to have been infuriated by this driver?

[Gentleness]

Part of the route we were taking tonight was closed for roadworks and there was a long diversion. In the end it added 30 miles to the journey on winding single carriageway roads, almost all clearly marked as national speed limit. We soon ended up 3 cars behind a little car being driven at a steady 40 despite all the signs. 1 car managed to overtake quite early on on a rare straight stretch but it was rainy, dark, hilly and winding so much that there just weren't other opportunities. 20 miles we were stuck behind this fool who either didn't notice the long stretch of diverted cars stuck behind her, didn't notice the many places she could have pulled in, didn't know what the national speed limit sign meant or was too anxious to take it all in and respond appropriately to the situation. Or just didn't care. Who knows?

Eventually I managed to overtake ( which is how I know she was female) but I was so cross at her incompetence that I honked the horn at her as I did. Ok, I know that bit was unreasonable, but dh thinks it was unreasonable to be cross with her at all. I don't - pointless maybe, but justified given that however nervous, she could have pulled over rather than hold everyone up for so long. So, your opinions please - worthwhile anger or not, do you think her driving was enough to anger?

TheLazyGirlBlog - "driving under the speed limit now will get you an instant fail on a driving test"

Surely that's only the case where the road and prevailing conditions mean it's safe to drive at the posted speed limit? i.e. if you're in a 30mph zone, with lots of junctions around, cars & vans parked on either side of the road, buses in lay-bys, pedestrians all over the place and so on, it might well be appropriate to drive at 27mph or less.

(Not disputing that you can fail for driving too slowly, mind - I failed my first driving test for 'hesitation' because I was in an unfamiliar part of town, and didn't notice the speed limit changing from 30mph to 40mph. But in that case, it would have been safe for me to be driving at 40mph.)

You'll always tend to get small lines of traffic in the dark because it's harder for the driver at the front to see the road - that's why you get the phenomenon of the full-beam-dickhead-Audi-driver right up your arse following your tail-lights.

But if it's a really big queue, chances are it's because you're driving at a speed that would see you fail your driving test for accumulating three minors under 'Progress - appropriate speed'. In which case, you'd be best served to pull over and let someone who knows the road light the way for timid people like you.

LonelyCloud tiggytape nope, nothing like that, he was a tad under and failed. He was very, very .

What makes it worse, he retested and passed, even though he'd been slightly over the speed limit on the same road. And a mate who did a test at the same place in the same month had an examiner who simply pointed out when he needed to up his speed a bit.

Do people think it's always unsafe to do more than 60mph when the speed limit is 60mph?

Of course not - but equally it is not always safe to drive at the speed limit, whatever that may be.

I actually failed my driving test for doing just under 40mph in a national speed limit zone. It was a duel carriage way and the bit I'd been on HAD been 40mph, but I hadn't seen the sign and thought it best to err on the side of caution. Got a fair bollocking for that actually

My point is that speed limits are often arbitrary.

Case in point: a road I regularly use changes from a single carriageway to a dual carriageway for a few miles and then back to a single carriageway.

Until very recently the dual carriageway was a deristricted road, so 70mph limit. Now, it's been changed to a 40mph limit. Nothing else has changed; there are no new developments, there are still no pavements on this road (and no pedestrians) and it's definitely not a built up area.

So where a few months ago it was perfectly legal to travel at 70mph on that piece of road, now you would be banned if caught doing that speed.

I'm not arguing that the limit should still be 70mph or indeed that it shouldn't have been 40mph all along. The point is that someone has decided now that 70mph would be an appallingly high speed for that piece of tarmac and doing that speed would have you hauled through the courts, whereas it was absolutely fine not so long ago. Hence I have very little respect for speed limits, per se.

That's not to say I don't obey limits, though. Indeed I quite often travel at less than 30mph in a 30 limit if there are children and/or other pedestrians around. I also think there should be far more 20mph limits in villages and towns so that the authorities can enforce a safe speed for those who can't judge it themselves.

Personal judgement and awareness of what's happening around you are much more important in being safe than posted limits but for some people limits are the only way to protect others.

In general, if you're doing 20mph below the posted limit with a queue of other vehicles trying to pass you, chances are you're unaware of what's happening and displaying poor judgement.

Re the driving at constant speed.

I am a slow cautious driver. If I am driving a windy road I don't know and a queue builds up behind me I would feel intimidated and drive too fast around the corners, I also would not speed up on the straight bits, because that stops people overtaking.

Just because the max speed was national limit does not mean the poor thing had to do that speed and anyway it should be judged on weather conditions.
Sounding your horn at her is totally not on you could tell she was abit unsure of the darkness or weather thats why she was taking it slow.
Road rage causes 65% of crashes you know lets hope you never cause one which you could of done tonight :( How horrid!

Road rage causes 65% of crashes you know...

Yuu've made that up.

Really? Check a copy of 2012 highway code then :)

Its under the figures for last year.

Yanbu. There was a line of traffic so she should have slowed down to let you pass. i used to stay in very rural place and twunts like this, usually in tourist season would do my nut in.

Rainy, dark, hilly, windy? 40 mph sounds quite appropriate to me.

Incidently,travelling 20 miles at 40 mph would take 30 mins. The same distance at 60 mph would take 20 mins. So you got all hot, bothered and aggresive over a 10 minute difference.

This. In addition, it would be unlikely you would average 60mph over that distance, so unless you would have exceeded the limit, it would have been less than 10 minutes difference.

Don't get me wrong, I hate being stuck behind these drivers, but given these conditions and the possibility they don't know the road, 40 would be acceptable.

My dad only drives over 40 on the motorway. And so would I.

Are you one of the people suckered into the "Speed Kills" mentality? Speed does not kill; speed differential kills - 40mph on a 70mph road is dangerous, and anyone incapable or unwilling to drive at an appropriate limit for the road and conditions should not have a licence (you can fail a driving test for driving too slowly).

Until very recently the dual carriageway was a deristricted road, so 70mph limit. Now, it's been changed to a 40mph limit. Nothing else has changed; there are no new developments, there are still no pavements on this road (and no pedestrians) and it's definitely not a built up area.

Roads degrade; it's cheaper for councils to re-sign the road than to perform proper repairs, so we get left with unsafe road surfaces and lowered speed limits.

The road was in a worse state when it was a 70mph, Mittens.

Without wishing to drip-feeding or add something spurious just to reinforce my point, the road was resurfaced about 2 years before the lower limit was introduced. I honestly don't think it's anything to do with the surface.

YAB MASSIVELY U

WanderingWhistle its exactly what happened. Perhaps you were lucky and had a reasonable examiner. Sadly, that would account for the nature of certain idiot drivers on the road.

He was told it "angers drivers on the road" as the reason he failed. He made no other errors. I wanted to complain but DP was so angry (and upset) that he wouldn't let me. Using that as an excuse is disgusting, frankly if someone going a slight bit under a speed limit, who is less likely to hurt someone, makes you angry, you shouldn't be on the road as you clearly have issues.

The next examiner he had was much nicer, more reasonable and realised my partner was a safe enough driver to pass him, not like the twat above that used such a crap excuse for failing him.

Gentleness

From your post at Mon 01-Oct-12 19:21:48 it does now sound as if YWNBU at all (apart from your irritated toot at the other driver).

What a wonderful thread!

Yes, a Zombie Thread.

Yes but better work out the frustration on MN than on the road

YANBU people who drive like that are total twats and often the cause of more accidents. Someone should've run the bitch off the road!