To be petrified driving on motorways

That's a bit worrying. The speed limit on an A road dual carriageway is the same as a motorway and on a B road it's only 10 mph less. What speed are you able to think at? Fast enough to avoid a child running out onto a 30mph road?

You are picking a fight.
All this hypothetical what if you were forced on motorway due to roadworks or a sick relative🙄
It's a bit like the other mumsnet fave of one parent not drinking in case of emergency hospital visit for DC.

I can tell you a startling statistic - in 25% of car occupant dearhs, 25% were not wearing a seatbelt! So of 1624 deaths on our roads last year, 25% were probably avoidable. The percentage rose to 38% at night. Brake data. That’s truly shocking. Over 1/3 of car occupant deaths at night don’t have seat belts on.
Some data:
5 road fatalities per billion miles travelled in Uk
75% of fatalities were male
You are 27 times more likely to die on the road if you are a motorcyclist
Of all those in vehicles killed on the roads: 60% on rural roads, 35% urban roads and 5% motorways.
Only 84 fatalities occurred on motorways last year.
source: uk Reported Road casualties 2023 - uk government.
Motorway driving is the safest. Rural road driving the least safe.

Do we have the stats to back up how dangerous nervous drivers are? Or is that also anecdotal?

Yes i sm aware, i was referring to motorways

Whenever I'm overtaking a lorry I speed up so I can get the fuck out the way of it as soon as possible.

I never stay in their blind spot or linger at their side. I've seen them change lane and hit a car they didn't see. Usually it ends there but I always dread a domino effect so I never sit in between them either. I've seen final destination too many times.

I've just had some scary incidents involving lorries pulling out and not seeing me. Too many near misses!

I prefer the m25! Everyone knows it's a shit show so they're patient and take their time.

Erm if you don't like others joining (!) or HGVs - a perfectly valid road user, then sorry but yes it is you that's the problem not other drivers!

After I passed my test I had a lesson with my instructor to get used to Motorways as they are scary at first, especially joining. Now I don't think twice. I do think a lot of women let their husbands do the longer drives and then lose their own skills. Use it or lose it!

I live near the A41. That is truly terrifying to drive on compared to the M40.

If you can happily drive on A-roads just treat Motorways the same. Drive in the first lane and overtake if you need to. It is also acceptable if the traffic is heavy to undertake safely by staying in lane.

The only one I'd really avoid is the M25 as it can get very congested with huge lorries.

The suggestion of having a driving lesson on the Motorway is a good one as you'll learn best practice.

Brilliant and well done!

70 mph is about 110 km/hour so not really that much slower. It was always going to be the case that if you could do dual carriageways, you'd be able to do motorways, and now you know it.

Well done op.

I had to do a motorway drive today which I wasn’t expecting. I loathe motorways because of some imo reckless drivers. Most behaved today and it took me slightly less than the sat nav of 3 hours.

I do all the city driving as dh hates driving in town & he generally does the motorways but wasn’t feeling great so I drove.

@biscuitsandbooks you've opened another can of worms there! I would say there is real life and there is Mumsnet. I do know plenty of women who don't drive or are driven on long journeys, it seems to be a gender stereotype that the lady is the passenger. I don't know a single male who can't drive and is driven by their significant other but yes, I do read it quite often. I do think i read about it as often as those that talk about motorway driving or being incapable to do something on the road.

@Natsku exactly. Glad you get it.

She already completed the journey this morning x

Is that so? Would you drive on a road with 30cm of unploughed snow on it like I had to do today to get to work? A very hilly windy 20km of deep snow, with poor visibility. And you can't slow down on the hills or you'll go back down again backwards. If you can't drive on that, then I guess you can't drive.

I'm not so sure, there are plenty of threads here from women who are sick of doing all the driving because their DH promised to learn and then didn't.

I wonder if women are more likely to try and pass for their kids' sake, even if they're not that confident, and men are more happy to just coast and don't worry about it as much.

Admittedly I do know more women who don't drive than men, but for most of them it's down to money rather than fear.

FFS laybys are not there for you to have a bloody panic attack in about driving!

Glad to hear it. Hope the return trip is also ok.

Do organise some motorway lessons asap to get better acquainted with motorway driving. It's a different skill set and does take practice. A key thing to remember is that motorway driving only seems fast if you are treating it the same as town driving. A motorway driver will have a different body position because they are looking much further ahead on the road and are barely attending to the road that is immediately in front of them (which should be empty and uneventful).

Just take your time, stay in the slow lane so you don’t have to change lanes often. Remember nobody wants to bump into you 😀! Have some favourite music playing in the background. I know exactly how you feel as I used to hate them too but now I much prefer them to A and B roads. Remember there are emergency lay by’s if you panic and feel you absolutely have to stop. I hope someone is travelling with you xx

Get some driving/experience lessons and a decent sized modern car to protect you if you are likely to do any mileage.

Driving on motorways is easier and safer than driving on single lane A roads.

It's not a common theme like with women.

Hmm, there are men who are scared to drive or who don't like driving - it's just they don't talk about it.