To think you can't just trundle along at any old speed you fancy...

[TallulahTwinkletoes]

I fully expect to get flamed for this because I know I'm a tad over the top about this but it's my pet hate so here goes.

If say be gentle but I know this is the wrong place for that

I drive a lot. Every day I drive on a road that's technically a country road as there are fields either side but it's more than wide enough and not too windy. This road is followed by two straight roads. These are all national speed limit roads.

This is comfortably attainable with a few corners on the country road where 50 is a better speed. Obviously various weathers call for different speeds. I was behind a double decker bus doing 50 down there today.

The last few days I have been stuck behind people doing 35-40. Today the lady flashed at me when I finally get chance to overtake.

They way I see it is if you are driving so slow on the roads either
A) you are unaware of the speed limit/unable to follow basic road signs and therefore shouldn't be driving
B) do not feel comfortable driving at an appropriate limit for the road and therefore shouldn't be driving.

I know it's a limit not a target but you fail your driving test if you 'fail to progress' so they shouldn't be driving like this.

It's the principle that they don't care about anyone's time frame or how they affect other people. They just trundle along deciding what speed they want to go at and not giving a fuck.

We all have bad days where we mess up roundabouts and misjudge but Jesus Christ, if you can't drive at 60 in a straight line...

When I rule the world properly, there will only be the Trabant available to private drivers, after a very rigorous needs test. Which will largely be failed. You can have it in either red or blue.

I think that's more than fair?

Ooh I know what one of those is Pan.

My kind of driver.

I think I saw a dead one in one of the museums.

The speed limit is the maximum speed that is allowed on that stretch of road. It is not a target and maybe not even be suitable for parts of the road.

Oh god pan. You can go to Germany and pay to drive one of them. Trabby world

Moniker, no you misunderstand. They should be so competent behind the wheel that they should feel safe at that speed

Sigh, all these super capable intolerant drivers who are never going to age or take longer to make decisions or use their cars less as they get older or have poorer eyesight or less confidence - they are going to be the bestest drivers always until they feel the first twinge of old age then they will, naturally, hang up their seat belts and move to public transport, like they want everyone else to, yeah, yeah, that'll be right.

Oh dear, all the frustrated muttering and swearing under your breath drivers who feel "stuck" behind a vehicle not aiming for the fastest they can get to on any road are going to give yourselves a heart attack. Stay calm.
Speed limits are the fastest you are supposed to go, not the minimum speed.
If you get stuck behind me cause I'm not familiar with your winding country road, you will be out of luck I'm not going to speed up, if you want me to pull over, get off my bumper and give me room to find the spot to turn off into. If I don't know the road how in hell will I know where the pull over spots are?
My Dh usually says, well they should have left 5 minutes earlier then they would have been in front of me.

I know.

It's a wonder I lost my job as RAC Pub Relations Technical Director.

the A303 next to Stonehenge is a national speed limit zone. I have almost never driven along there faster than 30 during the hours of daylight as everyone is slowing down to look at the view. Should i get annoyed just because I am fortunate enough to have seen it a zillion times?

there are some country roads that are national and the locals zoom along there because they know every turn and corner. Well, I don't. If that means that I am going to be driving at 40 to ensure that I don't approach a hazardous corner at the wrong speed, so be it.

That's fine - but hopefully you will be aware of any tailbacks behind you and pull in to let the cars who want to drive to the limit (where the conditions allow) past.

Very interesting. Just to throw into the mix, I've recently been driving a car which tells me if I'm closer than the safe stopping distance and which also has cruise control. On the motorway, if I set the stopping distance for two seconds and the cruise control for 70, I am constantly undertaken unless I nip in and out of the slow lane between lorries. And sometimes I have to wait for a little while in the middle lane for a suitable gap in order to get back In to the slow lane.

Basically, my safe speed and stopping distance seem to be most other peoples too slow and leaving too big a gap. But I'm following the letter of the Highway Code.

Well, you're not really. You're Meant to nip back in Inbetween the lorries.

I think the '2 chevrons apart' on the motorway is only meant for me. no other bugger ever does it.

Tallulah I know. And that's what I do, as soon as there's an appropriate gap. What it has really shown me is that maintaining the speed and stopping distance as per the Highway Code makes me an anomaly on the road.

I agree with that. I find it really hard to maintain 70 on the motorway. My parents live 100 miles away up the m1 and I haven't been to them for a while but DPs family and friends are up the m1, then m6. The m1 junction 15 or 15a to 19 is all 50 and average speed cameras. I find it so annoying to go on there that I go the scenic route nowadays.

I very rarely find myself stuck behind people who are driving well under the speed limit. I regularly find myself doing 30 in a 30 zone with someone right up my arse desperate to speed through a built-up area.

For me, my biggest gripe is not signalling on roundabouts. There are epidemic levels of this round our way.

I have the utmost respect for cyclists, having cycled in London for years and experienced the number of psychos masquerading as drivers there. If I have to crawl up a hill at 20 while someone pumps away at the pedals, so be it. I know they'll probably be wishing there was a chance for me to overtake too, they're not enjoying leading a procession!

I've as much time for bad cyclists as bad drivers: none. If I'm on the bike I don't run red lights, weave around all over the road with one hand on the handlebars because I'm a rude boy, or ride in the dark wearing black without lights. I'm not about to shout at anyone or overtake dangerously if I do see these things when I'm driving, though. They'll still get the same care, just through gritted teeth.

I am absolutely PMSL at this thread. I can only say, never come and drive in Pembrokeshire . . . Six months of the year we have 'ooooh look, it's a bend! ooooh look, it's the sea!' tourists, the other 6 months (well actually all 12 months) we have tractors, and our tractors certainly wouldn't demean themselves to pull over into a layby to let you past. Not to mention the milk lorries . (Oh, and we have the sort of hills that if you don't hit them at a decent speed in a loaded van you end up having to crawl up in 2nd.)

Oh yeah, tractors. We have a fair few of those.

Their natural opposite is the Farmer In A Knackered Muddy Land Rover doing 60 down a bendy single track road with grass growing down the middle of it because he's lived there all his life and there's never been anyone coming the other way yet.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Tractors and the like are really nice around here and pull over when they can. They never seem to be going too far when you're stuck behind them the whole journey either.

YY to them - oh and Sixteen Year Old in Monster Tractor With Silage Truck going at top speed down the same single track windy road totally unable to brake should he need to

Ah yes, bringing back memories of my childhood

Between the two already mentioned and hidden drainage ditches, myxy rabbits in the middle of the road and Pheasants That Hide In The Hedge Until You're Right On Top Of Them And Then Fly Out At Windscreen Height, it's a wonder we survived at all.

folk who fail to pick up speed as they go down a slip road onto motorway and acutally mis time it all and have to break to file into traffic - these fucker scare the ife out of me as they seem to have no judgement of distance and speed

We used to eat pheasant quite a lot.

I think it was illegal to pick them up if it was you that hit them (to stop people deliberately doing it), but that didn't worry my dad. He came home with a whole deer in the boot once.

He never hit anything deliberately, I should say - it's only too easy to accidentally mow down wildlife in rural areas.

Where the duck do you live Adam?