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.

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

The variable speedlimits don't cause gridlock, but they can't magic it away if there are simply too many cars. What they can do is even the gridlock out a bit which then stops compression waves radiating out from the pinch point.

There are times when you are on a motorway and the traffic suddenly snarls up, and then just as suddenly clears up again, with no sign of any cause. Sometimes that is a compression wave travelling down the motorway from the snarl up fifty miles away.

I do find variable speed limits on the motorways really annoying, though.

emzii you are not supposed to start to speed up until you meet the NSL signs. If you gradually speed up on the way up to them, you're the one in the wrong. I get people do the same to me all the time. They don't seem to understand that while still in the 30 zone, they have to do 30. You are not only breaking the rules, you don't understand them and your aggressive behaviour towards the drivers following the law is quite dangerous.

emzii

Obviously you should start slowing down in advance of the 30mph sign (so you brake smoothly and are going at 30mph when you enter the 30mph zone), but surely you shouldn't start speeding up (slowly) until you're actually out of the 30mph zone?

What is it with these people who drive at 42mph everywhere regardless of the speed limit? You can be fined and receive points on your licence for driving too slowly. The gov are proposing to introducce slow speed cameras.

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!!

They're right, you're not.

x-posted!

*The variable speedlimits don't cause gridlock, but they can't magic it away if there are simply too many cars. What they can do is even the gridlock out a bit which then stops compression waves radiating out from the pinch point.

There are times when you are on a motorway and the traffic suddenly snarls up, and then just as suddenly clears up again, with no sign of any cause. Sometimes that is a compression wave travelling down the motorway from the snarl up fifty miles away.*

It's usually caused by more lane changes than the traffic flow can handle, so often occurs around junctions.

Plus, if the person in front of you is abruptly slowing to 30 and it affects you then surely you're not gradually slowing down either? Their way of driving isn't illegal though it isn't great for fuel consumption or the environment. Doesn't stop you slowing gradually. You don't have to drive up the back of people.

I may be in the wrong technically, but that doesn't make it any less annoying!! IMO, overly cautious/nervous drivers are more dangerous than reckless boy-racers! There is no way everyone commenting sticks to the exact speed limit the very second they enter that zone (be it a 30 or a NSL)...and if you say you do, then you are lying. My cousin is a police officer, and he tells me that if you are within 10% of the speed limit, you will not be pulled over...unless the copper in question is a jobsworth. I don't drive dangerously, or excessively speed - but I don't lose sleep over doing 35 in a 30 zone if there's no obvious hazards!

I may be in the wrong technically, but that doesn't make it any less annoying!!

Makes no sense.

There is no way everyone commenting sticks to the exact speed limit the very second they enter that zone (be it a 30 or a NSL)...and if you say you do, then you are lying.

WTF?

But - the drivers driving as you describe are not being overly cautious or nervous drivers - they are just driving legally. I'm not going to apologise for the fact that I do do my very best to be at 30mph at all times (both entering and leaving) in a 30mph speed limit - with a relatively new license I can't afford the points (two strikes and you're out, and in Scotland there's no speed-awareness course to avoid the points), and even if that wasn't the case I'd see no point in going faster. Most 30mph zones are relatively short - how much time is speeding through it realistically going to save?

Drivers slowing down suddenly in the way you describe wouldn't in any way affect you if you were a reasonable distance behind them....

I hate nervous drivers! Especially the ones who wait until a clear stretch 3 miles long to overtake a tractor or whatever... But then take the whole passing opportunity to slowly creep past not letting anyone else get past!
I just know I'd hate them as people too, all wishy washy and limp.

As arethereanyleftatall says, it's impossible for us to know.

Sometimes it's wrong to do the limit because of conditions. My street is 30mph. Because it's heavily parked up it's unwise to do the limit, but people do. Because of them it's even more unwise for a pedestrian to step out before cautiously peering round a parked van.

But as a pedestrian I also get pissed off by people who trundle up to red traffic lights hoping they'll change. They're invariably going just fast enough for you to have to wait and just slow enough for you to get stranded like a lemon as the lights change and the rest of the traffic flows past you.

They're also usually focused on the lights, not on people wanting to cross or drivers wanting to emerge from side roads so it would be suicide to step in front of them.

I'd say that's about 15mph.

Yanbu. The speed limit is a number that had been allocated to a road. One should always drive to the conditions. It sounds like you were doing just that.

I always stick to the limits in town, or drive slower when necessary as experience has confirmed that the majority of the time, the stated maximum is a very reasonable gauge of the road.

Outside of town and in clear, good visibility roads, I again drive to the conditions. Make of that what you will.

I will add there are times when exceeding the speed limit too in the interests of safety are justified. Consider the idiots who suddenly speed up when you try to overtake them.

Less speed in residential areas means you decrease your chance of killing if you hit someone, this is not to be ignored - still failing to match the flow of the traffic can cause accidents and deaths in the wrong circumstances, so YANBU to think it's fine to do it occasionally, but if you are generally, or for extended periods of time driving at half the speed limit for the stretch of road, you could cause accidents and YABU.

It's a great way to do an impression of a drink driver, and not just that but I have known the police to pull a motorist over and take action for someone driving very slowly, by the way, so it can be viewed as unsafe by the police if it causes problems.

Apeman I know a few of people who've been pulled over for driving too slowly where the police have correctly guessed they are over the limit.

I see it sometimes, mostly late at night or in the mornings, and often wonder.

I failed my first driving test for being too cautious at a junction and proceeding too slowly. The examiner was right. I wasn't ready. A month later I was because I'd taken the advice on board.

My friend failed three times for speeding.

emzii that may come back and bite you on the arse...

Near me is an A road that becomes a motorway with a variable speed limit. It goes from 30 to 40 to 60. There is a speed camera at the end of the 30 section just before it becomes 40, literally metres away

I stupidly misjudged my speed and got flashed, my first ever speeding penalty for doing 37 in a 30 at the bottom of a motorway. But I had accelerated prematurely and was over the limit; a fair cop. Though it did leave a sour taste...

Sidge-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 is nothing unsafe in doing 26 in a 40. It may be frustrating but not unsafe The only thing that is unsafe is how the other idiots deal with it, possibly overtaking when it isn't safe to do so. But that's their fault for being impatient morons, not the person doing 26.

They're trying to make almost the entire city centre here in to a 20. At the moment there are plenty of streets which are technically 30s but where you absolutely have to do less at busy times with cars parked. I live on a cobbled streets where people park making the road narrow and I don't think I've ever done 30 on it.

DisappointedOne - "I tend to drive (at night, mostly, on empty motorways) at an indicated 85mph. It's really around 78mph."

I don't agree. You said it yourself - "speedo can be up to 10% out" - so that could equally mean that your 85mph is up to 92 mph.

Also, don't forget a 14" tyre instead of the recommended 13" would make the accuracy of the speedo wrong... just in case anyone has a teen/twenties car enthusiast who has changed their car tyres on their "pride and joy"...

YANBU at the end of the day, it's your licence and your responsibility. You should drive at a appropriate speed. There are some roads round here that are national speed limit. If you did top speed down those roads, you would crash, no doubt about it.

One of my pet peeves is when you're sitting waiting to come out if a junction and someone beeps. IF IT WAS SAFE I'D GO!!! I hate waiting in traffic as much as anyone else!

NetworkGuy I believe it's only allowed to read over, not under.

TTWK It can be unsafe to do do 26mph in a 40mph limit and traffic police officers have judged it so, if in their opinion the slowcoach is driving without due care and attention.

It's their job to police traffic speeds and driving standards; not yours.

Presumably one of the things they're considering is the poor sod driving innocently in the opposite direction when the impatient moron you've enraged so much by your driving pulls out and crashes into them.

If your vehicle is capable of the speed limit - I guess it's not a tractor or a bicycle - and the conditions allow, then you should be doing it or very close to it. If you are not confident enough to do that, you have my sympathy but you should not be driving.

Police: just trying to keep the streets safe for decent people

I failed one of my tests for speeding up to a 40 before passing the sign

15mph in a 30 is very slow. That said, I hate it when I am slower than other drivers on country roads. Some of the roads I used to drive down were NSL but I didn't think it was safe at all with the sharp turns and not being able to see if big trucks were coming the other way on the narrow roads. I had many people stuck up my arse when I was doing 50 mph. I always pull in asap to let people pass though, but ffs get out of my arse. My safety comes before your need to get somewhere a few minutes earlier. If I felt it was safe enough to do 60 I would.

I am a pretty cautious driver as well as I am pretty new at it. I am not a slow driver at all but sometimes I still misjudge gaps and hold back when I probably could get through.

I don't agree. You said it yourself - "speedo can be up to 10% out" - so that could equally mean that your 85mph is up to 92 mph.

By law speedos are calibrated so they are always over, and never under. So speedo showing 85 would be up to 10% over your real speed, 78, but never show under your real speed.