What speed do you usually do on the motorway?

[StuntNun]

When driving on the motorway I drive at 70 mph when traffic conditions allow. I'm frequently overtaken by cars going faster than me. So who are all these people driving at 80 or 90 miles an hour and why don't they worry about getting a speeding ticket or being pulled over?

Depends on which motorway I’m on as to what speed I do

In decently-flowing traffic: Speedo reading of 80-ish, which is usually keeping up with the traffic. If I have my GPS on then that shows me as going at 76 ish.

Otherwise I go with what the traffic is moving at, or what the smart motorway says I should be doing.

Try not to go over 80, but got a speeding ticket at 85 a few years ago.

70mph.

I recently did a speed awareness course and it’s completely changed my attitude towards speeding.
@Sammysquiz I'm interested to find out more; is it because you are more aware of the consequences of accidents at different speeds?

The frustrating thing about the speed awareness courses is that they only cover the effect of driving to fast for the speed limit you were in. I inadvertently broke a 20mph speed limit and got caught. Now I would never knowingly break a 20 (it's no defence but I thought I was in a 30) so me being taught why not to break a 20 wasn't as relevant to me as it would have been to cover the reasons for sticking to 70 on a motorway.

Motorways are the only roads where I break the speed limit, as on a quiet motorway it feels natural to me to do an average of 80. Top speed I ever do is around 85. I overtook a police car at 85 once and was a bit surprised not to be pulled over.

It definitely seems safer to go with the flow of the other traffic which generally seems to be 80ish when there's no congestion.

The only time I've been an unhappy passenger on the motorway was when the driver was doing 55, mostly in the inside lane but occasionally pulling out to overtake a particularly slow lorry. Hidden amongst lorries on the inside then pulling out into lanes, where the general flow of traffic was 70-80, at 55mph felt precarious.

The frustrating thing about the speed awareness courses is that they only cover the effect of driving to fast for the speed limit you were in

The course I went on covered motorways too. At 80mph your stopping distance is 30 car lengths (25% more than at 75mph), but also am increase in speed from 70 mph to 80 mph is only a 14% increase in speed but this results in a 31% increase in kinetic energy, and that’s what’s going to be transferred to the car you slam into the back of.

And driving 80mph instead of 70mph increases your fuel consumption by 20-25% but only saves you 6 seconds per mile. If you were to drive from London to Edinburgh at 80mph instead of 70mph you’d only save yourself 40 minutes.

Before the course I used to drive 80mph to keep up with the other drivers, but it’s the increase in kinetic energy you transfer to anything you hit if you have to stop suddenly which causes the majority of motorway deaths, not people having to overtake because you’re driving at 70mph.

And in a 30 zone you’re almost twice as likely to kill someone if they step in the road & you’re driving 35mph then if you’re going 30mph.

Don’t want to sound preachy as I’ve been going over the speed-limit for 20 years before going on the course But it did open my eyes a lot!

I drive about 80.

People who drive 60 can cause more of a hazard, it’s just too slow for a motorway.

I’m going to try and stick to 70, but I normally creep up to 80 as I go with the flow of the traffic.

My regular motorway is a smart motorway and rarely has national speed limit in place when I travel on it.

Even when it does I usually stay around 60 because I am comfortable At that speed as I have got older, I did used to drive faster. I do always travel in the inside lane though , only moving out to overtake the wagons when their 56mph restrcitors And people older and slower than me!

I set my cruise control at 70 (75 if the road is empty). My car slows itself down/speeds up to maintain a safe distance from the car in front within the speed set by me

I find driving with cruise on really relaxing compared to not.

I was doing 70 on the motorway yesterday in outside lane (overtaking) when a police car started tailgating me (no blue lights) I felt very uncomfortable, but couldn't pull over for a good few minutes. It was unsafe because 1. They were too close and 2. It meant I had to keep checking my rear mirror incase they did put their blue lights on (but then I would have had to speed up to get out of their way!?)

Also, it's not nice when you see a car go past at about 90 miles an hour, then about 100 miles further on you see the same car mangled up, surrounded by emergency crews, with what's clearly a body being stretched away and another body in the front passenger seat
Never seen that. You always think that it ought to happen (karma and all that) but it doesn't.

So who are all these people driving at 80 or 90 miles an hour and why don't they worry about getting a speeding ticket or being pulled over?
I don't worry because I'm concentrating on the road - I know where cameras, the police and other vehicles are. Unlike the slow, middle lane hoggers who seem to be oblivious to the rest of the world.
I have been driving for about 35 years and never had a speeding ticket yet. Haven't had an accident that was my fault for about 34 years.

The speed limit on German motorways is 81mph

No, it isn't. By default, there is no limit (though there is an advisory limit of 130 km/h). The reason for that is that most of the motorway network is very well developed, and drivers are generally more cautious than British drivers.

80-85 usually

70 mph

When DH is in the car it's 69 mph (cruise control) but that's because it annoys the hell out of him.

Probably average 80. Try not to go any faster as my car is fairly old and I don't think it's as efficient! A police officer once told me realistically the unwritten limit was 80. Police cars regularly cruise at 80 without blues and twos.

When I was young (would not now!) but never got a ticket despite doing regular motorway driving inc average speed checks, the new m25 cams and genuinely thought I'd been flashed by a speed gun on several occasions but nothing.

Has anyone on here actually been 'got' by an average speed check? People fly past me up those so I wonder if they actually work???

70 because I've got black box insurance to save me money
I have gone up to 80 without noticing and one non motorway (dual carriage way though) road near where I used to live, it was just off a roundabout but if you were turning left on it you didn't need to stop, there was a bit of road to build up speed again then go down hill, I'd take my foot off the speed and still end up going 90+ once or twice unintentionally

I think 70 is a good limit to have on the motorway. People go up to about 75 with that in place. Not many are over 80.

You obviously don't live in the South East!
60 to 70 unless indicated lower. Most gantries on the M25 have speed cameras in them.
But you are lucky to be able to do a constant 60 most of the time.

70 on the speedo which last I checked was 70 on the GPS too, because I don't want a speeding fine. In my first two years of driving 6 points, so two speeding tickets, would have meant a ban. That could easily have been done on one day as I saw it. So I developed and kept an aversion to speeding.

People who speed all the time I assume drive on those motorways all the time and know there aren't any speed cameras. But there could always be a new or mobile one

(Correction, it's not really a fine I'm worried about, but rather the penalty points that would give car insurers an excuse to shaft me as well as possibly lead to a totting up ban. I play taxi for my infirm DM so if I can't drive it's not just me that gets inconvenced)

77

@Bekabeech I love in the south east and use the M25 regularly! I have never seen a gantry camera flash despite seeing cars fly by (thinking evening driving rather than busy traffic!)

I do 70, 75 if overtaking.. my dad used to drive all over the country for his job and he would go max of 80, he used to go for 1-2 months to Germany to work and for a man who has done over 1 million miles I can tell you that he thought the lack of speed limits was atrocious! His thoughts on it are that they have so many powerful cars ie merc, bmw, Audi and that was the only reasoning behind it and if you are in a car without a huge engine that you were buggered basically.

The speed limit on German motorways is 81mph, and large rural stretches of their motorways have no limit at all. Do you really think that German drivers are magically better than British ones? Or is it more likely our 70 limit is set too low for a three lane road with no traffic lights, roundabouts, cyclists or other hazards

German drivers are better, yes. They have better lane discipline,

Their lanes are wider.

The stretches of motorway without speed limits are few and far between.

And they don't have accidents on the motorways, they have fatalities.

70mph is ample and I hope to see more and more average speed cameras to force people to slow down if they don't want fines and points.