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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

If you see it as your job to control the speed of traffic and you're not in a police car...

236 replies

BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot · 09/04/2018 17:23

...why do you do it? Why do you sit 300 car lengths behind the one in front in heavy traffic? Why do you go 10mph under the speed limit in the overtaking lane on a clear road? Why so you sit at 40mph regardless of the speed limit? Why do you pootle down the slip road towards an A or M road at 30mph?

Why do you see it as your job to control traffic?

OP posts:
PerfectlyDone · 09/04/2018 19:17

I don't mind slow drivers, I do mind ditherers and servers and people who seem to think that indicating is against their religion or summat and any kind erratic behaviour which IMO is often borne out of drivers feeling overwhelmed and insecure and very, very scared.

Most bad driving is incompetence, not evilness.

user1492877024 · 09/04/2018 19:18

Babdoc

Tailgating, really? Do you have any idea just how dangerous that is? Please get some extra tuition as i'm not sure you understand how dangerous you are.

ButternutCrinkleFries · 09/04/2018 19:18

mapmy I realise that, of course. But she was doing exactly what the op of this thread is talking about. Sitting in the middle/outside lane doing the speed limit. Not overtaking, just driving at the speed limit and as such forcing everyone else to abide by the speed limit too. Which, if you drive on motorways a lot, you will realise is pretty dangerous as people generally go over 70mph.

DragonNoodleCake · 09/04/2018 19:19

The one that I hate, and I have to endure daily. Super busy roundabout with a slip road off it onto a super busy dual carriageway and people stop - actually stop at the bottom of the ramp rather that using the slip road to join the dual carriageway causing all the traffic to back up onto the roundabout!
Totally oblivious to other road users that's why!!

DragonNoodleCake · 09/04/2018 19:21

@spugzbunny I'm so glad you retrained him!! Grin

PerfectlyDone · 09/04/2018 19:21

Babdoc, just hope and pray that you never get done for significant speeding as the GMC are interested if you get banned from driving for speeding. As a fellow doctor and first responder have a Hmm and a Biscuit.

I would be very happy for speed limits in residential areas to come down while increasing it on motorways to 80 or 90mph. And I think it is madness that there are no compulsory driving lessons on motorways/in the dark/on a skidpan to learn about driving int he wet/on snow and ice.

CauliflowerBalti · 09/04/2018 19:24

Undertaking/overtaking on the left isn’t illegal.

Careless driving is though. So it depends on the manner in which you undertake. If a traffic officer saw you undertaking a middle lane hogger in a sensible way, they’d be as likely to prosecute him/her for careless driving (as they’re not using the lane to overtake as they should), as you for undertaking.

Law is hazy. Context is king.

People who drive at 40mph regardless of the speed limit really piss me off.

CircleSquareCircleSquare · 09/04/2018 19:25

It used to infuriate me when I was a junior doctor, on emergency call from home to hospital, to find some sanctimonious twat blocking the outside lane doing 70mph. I would be frantically tailgating them, flashing my lights, and often ended up having to undertake them in the inside lane. I know I was speeding, but when you're called out for a major trauma case, you need to get there asap. I'm very used to driving at up to 110mph, and have never had an accident in 36 years, but some of those stupid drivers made me wish I could just ram them out of the way! They might have behaved better if it was their own critically injured relative I was going to attend.

^

Really really?
I don’t know a single doctor who would do this. Yay why not get your colleagues to deal with you Vs motorway barrier along with another code. Excellent idea.

throwcushions · 09/04/2018 19:47

Cauliflower, the Highway Code rule is that you do not overtake on the left. You may keep up with traffic in congestion rather than weaving where both lanes are travelling at a similar speed but otherwise the rule is clear. No overtaking from the left. It's surely dangerous because the driver may not see you and wouldn't necessarily check that blind spot before moving over?

Original poster
BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot · 09/04/2018 19:50

It's not the driving slowly. It's the driving inconsiderately and oblivious to other road users that annoys me. Believe it or not driving too slowly is as much of a hazard as speeding.

OP posts:
PattiStanger · 09/04/2018 19:56

Babdoc - that's a really dangerous way to drive, I can't belive an educated person like a doctor would think such behaviour is acceptable.

Where in the highway code does it say that doctors don't need to bother with the law?

PattiStanger · 09/04/2018 19:58

Believe it or not driving too slowly is as much of a hazard as speeding

Where's the evidence for that? How many roads deaths are caused by drivers doing well below the speed limit?

ivykaty44 · 09/04/2018 19:59

I was driving over a long bridge the other day, in the middle lane as DD gets weirded by the edge hmm

That has to be the best reason to illegally drive middle lane hogging...

Original poster
BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot · 09/04/2018 20:01

Link from SAGA

link from RAC

Link from the Telegraph

A quick google brought those results. There are more

OP posts:
WaxOnFeckOff · 09/04/2018 20:03

So it depends on the manner in which you undertake. If a traffic officer saw you undertaking a middle lane hogger in a sensible way, they’d be as likely to prosecute him/her for careless driving (as they’re not using the lane to overtake as they should), as you for undertaking.

I disagree, if they were a middle lane hogger then there is no need to undertake. You overtake on the outside as normal . If you have to wait then you have to wait. It's not however illegal if the pace of traffic is moving more quickly in the inside lane to keep with the pace of traffic even if it means going faster than traffic on the outside - all if it is safe to do so.

OublietteBravo · 09/04/2018 20:07

I frequently get flashed/tail gated when driving at 30mph through a village on the A6. The speed limit is 30mph and there are average speed check cameras. I'm not going to speed up, and I tend to think that the idiot behind me should be grateful that I'm preventing them from getting a speeding fine/points.

whatsgoing · 09/04/2018 20:08

I hate it when people control or try to control how fast I go.
If I want to drive at 90 mph then let me.
If someone wants to drive faster then me I let them.
I am not a sherrif.
People trying to control other people's speed is seriously dangerous and I hate it!!

swg1 · 09/04/2018 20:12

On country lanes -- I'm short. Sometimes I turn a corner and find the sun is shining straight in my eyes dazzling me. My sun visor is not long enough to help. Sunglasses only do so much. Usually I slow down because I know my reaction times are off while squinting. I try to avoid driving in those conditions altogether as they usually result in migraines.

Motorways tend to have things blocking the sun so thankfully rarely an issue.

WaxOnFeckOff · 09/04/2018 20:13

Official advice for when someone is tailgating is to allow them to pass when it is safe to do so.

I once had someone trying to get into my boot I think while i was doing 30 in a 30 zone - single lane, no suitable space to stop but the road splits into 2 and becomes a 50 shortly after, they went belting past me as I was accelerating to 50...pity they hadn't seen the police sitting further up. I'd seen them a few minutes earlier as I'd been heading in to town to do my drop off.

MallorieArcher · 09/04/2018 20:15

Ivykaty, it's a pathetic reason I know, but by my logic (it's not good logic) I wasn't holding anyone up, and it's only a half mile or so, so to avoid the drama llamaing from the backseat I figured I'd just do it. Normally I'd be on the fast lane overtaking but there was noone to overtake so that felt wrong.
It was his need to speed past me (I caught him up after a few minutes and he was in the left hand lane!) And have a go that was more bizarre he was policing me even though he was just an arrogant twat in an Audi!

TSSDNCOP · 09/04/2018 20:18

I don’t hate them (I do, just not as much) as the people that flash you to allow you to turn right, pull out or come onto a roundabout.

I will do all of those things as per the Highway Code, thanks, not at the largesse if some cunt that’ll scarper if so doing causes an accident.

Nicknacky · 09/04/2018 20:19

mallorie Driving an Audi has zero to do with it and looks like you are trying to deflect from your own bad driving.

swg1 Can you not adjust your seat up the way?

MallorieArcher · 09/04/2018 20:20

Only just seen the other comments, I know it wasn't a normal thing to do, I know that!
My point was, I was doing 70, he was the only car behind me and was just visible when I got to the bridge, so he upped his speed to be aggressive and yell, and then cut across my front dangerously, then slowed back down again so that when I caught up to the traffic ahead I was in the correct lane to go past a slow lorry, and he was sat behind it doing 50 again. Knob.

I'm not defending my driving but I wasn't holding anyone up, he nearly hit my car though.

PattiStanger · 09/04/2018 20:21

I may have missed it but I can't see any hard evidence in any of the links that prove that driving slowly is as much of a hazard as speeding. There are some opinions that in some circumstances slow driving can be a hazard but that's only some people's opinions.

I can't find any actual data that includes slow speed as an accident cause

whatsgoing · 09/04/2018 20:21

Your car has nothing to do with it!
I drive an Audi. I am not a knob.
I hate it when people drive too slow on nationals or equally I hate it when they drive faster then 30 when it's the limit. 30 is the most important speed limit to not exceed.
I also sit on a pillow so I can see properly out of the car and it has improved my driving, try that