How are you with driving on the motorway?

[bumchic]

There are a few journeys locally which are sometimes much quicker if I go in the motorway for a couple of junctions but it’s so unpredictable I always try and avoid it.

BUT I do all the driving on long family journeys including abroad and am fine with it.

My mum on the other hand outright refuses to drive on the motorway and always has. The idea of her driving on a long trip eg when we were kids was absolutely out of the question. I have friends like this now too - they see long journeys as a man’s job.

In the daytime: sure, no problem. Regularly drive motorways to visit family, go on holiday etc. Especially when you can use cruise control! My least favourite road to drive on is not a motorway the A14 between Cambridge and the M6 because of all the lorries (so for two-lane sections you are either stuck behind a lorry at 55mph or if using the overtaking lane, have some maniac tailgating you)

In the dark: no, I won’t drive on motorways. I find it really hard to judge other cars’ speed and distance just by their headlights which makes slip roads, changing lanes etc stressful. Add in super bright LED headlights and it’s just not fun, add rain and even worse.

I’m in my 60s and don’t have any objection at all to driving on motorways. I use them regularly. My only issue is that I have a tendency to get bored on long motorway journeys because there is nothing to do other than sit there and change lane from time to time (obviously that’s assuming that the traffic is moving at a reasonable pace)!

I find it easier to concentrate on journeys where I have to drive more actively.

Big issue with motorways is that there's a higher concentration of dickhead drivers who can't or won't drive to the rules. So speeding, tailgating, lane hogging can make it stressful. If you can get past other people's behaviour motorways don't pose any problems. Best and fastest way to get from A to B.

I don't mind it - we don't live near any motorways so I don't do it very often. Starting to prefer dual carriageway driving in general though as we've had quite a few horrific accidents on the country roads near me, mostly from stupid attempts to overtake or taking the bends too fast.

I find it so odd that so many people ( usually women) don’t like motorway driving.

They are the easiest roads to drive on as they’re literally just straight.

My dad would drive 6 hours on a motorway and my mum wouldn’t share the journey at all.

I guess it’s just what you know and there’s anxiety over what you aren’t used to.

I am a very confident driver but I want to drive to France but I am very nervous as I’ve only been abroad once and never driven in a foreign country.
I assume this is a similar feeling to those who don’t like motorway driving.

I enjoy motorway driving but since I’ve got older I’m not happy going way above the speed limit. I think the pressure to speed by tailgating cars especially when overtaking in the outside lane is what puts many people off motorway driving. If they weren’t loads of people keen to do 90 mph + at all times it would be a lot more relaxing
Being scared of high speed driving (by which I mean significantly above the 70 mph limit) is not unreasonable I don’t think - the consequences of something going wrong are much greater

It's far easier driving on a motorway. Cruise control on and relax......

Never had an issue with motorway driving. It's boring but efficient.
The only driving I don't like and try and avoid is city driving (where I don't know the city)

I dont mind driving on the motorway but have anxiety when driving in new places (when you come off 😂) so i avoid if I can for that reason

Are there just A and B roads near to you? What if you want to drive a 200 mile trip?

Imagine curtailing your independence and freedom by not driving on motorways. Pathetic. Especially thinking it’s a man’s domain.

Uhghg

French motorways are far easier to drive on as the French seem to have lane discipline.

rather drive on a motorway than in a city!

The best thing that ever happened to the M25 was when Crowley sets fire to it in Good Omens.

(Let's say for sake of argument that nobody was hurt. Because they weren't, it's fiction).

I much prefer motorways to little narrow country roads, or even suburban roads with cars parked badly where you never know if anyone is going to drive straight at you.

I don't mind driving in a city, it's the finding somewhere to leave the car once you arrive. I drove to Birmingham last year (usually get the train) and it was so painfully slow, 3 mph in the city center and then the parking was more than the return train fare.

I did state a little after that how I'm much more neurotic than my husband is behind the wheel. I don't mind if you missed that bit, but it's rude to just snap at me like that.

My neuroticism developed after an incident some years ago involving a speed camera, or rather, speed legislation. I was under the prescribed speed limit going past an old gatso camera before it was digitised and still had a bright flash. A car was behind me and flashed someone, to which I thought the camera had snapped me. I knew I didn't go over the limit, but when the relentless campaign of 'speed kills' and 'zero tolerance' is drummed into you, it breaks down all logic and reason. So I sat tight for about 3 weeks waiting for a NIP to drop through my letterbox, jumping at the sound of the letterbox cover opening and closing every day. No NIP, but 3 weeks of anxiety made me so angry that I wanted to revisit that camera and fill it with expanding foam. Or put the reg plate of the current sitting PM on an RC car and zip it up and down that stretch of road to run the film out.

So I would speak for myself, but I'm sure others can relate.

I used to love motorway driving when I was younger and they were not the manic places they now are. Would think nothing of doing a 200-mile journey after work Friday to spend the weekend with friends.
The need to travel on them has reduced massively in recent years and while we do use them, nothing like as often as we once did.

I have a friend (same age as me) who in 35yrs of driving has never driven on one.
Never had to and never gone out of her way to try it.

Never driven on a motorway but tbf I've only been driving for a couple of years and never needed to drive on one but I don't like the idea of it. I get tired easily when driving because it requires so much focus, 40 minutes is pretty much my max so for longer journeys OH drives and there isn't any motorways within an hour of us.

I have a friend who won't drive on the motorway - always re-routes or gets her DH to do it. Another friend is flying from London to Manchester rather than drive, and is getting her DH to drive her the 1 hour to the airport, and someone else drive 1 hour to collect her. I'm astonished.

Charming.
Bully for you, I very rarely drive on a motorway but it doesn’t bother me.
It’s the awful driving you see that makes it stressful. We were side swiped by a foreign articulated lorry that suddenly switched lanes without looking and we’ve had two bloody idiots drive up the back of us, hence it being stressful now.

Oddly my sister is like this will only drive locally and any long drives her DH does.

I on the other hand prefer motorway and dual carriage way driving as long as its not to busy. It does start to stress me out a bit when it's really busy and no space for cars coming on a junctions.

I'll quite happily drive long distance, but give me a winding backroad with only passing places and I struggle. To bad I live in suffolk and half our roads are like this, I do try and avoid them though.

So maybe say "I am more panicky than my husband" rather than promote casual sexism by referring to women and men in general. Words matter.

Completely fine with motorway or any other driving. My late husband didn't drive, so it was always me and I have driven all over Europe.

My mum is like this, was a bit nervous of motorways so my stepdad did the driving when they had to use one. Over time he's done more and more of it, so now if they're ever going somewhere together my stepdaughter always drives. The longer it goes on the more nervous my mum gets of driving. I'm worried if my stepdad passes away first my mum will be left stuck and too nervous to drive anywhere.