AIBU to want to drive at the correct speed

[Freudianslap]

All bloody morning I've had people driving an inch behind me, some shaking their heads, some then overtaking and looking glaringly into my car - all because I am daring to drive bang on the speed limit.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these people who do 20 in a 30mph zone but having already got points for speeding I am not prepared to speed up just so other people are less annoyed.

I am usually quite stubborn about things like this so am not usually bothered but today it has really irritated me.
Plus these people tend to be the same ones who drive in full daylight with their bloody full headlights on.

Oh I don't know, maybe I need to go an have a lie down.

Or indeed speed difference.

Which is why someone doing 50 on a dual carriageway can be as much of a hazard as someone doing 90.

Exactly Horry. But it is inattention and and poor driving that is the biggest issue. Eating, I using the phone, putting on make up. These are all far more dangerous than speeding but AK those that can't think for themselves and they will just go on about speed rather than driver education in general

Since getting points on my license, I stick rigidly to the speed limit. I am often tailgated and flashed as people feel the speed I am doing is too low - however, I am the one paying the increased premium on my license so I will continue. As an aside, since I have stopped hurtling from place to place, I feel much more relaxed and find it only adds a few mins to my journey time.

Emily which roads on the UK where you feel it would be appropriate to drive at 150mph. I sure as shit can't think of any.

No sorry, speed does kill. Hitting a child at 20 and at 40 will have tragically different outcomes and it's the speed that's the issue. Yes driving at 40 when you should be doing 30 is shit driving but it's the effects of the speed not the poor impulse control that will extinguish life.

Yet most deresticted sections of autobahn are only 2 lane giving much less space to react. Also note that the police exceed those sorts of speeds on british motorways daily without incident. It is arguable that there are stretches of british motorways where on a clear, sunny Sunday morning with no traffic that 130mph is perfectly safe. I don't have a 5 series it was just easily to hand info. And for the record I tend to stick below 90 on british motorways as driving fast on a motorway is pretty boring until really high speeds which is why I keep that kind of behaviour for the continent. I think you might have actually exploded if you'd been in the car during some of my training sessions on fast A roads.

Still talking about speed differential - sorry to split hairs.

Head-on both doing 60 is 120. 60 into a brick wall or pedestrian is 60. 60 into the back of someone doing 30 is 30.

No northernlurker. Read what I have said. Inappropriate speed. Speed itself is not the issue if it is in the right place.

Yet most deresticted sections of autobahn are only 2 lane giving much less space to react. Also note that the police exceed those sorts of speeds on british motorways daily without incident. It is arguable that there are stretches of british motorways where on a clear, sunny Sunday morning with no traffic that 130mph is perfectly safe. I don't have a 5 series it was just easily to hand info. And for the record I tend to stick below 90 on british motorways as driving fast on a motorway is pretty boring until really high speeds which is why I keep that kind of behaviour for the continent. I think you might have actually exploded if you'd been in the car during some of my training sessions on fast A roads. I'l tell you what poppet why don't you run along and get some high speed training and experience and then come back once you know what the fuck you're talking about - perhaps you could ask a man for help.

Akak. I agree with everything you say in the last post but you fucked it up with that last comment. What the fuck has the sex of the instructor got to do with anything.

Sorry that was aimed squarely at composhat after being called a fucking idiot.

Horry you're wrong I'm afraid 60 into a brick wall or huge block of concrete is exactly the same as two identical cars each travelling at 60 hitting head on.

Composhat. There are several roads near me ( rural Home Counties) where 150 would pose no risk to anyone ( except maybe myself).

No junctions or farm tracks for a couple of miles, straight road, excellent road surface. If visibility is good and the road is dry you can see far enough ahead to brake or at least throttle off if someone is coming the other way.

If there is no traffic ahead then you could quite easily hit 150 or more and not be a danger. You would, of course, slow down as soon as you saw another vehicle.

I think you might have actually exploded if you'd been in the car during some of my training sessions on fast A roads. I'l tell you what poppet why don't you run along and get some high speed training and experience and then come back once you know what the fuck you're talking about - perhaps you could ask a man for help.

I am a man but thanks for the poppet, sweet cheeks. speed based willy waving, gospel according to Jeremy Clarkson bullshit, isn't a prerequisite for being male.

Although it pains me to admit it, you are right about the head on collision, driving a car at 60mph into another car travelling at 60 would be exactly the same as hitting a steel wall at 60mph. [see Newton's third law]
.

Anyway if you want me to explain why driving at that sort of speed is such an idiotic thing to do. I will happily play along. Omagine you're driving at 150 and the motorway looks clear ahead. A car appears on the horizon in the middle lane. At that speed you'll be covering 67 metres every second.

Travelling at that speed, you'll be very lucky to have seen you at all, if they have you'll be a tiny speck on the horizon and quite reasonably they will not be expecting anyone driving at such lunatic speed, they pull into the third lane and hey presto horrific high speed collision. You wouldn't have a hope in hell of reacting to the emergency situation at any of the speeds you have been talking about

Here's another interesting fact for you; as speed doubles, stopping distance quadruples. So working on the basis that your car can stop a third faster than the official highway code figures, is lightweight and has good brakes,tyres and dampers it would be about 259 metres before it comes to a standstill

259 metres: Just think about that for a second.

I've not even accounted for a high speed blow out, mechanical failure or the possibility of hitting debris on the road.

Of course, the laws of physics don't apply to you as you've been on a special high speed driving course. Tell me, which reputable organisation ran it and encouraged you to smash the speed limit on a public road?

Anyway I don't think anything anyone has said will stop you driving like a tool, but if you do persist in your one-man audition for the Darwin awards, be my guest, but my only wish is that your lunacy doesn't cost anyone else their lives.

If there is no traffic ahead then you could quite easily hit 150 or more and not be a danger. You would, of course, slow down as soon as you saw another vehicle.

As I said above at that speed you'd be covering about 67 metres a second. Anything closer than 200metres and you wouldn't even have a chance to touch the brakes, let alone stop before you ploughed into them.

composhat I'm not saying that 150mph is an appropriate speed.
I was having the piss taken out of me for saying it was too fast.

What did I miss? Force is mass times acceleration: the greater the deceleration required, the greater the force involved.

Unless the road has been closed for your own use it is not possible to deem it safe enough to drive at excessive speed.
The disproportionately high cycling fatalities on country roads is testament to that.

ilovemyself ^"get it in your head"^ ? Fucking hell. How rude are you.
Do you speak to ppl like that in real life?

composhat just read your post of 01.19:35 (ok it's a bit blurry at this rime of the morning) and I totally agree with you.

Emily I would speak to someone if they kept spouting the same shit without looking at what has been said. You are rude for not even acknowledging what was said or distorting it to suit your view. It's called frustration because you can't see the obvious in front of you

INAPPROPRIATE speed is the problem. Yet you seem to spout the same old rubbish that speed kills. The reason we have speed limits is because people can't think for themselves.

30 mph may be too fast outside of a school at kicking out time ( as it would at 2 am when the clubs are kicking out). 80 mph may be more than safe on a motorway early in the evening in a rural location.

Composhat I guess I am dead then. I have legally travelled at 150mph on an open section of road when the visibility was good on quite a few occasions. If you can't see far enough ahead then it is fine when visibility is reduced, it is simply time to throttle off to a suitable speed. It's nothing to do with the laws of physics - it is all to do with adjusting your speed to suit the surroundings.

I guess by your logic we should stop the emergency services travelling in excess of the speed limit now.

I find this discussion very interesting. Having passed my test only 2 months ago, I am still learning and observe the speed limit religiously.
The poster that mentioned the few mph difference between actual speed and the speed registered by the car, allowing for variations for different makes etc.. this shouldn't make much difference as everyone is registering faster speeds than doing, right? (possibly confused by this point)
Also, 'killed to death'(?) as opposed to that other condition 'killed to maimed' or 'killed to injured'

ilovemyself
Oh, I get that it's frustration.
But although i haven't read every post thoroughly this morning(busy here at casathorne) I am not ignoring your posts.
I maintain that on a public road a driver has to expect to encounter other people. Whether they're in cars, on foot or on bikes. You can't assume that no one will be around the corner you're so familiar with.
And of course it's "inappropriate speed" that's the problem. I cannot find a post here that suggests driving at 20mph in a NSL zone.
Inappropriate speed is known as "speeding"
150mph on uk motorways is speeding.
Emergency services undergo specific training for their driving as well as for the "emergency service" they provide for public benefit.
Wanting to drive fast or being late for a family lunch is not the same as attending a burning buliding to put the fire out.

Sorry composhat but if your reasoning were true then every motorway cop in the country would die every day. OK the risks do increase the faster youvtravel there is no doubt but that doesn't make it inherently dangerous. Based on your logic we should reduce mway speeds to 30mph. I'm aware of the physics involved in stopping distances BTW. Oh and who trained me to drive? That would be a veteran traffic cop with grade 1 police driving certificates for both cars and bikes (only grade 2 is required to be a traffic cop)

emily to you for my frustrated outbursts. You probably got the brunt of my frustration at everyone.

Inappropriate speed does not need to be driving too fast. It can be driving too slow. And driving above the speed limit does not have to be inappropriate for the conditions.

I have always said that you should drive accordingly for the view you have of the road ahead and the prevailing weather/road surface. Again, that means that on a straight section of road with no junctions and good visibility a speed higher than the speed limit may be safe, and therefore deemed appropriate.

So emily by your logic anything under the limit is appropriate which is just complete bollocks. I suspect you're one of these people who says 'I stick to the limit so I'm a good, safe driver' when in fact you have zero situational awareness, crap positioning and are watching what's going on just in front of your car rather than what's happening as far as you can see down the road. Day in day out I see the car in front react to a developing hazard further down the road 2 seconds after I'm already braking and I think 'where the hell were you looking'the answer unfortunately is about 10ft in front of their bonnet.

Well I had already agreed with another poster about the problems driving too slowly at certain times.

But it is erroneous to suggest that speeding itself does not cause collisions, injuries and fatalities.
It does.
It is not the only factor but speeding does kill.