AIBU to think th speed limit is not a target.

[EmmaLL25]

Driving home, busy cobbled street, bus coming towards me I need to slow down for to let pass, lots of pedestrians and children about, traffic lights at end of road.

It's a 30mph zone, I'm doing about 15mph due to all of above and some old guy behind me starts beeping and flapping his arms.

Within 30 secs he has to wait in the same set of lights as me. He then drives sbout 100 yards more and stops to park.

I'm really wondering if the minute he thought he'd gain by harassing me was worth it.

I'm a cautious driver I know but I do think he was being a prick.

Just needed a moan.

Conversely, I was stuck behind someone who joined a NSL dual carriageway (70mph limit) at 30mph yesterday. People regularly poodle down another local NSL road (60mph limit and straight) at 35-40mph, then get upset if you overtake them.

Life's too short to be stuck behind bad drivers.

Well 30mph isn't safe on a 70mph road.

I think 15mph on a busy inner city road with multiple hazards is.

No it's not a target but 15mph is very slow. Did you really need to pull in for the bus, or was that you just being overly cautious? It is really frustrating driving behind people who are going excessively slowly. Without being there I don't know whether you or he was unreasonable.

Exactly, it cut's both ways.

For every dick behind beeping and flashing, there are just as many times stuck behind someone who, TBH, is probably too timid to be in charge of a vehicle & has no confidence or concept of what size gap they can fit through.....

Did you need to pull in for the bus? I do get frustrated when people don't know the width of their car and hold up traffic as they are too nervous to proceed

YANBU and YABU - it depends if your slow speed is impeding the 'normal' flow of traffic.

YANBU if everyone is 15mph in a 30mph then it's not an issue, as the traffic will flow, even if it is slowly.

YABU if you have just arbitrarily decided that you are going at the 'correct' slower speed (15 in a 30) than everyone else, and are causing the traffic flow to go slower than it needs to.

He was being a prick.....he probably thought you were too

I hate slow drivers.
If there are obvious hazards as you describe above then fair enough, it is the ones that do 25 on a 40 road for absolutely no reason that wind me up.

I had to hang back for the bus because yoy can't fit it and car in the space with cars parked on both sides.

This is not just me, everyone waits for the bus due to lack of room.

It just annoys me because of where the guy was travelling he really wasn't being held up because we were heading into traffic light queue anyway!

I'm not a confident driver but I'm trying to be more so. I took extra lessons to boost my confidence and instructor told me I was a good driver. Then things like this undermine it.

I really hate aggressive drivers.

When this road is clear I would not go that slow and on other 30mph roads Id driven on this morning I did do 30mph because it was safe to do so. I don't just drive slowly all the time for the sake of it!

Plenty of idiot drivers around here do 40 regardless of where they are. 20mph school zone? 40. 30mph village? 40. 60/70mph carriageway? 40. Makes me wish I had a gun.

Be aware that your car speedo can be up to 10% out. So you think you're doing 30 but may actually be doing 27.

Hesitant, over-cautious drivers are just as frustrating and irritating as lairy, aggressive drivers, so you were both probably being a bit U.

Generally speaking there are a lot of people on the road who will drive in a way that rubs you up the wrong way. At the end of the day you are only responsible for your own behaviour and you have to use your own judgement and not feel pressured by other drivers in doing something you aren't comfortable with.

One of my A-level mathematics teachers used to work on traffic modelling, and it's often the case that the flow of traffic is improved if it is smoother, and drivers aren't racing around trying to set a new PB.

No the speed limit is a limit and not a target but it usually gives you an idea of what sorts of speeds to be driving, conditions permitting of course.

I was stuck behind someone doing an unnecessarily cautious 26 mph the other day on a road with a 40 limit. Perfectly ok to be driving at 35-40 at that moment in time, yet quite unsafe to be doing 26.

There's a big difference between dawdling and being dangerously unconfident and slowing down for the conditions.

One of my A-level mathematics teachers used to work on traffic modelling, and it's often the case that the flow of traffic is improved if it is smoother, and drivers aren't racing around trying to set a new PB.

Which is the reasoning behind the variable speed limits on certain motorways. In theory it's brilliant. In practice, it causes gridlock.

Is it the end of the world if someone is doing 27mph in a 30mph zone?

I think its a shame that we're all hashing about so much that we could get wound up over it.

They're trying to lower the limit on a lot of roads round my way to 20mph anyway. That will really get some folk wound up, ha ha

It's absolutely impossible for any of us in this forum, who weren't there, to say whether you we're being over cautious or he was being too aggressive.

Disappointed
Life's too short to be stuck behind bad drivers.

Be aware that your car speedo can be up to 10% out. So you think you're doing 30 but may actually be doing 27.

That's true, but I think there's something wrong with a person if they are going to get upset over the car ahead going 3mph slower than they would like. There's something about being in a car that can make people a bit mad. People need to look at themselves and calm down.

I'm not just talking about other people - I've noticed it in myself. There have been too many times when I've hankered after James Bond style rockets built into the family car. It's not a nice feeling.

I was followed by a guy yesterday who did 40 everywhere. He would drop back on the perfectly clear NSL road and annoy people behind him, then through the 30 and 20 zones near schools and houses, he was right up behind me, gesticulating and swearing at me to hurry up. I just ignored him but it does make me rage.

The route I take dd to school goes from a 20 zone, to 30, through a 40 and finally onto a NSL road. Without fail, every single day somebody overtakes me in the 30 and 40 zone. They cannot wait. A few weeks ago a 2yo girl was seriously injured on this road (on her way to school with her older siblings and Dad) and everybody locally has said it's because wankers speed down there. It is. There's a blind corner with a school just on the other side of it and I've seen so many near misses. It's fucking awful.

Cautious drivers are a danger too but I always remind myself that I can't see what they can see and I don't know the full situation as it pertains to them.

27mph, no but there is a huge difference between 27 in a 30 and 15 in a 30. Your perception of risk as a self confessed cautious, nervous driver is unlikely to be the same as that of a person with more experience and more confidence behind the wheel. That said, it isn't an excuse to drive like a cock (at either end of the spectrum).

Best of luck with your confidence building, emma

It is! Whether they're driving recklessly (and likely to cause an accident) or too slowly for the conditions and winding everyone else up!

Is it the end of the world if someone is doing 27mph in a 30mph zone?

Of course it isn't. But the difference gets bigger at higher speeds. So someone thinks they're doing 70 but is actually doing closer to 60mph. I tend to drive (at night, mostly, on empty motorways) at an indicated 85mph. It's really around 78mph.

YANBU - you should drive according to the conditions, which it sounds like you were. I drive through a busy town with narrow streets every day - the speed limit is nominally thirty but with bicycles everywhere, pedestrian crossings (including zebra crossings) every 50 metres or so, if you tried to speed up to 30mph between every hazard then you'd be driving dangerously and pretty inefficiently (and probably wouldn't get to your destination much quicker!) Quite different from other 30mph zones in the region, through very quiet villages with wide roads - not all speed limits of the same 'value' are created equal!

DH tells me all the time that I'm an "aggressive driver"...I don't think I'm aggressive...I just don't like to fuck about behind people that take the piss with speed limits!! What annoys me the most is where I live, there are lots of 30mph zones that are all interlinked by a 60mph road, and I always seem to get stuck behind the absolute tit who insists on continuing to do 60 until they are almost parallel with the 30 sign...and then anchor on their brakes and drop to an abrupt 30mph rather than slow down gradually!! And then again when coming to the end of the 30 zone, they don't gradually speed back up to 60...they wait until they are parallel with the National Speed Limit sign to start speeding up!! So I am the culprit of some rather aggressive over-taking and finger-sticking-up