To think if you can’t drive to speed limits you shouldn’t be on the road?

[TheTruthAboutLove]

I know, I know that a speed limit is a limit, not a target.

However I’m talking about the ones who go much much slower than the speed limit on roads - which in my eyes is just as dangerous as people going over speed limits.

Tonight on my 30minute commute home I was behind;

A taxi which couldn’t decide what lane to be in so straddled both, doing 25mph in a 40mph limit

A car doing 30mph on a 60mph limit

On a motorway, and behind a car doing 50mph

Surely people need to realise this is just as dangerous as driving fast? I don’t tailgate, I stay the correct distances away from other cars so there isn’t any pressure, but these cars slowing right down are creating huge tails of traffic behind them which is horrific in rush hour!

You could just, y'know, drive to an appropriate speed to the conditions

I was driving to an appropriate speed with an injured dog in the back.
And if I let a tractor out in front of me, I'll drive to the appropriate speed behind it.

Tailgating is illegal. Driving under the speed limit is not.

I like the California rule...more than six cars behind you and you’re not doing the speed limit you have to pull over where safe to let them pass. I was in a queue of about twelve drivers last night on a straight 60mph road behind someone doing 30mph. It’s an A road so traffic coming the other way fairly steadily. People were overtaking but it takes time for everyone to be able to. And yes, be patient but why should I have to add a preventative 10 minutes to my commute in both directions for the one day a week it happens?!

LochJessMonster

Who ever lets a tractor out?

No one, ever in the history of the world has ever done that.

OP
It was predictable how the thread would go.

Most drivers are reasonable drivers and most reasonable drivers have an issue with ditherers and reckless drivers.

Ditherers tend to have a weird smug attitude of "but I'm so safe and I won't cause accidents... I know my driving inconveniences other road users but I don't care and will happily behave in ways to deliberately further slow traffic. Anyone who has an issue with me pootling along and doing this is obviously a prick who is obsessed with speed and needs to slow down".

Abouttoblow I did. When I was driving at 60 in a 60 and the car behind was so close I couldn't see him in my side mirrors.
So I let a tractor out in front of me, and smiled all the way.

If I had had to emergency brake at 60 (windey country road so strong possibility of wildlife round the corner) he would have hit me and most likely killed my dog in the boot. So I made sure we both had to slow down to 40 behind the tractor.

According to the Highway Code all drivers should be considerate towards each other. This means no tailgating and speeding, but it also means don't drive so slowly that you frustrate other road users.

There are signs on the A9 in Scotland asking slow drivers to pull in to allow faster vehicles to pass. The signs actually state "Frustration kills"

A work colleague recently did an advanced driving course. He says that when there are good road conditions with clear visibility then drivers should drive close to the speed limit, not significantly under.

The police will and do stop someone if they are driving very slowly to check whether they are driving under the influence of drink or drugs and also to check whether the driver is unwell.

My bugbear is the driver who only drives at 40 mph. I live in a village with a 30 mph speed limit, with roads either side having a 60 mph limit. I often get stuck behind the 40 mph driver, who then speeds away when I slow down to 30.

If you're really so full of cold or suffering from emotional issues to the point of being incapable of driving to the speed limit where it's safe to do so, should you really be driving?

It's called driving within your capabilities - are you suggesting people should just stay in/keep out of sight and be miserable rather than 'irritate' you? There is no requirement to drive to the limit especially the national limit. There is a requirement to drive within the distance you can see to be clear - people doing 60 on most national limit roads are rarely doing that.
(& if you tailgate you must expect the driver in front to slow down to keep themselves safe.)

People like this do my absolute head in. I go to a hobby that's about a 30 min drive away. The first half is motorway, the second half is a 30mph long, quiet residential road, with nowhere to overtake. 30mph always feels ridiculously slow after being on the motorway, but I never speed. I've seen what happens when you do.

You do sometimes get people going at 20mph, and last week I followed someone driving a 15mph. It's so frustrating as it's a very long road so you're stuck behind them right to the end. There's a lot of speed cameras along the road, so I think people are over cautious about them as they're not sure where they are. For some reason, on this road, people seem to slow down to 25mph before going through the camera. Why not just stay at 30mph - the legal limit?

Really, really annoys me.

Yes, be careful, but driving slowly is just as dangerous sometimes.

Yes it's annoying! No one is saying you need to be speeding or even necessarily being right up at the limit, but if you are doing half the limit, it's going to cause everyone to overtake you, and some will take chances doing so

@LochJessMonster read the Highway Code. You don’t have the right to drive at whatever speed you want.

The weather here was terrible yesterday but I do agree with you that on a clear day, driving consistently significantly below the speed limit (excluding round sharp bends etc) is dangerous.

@ChristmasSpirtsOnTheRocksPleas But I have the right to drive at a safe speed for the conditions? Which I do and did.

@LochJessMonster You have stated further back that you deliberately drive slower and let tractors out just to annoy other road users who want to drive closer to the speed limit. So as much as that person is in the wrong for tailgating and being frustrated you're fuelling that anger even more by choosing deliberate actions to annoy them.

How is that driving at an appropriate and safe speed?

I watch Ashley Neal who is a driving instructor with a heavy YouTube presence, and his advice when you encounter a tailgater is to just pull over and let them past instead of antagonising them more. Tractors do it - I've seen them pull in because they go at such slow speeds to help the flow of traffic and let people past.

Me driving at my speed is a lot less likely to cause an accident that the prick tailgating me.

The car behind you might contain a woman about to give birth and desperately trying to get to hospital, or a midwife, nurse, carer, surgeon or anybody needing to get somewhere urgently to do their job but not equipped with a blue-light vehicle. It could even be the vet who treated your dog's broken leg being called out to another animal whose life is in the balance if not treated urgently.

If you needed to drive very slowly so as to minimise any pain to a suffering animal, it would have been better all round if you'd pulled right over to the side of the road and gestured drivers behind to overtake; even better: scribble "Please overtake" on a piee of paper with a sharpie and stick it in the back windscreen.

On many roads, somebody driving at milk-float speeds is much easier to overtake than somebody doing 40 in a safe and legal 60-zone.

Also, just as some idiots will deliberately sit on your bumper to frighten you, others will also slow right down to goad you to annoyance and then speed up or slow down straightaway to match your overtaking speed and prevent you from getting safely back in from the wrong side of the road. By driving very slowly, right at the edge of the road, and displaying a 'please overtake' sign, you're telling other drivers that you aren't playing games and helping them to accommodate you as you accommodate them - same principle as indicators, really.

TheTruthAboutLove Yes, I'll deliberately drive at say 50-55 in a 60 if the person is tailgating me when I'm doing 60. 50-55 is a safe speed in a 60.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll Why on earth do I need to display a 'please overtake' sign?
If they want to go faster than me and its safe to overtake, then they should be able to figure that out themselves.
I don't drive right over to the centre line, it should be clear to any competent driver that they can overtake if they wish.

I can't predict every cars reasons for wanting to drive faster, I can only drive to the speed I think is appropriate for the current condition.

The time I drove with the broken leg dog, I didn't deliberately slow down to piss people off/let the tractor out. I drove at a steady (slower) speed. I gave that as an example of why someone might be doing 30 in a 60.

I only deliberately slow down if I'm doing the limit, or what is appropriate for the road/weather conditions and the car behind is being a dick.

Honestly? Just chill. I've been driving long enough to realise it's pointless getting wound up by fast or slow drivers. Allow time for your journey and listen to music. I found it doesn't make much different time wise if I belt along to my destination, or just go steady. 5 minutes tops. I'm driving 10+ hours a week and my blood pressure is fine 😀

Why do some motorway drivers speed up when you pull out to overtake them?

Because they are immature arseholes gin

With small penises

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll
None of that matters to ditherers. They're super cautious and because they are the safest drivers in a world full of idiots, it's only logical that anyone wanting to go quicker than them must be reckless.

Yellowallpaper most people leave enough time for general traffic or delays, and most people are reasonable drivers.

It is a bit ridiculous to leave enough time for delays and still get stuck behind a PITA. E.g The two most annoying things I encounter on my commute are people who don't understand the concept of going at a roundabout so the whole junction gets backed up (which means it can take 20 minutes to get through the roundabout) and 35mph drivers who drive at 35mph in the residential 30 (often slamming brakes on if they see mobile speed vans) and 35 mph on the 50mph road that has no overtaking allowed for most of it. I've got my music and get on with my day but there's part of me that thinks there's so many better things I could do with that time than sitting behind someone who seems incapable of navigating a roundabout and adjusting their speed. 🤣

Bloody hate ditherers 😠 Give me a tailgater any day, you can always pull in and let them pass. Ditherers just plough on with no concern for anyone else on the road 😠😠😠

MrsJBaptiste
I feel the same.
I'd rather have a tailgater and then let them past to be in front of me than have them behind me getting annoyed and risking me being in a crash because they're too close.

The idea of purposefully slowing down or trying to provoke other road users that people on here have mentioned seems utterly stupid and from a position of ridiculous smugness.

Tailgating is illegal. Driving under the speed limit is not.

LochJessMonster. You will find that driving under the speed limit therefore impeding other road users may be classified as ‘driving without due care and attention’ and you may be issued with a fine and penalty points on your licence. So I wouldn’t be too smug if I were you. 🙄

Why on earth do I need to display a 'please overtake' sign?

I got the impression that you were driving extremely slowly so as not to jar the dog and cause it unnecessary pain. I was saying that, if you had an occasion where you knew you would be driving very slowly, a sign might be courteous. If you're generally just a slow-ish driver, it would be quite defeatist to display a sign, so no, I wouldn't expect that.

The sign I was suggesting would be a way of communicating to other drivers that you have a very good reason for driving slowly and acknowledging that you know you might be causing them some inconvenience on this occasion, rather than just always being a dawdly driver. Obviously, if you ARE always a dawdly driver, then a sign would indeed be pointless.