Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask that you speed up a little.

228 replies

Dawndonna · 24/07/2012 23:21

I live in a rural area. I have to go about my daily business, appointments, shopping etc. So, if you're visiting and admiring the scenery, please pull over. Do not drive at 20mph on a sixty mile an hour road upon which overtaking is either bloody dangerous or impossible.
Drives me fucking mental

OP posts:
peaksandtroughs · 27/07/2012 15:03

I've just looked it up on the CPS website. Driving too slowly can only be considered to be inconsiderate in law, while driving too fast is considered to be dangerous driving in law. The sentence for the latter is considerably more than the sentence for the former.

People just come on MN and make up utter nonsense, even when when it is about something like driving which costs lives.

thebody · 27/07/2012 15:17

Peak! Exactly!!!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 27/07/2012 15:19

peaks -it's not that it's safer to go faster (I think), it's that driving slowly because you think it makes up for not paying attention to the road (as the OP says, looking at scenery) isn't safe. Nor is driving slowly to make up for being not very confident, or because you've had too much to drink, or because you're tired, or all the other reasons people seem to do it. If someone feels incapable of driving safely at 60 for reasons that are not to do with the road or the conditions, they are kidding themselves that they're safe to drive at 30.

There is an obvious risk if someone is driving very much slower than the rest of the traffic, but obviously sometimes it will happen and we ought all to be prepared for it, so I think that's slightly different from the issue of thinking that slowing down automatically makes you safer.

Shoshe · 27/07/2012 15:29

And please I know Stonehenge is a world monument but the traffic on the 303 is bad enough without you crawling along

Pendeen · 27/07/2012 16:02

Just noticed the OP wrote " Do not drive at 20mph on a sixty mile an hour road upon which overtaking is either bloody dangerous or impossible."

Thinking about that, if it's impossible / dangerous to overtake a vehicle crawling along at 20 because of the road i.e. twisting with very limited visibility as opposed to the conditions i.e. oncoming traffic then I would probably agree 20 was a reasonable speed.

Overtaking another vehicle is very easy if it is only doing 20 on a clear road with good visibility.

What is not so acceptable is the driver who drives at 50 "because I consider that it's the only safe speed" with a long queue of irritated drivers behind them.

JollyHockeyStick · 27/07/2012 16:03

thebody, your typo made all the difference, I have much less argument with you now :)

patosullivan · 27/07/2012 17:20

peaksandtroughs, I don't know about the OP, but what annoys me is people driving excessively slowly for no good reason.

It's fine if people drive slower than the speed limit because the road is narrow, very bendy, has limited forward visibility due to vegetation by the road and so on. Driving slower than the speed limit on roads like that is perfectly sensible and appropriate.

It's annoying if people drive slower than the speed limit for no explicable reason on roads which are neither narrow or very bendy and have good forward visibility. Especially if they slow down every time a particularly pretty bit of scenery appears, and if there's traffic coming the other way to prevent overtaking.
There are plenty of single carriageway A roads which this would apply to.

Original poster
Dawndonna · 27/07/2012 19:03

The road in question has white lines down the middle. That means it's a good wide road. It is however very twisty and there is nowhere on it I would consider safe to overtake. However, it is perfectly safe to do sixty on it as you are unlikely to meet an oncoming vehicle unless it's on the wrong side of the road.
It is still bloody dangerous to be admiring the scenery and driving at 20 to do so It means you're not concentrating on the road, or other road users.

OP posts:
janelikesjam · 27/07/2012 19:44

Slow down. Life's not a race.

janelikesjam · 27/07/2012 19:50

All these people that are so angry ... oh god, whats the hurry?? I mean, I'm just tryna find a parking space or look for my friend's house, or something equally understandable. Maybe I'm doing 20 mph on a speed bump road (that means the speed LIMIT is 20 mph) as I was today, though you would never know this from the manic angry female driver behind me who seem to think it should be 30, obviously she is the law in her own mind).

Can I just say, all you speeding, angry drivers to do something else with your anger and aggression. Leave us normal, speed-limit drivers in peace Smile. Next time you're up my arse for no reason, I might get out and call the police.

thebody · 27/07/2012 21:03

But Jane!!! Read the thread apparently the police are far too busy pulling over people driving slowly and carefully!!!!

They speed because they are impatient, important, entitled and bullies....

And of course have no idea or knowledge of the damage that they can do.

Viperidae · 27/07/2012 21:24

I live at the seaside so we have mostly normal roads, not little winding things, so it's easy to pass unless the idiot other driver is doing 26 in a 30 limit as close to the middle of the road as possible and slowing down to a crawl before every traffic light Angry

CokeFan · 27/07/2012 21:25

I think most people seem to be arguing on the same side here?

If the road is twisty or narrow then it's not appropriate to drive at 60 even if NSL applies (common sense tells us that) because we can't see hazards round corners.

If the road is wide and straightish and weather conditions good then you shouldn't be pootling along at sub-40mph, whether it's because you're looking at the scenery, trying to deal with a passenger or not confident at higher speeds - especially when there's a huge queue of cars behind you who will start to get impatient.

Doing 40mph through 30 zones, past schools, down narrow lanes etc. is unlikely to win you any friends.

Bongaloo · 27/07/2012 22:07

They're talking about making the rural roads 40 mph now.
Good thing too where I am - that 60 limit is so dated now.

carycach · 29/07/2012 18:50

How do slow drivers cause accidents? It's the impatient 'faster' drivers overtaking in unsafe places that cause them.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 29/07/2012 19:02

Nope. The OP is talking (as she has clarified quite often) about people who slow done because they mistakenly think this makes it ok to take their mind off driving, or because they assume they can't drive at a higher speed but will somehow be able to at a lower one. They cause accidents because they are wrong - slowing down doesn't excuse not paying attention or not being competent to drive.

carycach · 30/07/2012 09:45

the querstion which is the title of the thread is 'AIBU to ask yu to speed up a little'

freddiefrog · 30/07/2012 10:07

I feel your pain OP.

We live in a very touristy area and it's taking forever to get anywhere at the moment.

Our local economy does rely on holiday makers so I usually grin and bear but towards the end of the season the patience is wearing a little thin.

I'm not actually on holiday and just trying to go about my daily business so when I get stuck behind someone doing 20mph in a 60mph to admire the view, and who keeps slowing down every 5 minutes even more to take photos (when there are loads of viewing points where they can do this safely) as I did this morning when trying to get eldest DD to a piano exam, is so frustrating (and we did leave as early as possible, but when DD2's holiday club doesn't open until 8.30am and DD2's exam was at 9am, a normal 10 minute drive away, it's annoying that the journey took 45 minutes and we were late)

bubby64 · 30/07/2012 10:14

Its the ones who dawdle at 40mph along the national speedlimit road, then speed up when they have to go through our village with its 30mph signs and kids playing dotted here and there that annoy me!! I know we live in a beautiful part of the country (almada, dawndonna, you must be close!) but WTF!

CokeFan · 30/07/2012 13:17

Followed a wagon this morning, going at 40mph on wide NSL road - plenty safe enough for cars to do 55-60mph on. It was going too fast to be safely overtaken by the Honda Jazz directly behind it (and intermittently there were cars coming the other way so it wouldn't have been safe). The result was a loooooooong line of cars behind us and it took us an extra 15-20 minutes to get where we were going because it didn't pull in and let people past.

Conversely, on the way home all the cars were doing at or near the speed limit and yet there was still a (baseball cap wearing) fool weaving in and out overtaking us.

VolAuVent · 30/07/2012 13:22

YABU

carycach · 30/07/2012 13:31

Cokefan- the speed limit for HGVs is 40 mph on single carriageway and 50 on dual carriageway, so he was probably going as fast as he was allowed.
You hacve to remember that other road users travelling slower, have as much right to be on the road as you have large HGVs pay £2580 road tax!!!

CokeFan · 30/07/2012 13:57

True, and I'm not disputing his right to be on the road but it wouldn't have stopped him pulling over occasionally to let all the other faster vehicles past. I'm sure it makes it harder for people to pull out of side roads when there's a long line of cars being held up too. If he'd been going 20mph then people could have got past him but 40mph is trickier unless you can see a long way ahead.

Sirzy · 30/07/2012 14:00

He is trying to do his job yet you expect him to stop so other people can get passed therefore meaning it takes longer to do his job.

CokeFan · 30/07/2012 15:10

Not really (mind you it would have been 30 seconds for him and 20 minutes for the rest of us over the 10 or so miles we followed him and tractors quite often do it if they see a big queue), that's not going to happen in the real world - just in CokeTopia. I was more contrasting my 2 journeys this morning where in the first no overtaking was possible because of a slower (legitimately) vehicle and in the second reckless overtaking was happening. I'm just not explaining it very well.

In CokeTopia, all the cars/buses/vans/wagon/horses and cyclists are nicely spread out, rather than all bunched up, the roads are nice and wide. People are courteous and considerate so it's easy to pull out of side roads and everyone indicates in plenty of time. The slowest vehicles aren't at the head of a long queue of traffic and there aren't any fools (in baseball caps) weaving in and out of traffic and cutting in right front of people.

And the weather's lovely.