Slow drivers - why do you do it?

[Kibble29]

If you’re a slow driver who chugs along the motorway at 50mph in a 70 zone, or one that does 17mph in a 30, why do you do this?

Are you afraid of driving? Or is it something else?

Yes the limit is a limit, not a target. Yes there can be roadworks or lane closures, or torrential rain. But I’m just talking about a standard road with no issues or adverse weather.

People who drive slowly on slip roads are the worst. SPEED UP SO YOU CAN MATCH THE TRAFFIC.

My lanes are 40/50 and fairly wide. I'm comfortable in those in all conditions.

The lanes I often use for work don't have lines down the middle. Think there's a humpback bridge at one pojnt.They are 60mph. I can't drive at that when it's dark, because I can't see cos of all the oncoming dazzle. I slow down, so that if some behemoth of an suv takes me out, it won't be so bad when I tip into the ditch.

Yes and you're supposed to drive to it.
Eg 30 in a 30 zone.

Nope...

I tend to drive to the conditions and the limit, and ensure I leave a reasonable gap between myself and the car in front, which a lot of drivers seem to forget to do, going by the number of people I see tailgating the car in front of them. They of course will be furious if they have a completely preventable accident by crashing into the back of someone, if the car in front has to break suddenly.
My normal commute to work involves a country road with a national speed limit interspersed with a couple of 30/40 limits due to villages, now I know this road very well, I know where the hazards are generally and can slow down just using my gears to be able to get round bends safely and without breaking, I do need to slow down a little to get round some of the tight bends because I am driving a box on wheels, not an Audi or a BMW, and it is better that I drive to my cars ability than bugger up everyone's commute by tipping the thing over

Yes.

Go out with a driving instructor and see what they say when you pootle around at 20 in a 30 zone.

People do this a lot in my area and it’s because there arent enough 40 signs in the 40mph areas, the limit on lots of the main roads in and out of my town and the surrounding ones goes from 40 to 30 to 40 to 30 in a fairly short distance, and it’s easy to miss the change as the road looks the same. Only the locals know but we have patience as it’s often clear the driver in front isn’t from the area and hasn’t realised the limit has changed back to 40.

Completely agree. A road I have driven on for decades is a 40. It has switch back bends on steep hills and no lighting, running water across when it rains, prone to icing.

It's fine when you are following someone's lights but if I am at the front (traffic goes in bursts after earlier lights) I am driving safely for the conditions.

Just before Christmas we got a text from DSC school to pick them up ASAP from a school field per the emergency evacuation procedure - rumour at the time was there was explosives found in a school bag (there actually was a bomb - albeit disarmed but we didn’t know that). Kids were outside in 4 degrees without their coats and one class without shoes.

two lane bypass to get to the school from the town and industrial estates where most parents work and there was one wanker who kept slowing down in front of everyone as they tried to pass or quickly moving lanes and breaking to stop more from overtaking. Easily going 20 MPH below the speed limit on a dry light day on a straight road.

How there wasn’t a serious crash in will never know with hundreds of distraught parents racing to get their kids.

Don’t ever be that person.

i drive slowly on unlit winding country lanes in the dark because my headlights only reach so far. Some people want to go at 60 regardless of whether they can actually see the road sufficiently far ahead.

Another thread by one of those MN perfect drivers, so many on here.

I had to do a speed awareness course (40 in a 30, hadn’t realised speed limit had changed). Was curious how a bloke on the course was arguing with the instructor about how driving overly fast isn’t dangerous if ‘in control’. It didn’t go well for him!

Was actually an informative and useful course. Aside from the human trauma, apparently road injuries and fatalities cost the uk government about £35 billion per year.

These costs include: costs to the NHS and emergency services; costs to the police from investigating the crash and bringing cases to court; costs to individuals through higher insurance rates; costs from lost worker productivity; human costs; and damage to property.

Thousands of accidents are caused by - or made much worse by - speeding. So slow down..

Deleted message. I didn’t know if it was satire.

I usually drive just below the speed limit, so 17mph in a 20mph and 27/28 in a 30mph and motorway I sit in lane 1 most of the time driving at 60-65mph, occasionally drive at 70mph

I find people tailgate me constantly, which is illegal and wtf - they can't legally expect me to go faster as id then be breaking the law.

why not just set of earlier

I live in an area where we don’t have any 20mph, but just over the border from a county where any village is 20mph by default. I’ve noticed a lot of drivers doing 20 now, and I can only assume they are confused!

Well, what a charmer, we all know what sort of driver your are, don't we

I live in a village and it's a daily occurrence following old people (sorry but it is!) doing 15 in a 30 and usually, partially on the wrong side of the road.
It's scary really.

Yes it’s a speed limit, but it’s also the speed that the traffic is expected to travel at so when people are driving significantly below that it impedes the rest of the flow of traffic. Doing 65 in the left lane of a motorway is fine. Doing 20 in a 40mph dual carriage way is dangerous

Depends what i’m driving I’m generally quite happy doing 60 on the motorway in my van. It’s much more economical at 60 than 70+

If I’m driving a car then I tend to drive faster.

Same.

I live rurally and drive between 25 and 40mph on the lanes, depending on which part journey I am on.
Apparently, this is still too slow for the cut through tossers who try oh so hard to make me speed up.
As a horse rider who has had many an "oh shit" moment with people driving too fast on the lanes, I will not be one of those drivers.

On urban roads and motorways, I tend to sit at the limit and keep to the left hand lane as much as possible.

Driving too fast as in above the speed limit?

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Yes, it is frustrating when you're behind someone who is driving more slowly than you think appropriate but in reality it rarely adds more than a few minutes to your journey and you don't know why that person is not as confident as you.
I was a perfectly confident driver right up to the point where I was nearly killed in a head on collision with a driver who was on the wrong side of the road. I couldn't drive for well over a year afterwards and when I was physically and psychologically well enough to get behind the wheel again I had refresher lessons, but I was still very anxious when I started driving on my own again. I am sure I annoyed people by being too slow, hesitant at junctions etc once I began driving again. I couldn't drive down the road where I had the accident for years. It's easy to say "don't drive if you not confident" but sometimes you can't become confident unless you drive. I had therapy, I had driving lessons, but it still took quite a long time to get back to full confidence and I still get anxious from time to time.
Now when I find myself getting irritated by hesitant drivers I remind myself that that was me a few years ago. Maybe this person is in a similar position or has any number of possible reasons why they are sub par today. Or they might just be a crap driver of course - but you don't know, and either way, getting worked up about it or driving 6 inches off their bumper is not going to make things any better.

This does my head in - and makes me think that the driver is either incompetent or drunk/high. The ability to merge road conditions with the speed limit seems beyond a lot of drivers - a special place in hell is reserved for them. By all means, drive at 35/40 in a 60 if you can’t adjust your speed upwards in clear conditions on appropriate roads but fgs pull in when you can and stop causing tailbacks.

As for those drivers who pull out in front of you when there’s no traffic behind you, causing you to have to brake and then proceed to drive at far less than the speed limit according to appropriate road conditions, they should have their licenses removed.

There are lots of roads in this country where it would be unsafe to drive to
the speed limit. Most country roads are 60 when there’s absolutly no way you could safely drive them at 60.

Pathetic. If there's a car behind me that's clearly in a rush, I make it easy for them to overtake as soon as is practical because (a) it's not my place to stop them getting a ticket, (b) it's easier to avoid dangerous drivers if they're in front of you, and (c) aggravating other drivers, no matter how annoying they are, is simply puerile.

A lot of people on this thread sound like they could do with a speed awareness course. I drive quite slowly. I live in London and most places are 20. I don’t tend to drive outside of London much. If a neighbouring borough is 30 I’ll probably still drive at 25. There are a lot of hazards - bikes etc. I am a very safe driver. I know I would never forgive myself if I hurt or killed someone, so I don’t take any risks.