To be annoyed at driving 91 mph on a 70 mph road.

[Jupitertomars]

On a 70mph road with myself in the back as 7 month of DD was crying so 5 year old is in the front.

I was furious. OH rolls eyes when I shout "wow!! Slow down! Your going 91 mph!!"

Then give him death stare.

He replies "stop looking at me like that. I'm not going to crash."

It makes me so frustrated as he just doesn't take it serious.

I know it's common to go slightly over the speed limit but this was too far for me. It's really annoyed me but I don't want it to ruin our day out.

I don't think anyone who has ever witnessed a tyre blowout on the motorway would argue that speed makes no difference. When your car goes spinning out of control across three lanes of traffic, you better hope that a) you weren't going too fast so you come to rest at the barrier, and don't simply bounce back off and spin back across the motorway, and b) when your car is angled with your DC in the passenger side facing oncoming traffic, no twat is doing 90mph coming towards you.

Witnessing a particularly nasty motorway blowout has affected how I drive more than anything else. Don't assume that being on a motorway means you won't change direction.

Please explain why the Autobahn in Germany, with no speed limit has one of the lowest rates of fatalities in Europe.

Always find it hilarious when people who think they're the best drivers in the world try to justify their speeding tickets.

I've got 35 years, 12,000 plus miles a year, no accidents & no tickets. I now take the view that it's not me who will cause the accident it's the other idiot - therefore I take all necessary measures to compensate for others' idiocy, including driving within the speed limits.

Girlincognito1 the stats on German roads are listed upthread.

I am just wondering why you mentioning the speed would ruin the day?

Akk,
Your posts are too waffly and wordy for most of us to bother reading
HTH

NotYoda thank you - I totally respect your view, and where you say:
This thread, for me, boils down to the OP feeling unsafe in the car. I couldn't agree more... I deliberately split my first response to make that point...

if we take the music analogy, there is an arrogance and something wrong about a musician who plays (even if superbly) something that displeases the audience - in the same way a good driver should be looking to make their audience (passengers) happy - it is a key part of driving, not only is their safety in your hands, but they have no control over what you are doing...

however, I am not defending arrogance or similar - but I am asking that people who instinctively object could perhaps stop and think it through a bit more - while some who drive at 90mph do so badly, others might do so very well - we need to start from a perspective of understanding that it is bad driving to which we should object, not just vilifying an arbitrary number on the speedo!

Equally there are a lot of people on here who are 'holier than thou' in their attitude to speed - I observe the speed limits therefore I am a good driver - no, the two are not intrinsically linked - you may be both, but in reality / statistically there will be issues with the driving of most people - so to have that attitude can be as dangerous as an arrogant belief that one is a good driver...

I do love driving - the more I learn, the more it opens my eyes to how much there is to learn - when I did the IAM c. 20 years ago I thought I had made it and was amazing - going further and doing high level training has simply shown me how near the beginning of the journey I am - in musician terms, while good in a school context with everyone else, you only need exposure to professionals to realise what could be possible but is still a long way off...

So if nothing else I hope that in what I post I don't excuse the idiots / those who are arrogant - but equally I would be happy if some who read this are maybe challenged to review their own driving - to realise that just observing the speed limits is not what driving is about (important, but not everything!), and to ask themselves, actually how could I improve... ultimately it is not about critiquing others and feeling superior, but about removing the ego and asking could I improve - each of us can't really influence everyone else, but each of us could start with ourselves and that alone will improve the safety stats far more than pontificating about how dangerous others are...

nogrip (appropriate name?!)
that is fine - you shouldn't really be on MN while driving anyway when you have a spare moment you can either read the posts or ignore them - doesn't bother me, fortunately I don't really care what you think and if you care you have this amazing power to just toddle off and find another thread - remarkable!

*My car is race prepared. Its stopping distance is about 1/3rd of the Highway Code measurements.

I know my car. I know my reaction speeds. I know when it's safe and when it isn't to drive fast.*

As said by just about every dullard who thinks the speed limit shouldn't apply to them. The point is that speed limits are there because you can't telll what's going to happen 10 seconds down the line. You're race prepared brakes are just as likely to fail as my non race prepared brakes, your race tuned engine can fail as easily as my bog standard lump of an engine. You may have super duper spidey senses that tell you the driver in front is about to swerve in front of you but I bet you don't. Braking distances have decreased since the limits were set but human reaction speeds remain the same. My traffic cop best mate is very tolerant of you wanting to go a bit quicker when it's safe but he'll definitely knock you off for speeding above 85 even on an empty motorway.

Poster above re tyre blowouts.

I wonder what percentage of blowouts are people who know nothing about and have no interest in driving as opposed to people for whom it's an interest and are (for example) IAM trained?

I would guess those with an interest are much more likely to have tyrescorrectly I floated, check for cuts, notice uneven ware, replace old tyres even within tread limits etc.

Oh. And all these people goi g on about "what if" a car pulls out or swerved, or a kid runs into the road etc.

Has it ever occurred to you that if you were going faster you would be out of the way and further down the road before it happened ? 😜

That's not what people are saying though..

I'm a traffic cop. Some posters on this thread should be ashamed of themselves.

Maybe all the people who think speeding is ok should read this;

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2899704-a-friend-is-being-released-from-jail-and-they-are-having-a-party

British drivers are some of the worst in Europe, I feel much safer on German and French roads..

People drive like that's in the UK, soon as you come off the ferry/chunnel it's immediately obvious how much it's a 'fuck everyone else' attitude.

Tailgating, dawdling, Middle Lane hogging, lack of indicators..the list goes on. The most absent minded drivers in my experience are middle aged women, too busy gossiping and trundling along oblivious to the world around them to indicate or drive with some semblance of anticipation of what's coming next.

Whilst titty is doing a good job at winding everyone up, I tend to agree with her basic point. Speed in itself is not dangerous, but rather it makes things worse if there is an incident. I think we have such an overemphasis on speed in this country that people seem to think that they are safe as long as they are within the speed limit, and don't drive to the conditions or leave adequate gaps.

But in my experience, those who drive along at 90mph+ on the motorway are also generally those in such a hurry that they are tailgating, undertaking etc.

Normally aim to cruise at about 90mph when on motorways, all depends on traffic density though.

That's just silly. It's not a money making exercise. Why do people always say this. If you don't want to contribute to the 'money making exercise' then just don't speed.

It is considered that by many because the variable speed limits are not used on the basis of safety / traffic flow alone - a motorway should be a 70mph limit unless there is a reason to reduce it for safety reasons - the choices being made are not geared around safety - therefore it is seen as a money making exercise - there is a reasonable assumption for motorists that motorways will by default be 70mph, so it will catch some out - perhaps the less observant ;) but still - if the reason for choosing the limits is not safety, it is reasonably to ask what they might be...

I know the M4 well and that stretch of road is very dangerous. It curves round relatively sharply in places and has several slip roads close together that are quite short so some traffic may have difficulty getting up to speed (eg lorries). It's also a very built up area so a reduction in speeds contributes to a lowering of pollution - both noise and exhaust.

really? a motorway has construction guidelines on bends etc - they just don't build motorways with sudden abrupt bends! There is no issue making progress at the speed limit along any part of the M4 - equally there are guidelines on building the slip roads - and I am pretty sure those guidelines are being met - a lorry has a reduced speed limit anyway, and an inability to accelerate along a slip road is not going to be improved by changing the motorway's speed limit...

the question of pollution has I think been recently disproved - yes, pollution levels from traffic go down, but they stay in the area longer, meaning overall levels are higher... think about the logic - a car going past a mile of motorway at 60mph will be in that area for one minute... now have it crawling past in a traffic jam at 5mph - it will be in that zone for 12 minutes - do you really believe that overall it will be less polluting for that zone?

But what about the car in front of you or the car next to you. Or like I posted above even the car in the opposite direction. All sorts of things could happen.

valid point - but you can only mitigate risk, not remove it - and risk will be managed far more by observation levels improving than speed being changed - while reports of accidents are 'it happened immediately, I didn't see it' etc. - in fact looking at accidents, the majority may well have shown signs before happening, e.g. a tyre bursting may split first making the car move suddenly - then burst pushing the car out of control - good observation would pick up the first symptoms and give time to do something...

equally - observation and risk management mean that you drive to the context or environment - a higher speed means you give more space / more time / etc. - so actually if driving well, you should be further away from anything where the tyre goes pop...

of course, someone driving fast and badly is a totally different issue...

I know the M4 well and that stretch of road is very dangerous. It curves round relatively sharply in places

No it doesn't! Not sure how something can get under a solid concrete barrier that rises from the ground either.

I'm on the fence. The most dangerous drivers around here are significantly under the limit.

Although on motorways i do 60 for economy reasons.

I don't see any sharp bends!

as for those who say that everyone is laughing at idiots who speed, that would be like musicians laughing at those who are better - it diesn't happen, or they would be the ones to look stupid

cringe!! I've never heard of a quickly played piano killing anyone.

I'd be in favour of all cars being limited to 60 mph on the motorway and 20 mph off it, banned from cities, not allowed to park on the street, all being of a single make model and colour, and being low powered to prevent rapid acceleration and braking.

It's an absolute disgrace that we are completely up in arms about a terrorist incident that killed 4 people the other week in London, yet more people than that die every day on the roads as a result of motor vehicles, and we don't even seem to care. I honestly think we would be better off with guns than with cars.