To wonder why this driver beeped his horn at me?

[HangingBasketCase]

Driving home from work I decided to overtake a van in front of me that was going really slowly. It's a 60mph road but the van must have only been doing 40 at the very most, I was almost bumper to bumper with it and I was doing 40! So I waited for a long straight stretch of road that's known locally as the straight mile, indicated and overtook him. It was perfectly safe to do so, nothing was coming in the opposite direction, no double lines in the middle of the road, perfect driving conditions but for some reason the git started beeping his horn at me as I passed him! Then once I'd passed him I could see him shaking his head in my rear mirror!

Now I'm really questioning myself. I use this I road daily, I've been overtaken by other drivers on it myself, no problems. I was always under the impression that overtaking is perfectly legal as long as it safe to do so. Which from where I was sitting it was? What did I do wrong? I felt a bit intimidated if I'm honest, which probably sounds stupid. But there you go.

In driving, just as in the rest of life, you can't control what other people are doing, you can only control your reaction to them. So, as the thread that Humpty mentioned shows, people do find slow drivers very annoying, but you can't force other drivers to drive at the speed you think is appropriate, but you can control your reaction to them - ie. don't get annoyed, don't use their driving as an excuse to drive badly yourself, take a deep breath and relax - and remember, better to get to where you are going a bit later than not to get there at all.

I am applying this philosophy to life as much as possible at the moment - it really winds dh up!

OP I would be furious if you were driving bumper to bumper behind me because I wasn't going fast enough for your liking. In fact I would bring my speed right down and if you still didn't get the message I would flash my hazard lights at you.

the fog light and sharp braking treatment

I don't know why but that really made me laugh.

I usually pull over to let people like you pass OP. Not gonna let someone make me drive any faster than i want to. I suggest you watch some kind of road safety information video or do some work experience in your local hospital's ICU to see the implications of driving in the way you describe

I fucking hate people like you op. Sorry, I'm sure you are a really nice person in real life, but you sound a complete idiot in your post. You are a dangerous driver. Tailgating causes accidents. Forcing someone to drive at a speed they are not comfortable with causes accidents. Not concentrating on your driving in your furious bid to push along the person in front causes accidents. That man could be driving a restricted speed vehicle, carrying something fragile/heavy/dangerous or simply he may have been driving how he felt the conditions called for. You obviously know the road and that there was a safe passing place coming up, you could have hung back and waited instead of behaving like a tit. Learn from it and have a bit more sense in the future.

I bloody hate tailgaters too. They make me want to slow to a speed more in keeping with the stopping distance theyve allowed themselves.
Worse is when they keep full beam on and I have to flick my mirror away.

I wonder if the van even knew you were there if you were up so close, could you see his mirrors?

Amazing.

On the 'gah, stupid slow drivers' AIBU I mentioned, I tried to say what TheWitTank said:
Forcing someone to drive at a speed they are not comfortable with causes accidents

I was patronisingly informed that in fact, slow drivers are worse than aggressive ones who try to force others to speed up.

But on this thread the reverse is true.

At least there are some sensible drivers on MN, I guess.

I've not seen that thread humpty. I know what you're saying. sometimes different threads and posters are contradictory but I don't think anyone's doubting the fact that slow drivers are irritating sometimes. It's the reactions to them I think.

Slow driving in my eyes is less dangerous because there could be one of many reasons the driver has deemed that the speed necessary (not always I know)

Unless you're an ambulance driver, policeman or fire truck driver, I can't really see any reasons for aggressive speedy driving or why it would ever be safer.

Not blanket rules and I didn't read the other thread so may be talking bollocks as no idea how it turned out. But this is the most unanimous verdict I've seen on here in a long while.

It wasn't unanimous.

It might already have been said but - vans are only allowed to travel up to 50 mph on single carriageway roads. That's the law.

Yes, I think most people get or have got frustrated by other drivers going slowly. I know I whinge about it. But I don't drive right up their bumper. There's a difference!

Tailgating wouldn't mean you drive faster. You're limited to the car in front's speed weather 1m or 20m behind them.

I'd have braked hard and laughed as you mangled your car on the back of my pick up.

I wonder where the OP went to...

just realised this happened to me the the other day (so in case the OP ever comes back).

So yes the road is straight, but there was a car coming and it has hidden hills you can't see cars behind.

OP you need to learn how to drive defensively. My driving instructor taught me that.

So give yourself plenty of space especially when people around you are driving like you twats.
For example I was driving home in the dark yesterday - I wasn't going at 30 because it is a built up area with loads of parked cars. The person behind me was tail gating but there's no way I'm speeding up when I can't see very far ahead due to cars/vans. They then overtook me as I turned left and nearly crashed into an oncoming vehicle which they couldn't see.