.

I’m not comfortable breaking the speed limit.

however there are several segments of road near me where even if I am in the ‘slow’ lane, going the speed limit makes me a hazard at certain times. If I don’t keep up at least somewhat with the flow of traffic, I’m going to end up in an accident or be the root cause of one.

There's no way anyone is flashing you if you move straight back after overtaking

As an alternative to losing your license and possibly your livelihood. Of course repeated or extreme speeding is serious.

Must be why when indulging in terrible lawbreaking you get to go and have a cup of tea and listen to somebody with a power point for 3 hours.

Fuck me, can you not tell the difference between a broad statement regarding the dangers of both slow and fast driving and someone stupidly saying that you can be done for driving at 70 on a motorway? Are you thick?

You will not get done for driving without due care and attention for going 70mph on the motorway, are you high?

That must be why there are hurry the fk up awareness courses running up and down the country.

Slow driving can get you a CD30 endorsement, 100 quid fine and 3 points.
Driving without due care and attention and without reasonable consideration for other road users.
IE pissing about creating a rolling roadblock and forcing others who are (or were before you turned up) to sit behind you while you carry on impeding the flow of traffic and assuming that you're a safe driver.

I worked for many years for a trauma service - maybe you should volunteer at one and see what the realities are.

save me save me - do something please, as he literally held his guts in his hands

that was the aftermath of the driver speeding on a road, he overtook us on a straight clear road.

the arrogance is astounding

go and sit in any crown court and you'll find at least one if not two driver cases where the driver has killed or maimed someone - go and take a listen, especially to the victims family statements

I exceed the speed limit as a matter of course on most major roads. I do so safely (I have an advanced driving licence and a racing licence) and only where the circumstances are appropriate. I do most of my driving during quieter hours on the road and my cars are more powerful than the average (and built for speed).

And there is the problem in a nutshell: arrogant tossers who think the law does not apply to them and who treat their vehicles as toys rather than a means of transport - and fail to recognise that they are actually lethal weapons.

I worked for many years for a trauma service - maybe you should volunteer at one and see what the realities are.

I am filled with disgust.

Speed isn't the cause of most accidents. The statistics are for "speed being a factor", not the root cause. That's a very important distinction. Most deaths are due to carelessness, incompetence, medical episodes, drunk/drugged driving, etc. - I hope we can agree that all those other causes of accidents that you have listed are far more dangerous at excessive speed. It is a no brainer. That is why we have speed limits - to allow for all these human failings.

Well there's a pretty big difference, because in my example I said if caught, you still won't get a criminal record if you just pay the fine. As far as I know that's not an option for murder. Speeding convictions also won't show up on a DBS, but hopefully a murder would.

But we are digressing. The OP asked why people were comfortable breaking the speed limit. The answer is that it's becuase they know they won't be prosecuted, unless (in the case of a motorway) they go faster than 96 mph

You are saying that shoudn't be the case - and you are entitled to that view. But, as the police won't enforce low level speeding it I don't think its for anyone else to do so either

@GasPanic I don't think I'm a rarity at all in trying to keep up with the basic rules of the road. I passed my test in 1987 and there was no written test at that time. But when I took my test, the examiner spent between 10-15 minutes grilling me on aspects of the Highway Code. Because there were no past test papers to look back at, you had to have a fairly thorough knowledge of the Highway Code because you had no idea what questions you might be asked, and my driving instructor always spent several minutes at the end of each lesson asking questions as well. Apart from learning the Highway Code for my own driving test, I can always remember friends and people at work asking to be tested before their driving test, which helped to reinforce what I I'd already learnt.

There is so much bad driving, and it's so easy to pick up bad habits, that I would really like to see everyone tested again every five years.

I should have said btw, YANBU to drive in the overtaking lane at 70mph (or indeed a lower speed) as long as you're overtaking slower moving traffic. Vehicles behind you need to be patient and wait for their opportunity to overtake. The same would applies to you if someone in the outside lane is driving at 60: if they're overtaking something in the lane to their left, they're in the correct lane. Even people driving at say 80 will hold up other drivers who want to exceed the limit by a bigger margin.