Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
GabriellaMontez · 09/04/2018 21:24

'40 mph regardless of the speed limit.'

I always assumed people do this for fuel efficiency. Wankers.

ivykaty44 · 09/04/2018 21:25

Malloryarcher

It’s illegal, dangerous and the police do prosecute

If you see it as your job to control the speed of traffic and you're not in a police car...
jasjas1973 · 09/04/2018 21:37

He’s a fucking wanker and enjoy gesturing that to him as I undertake him

You ve proved my point, whilst you are busy giving him the wanker gesture, you not concentrating on your driving and you miss the motorcyclist in front of you and kill her.

You cant change his driving but you can change yours, do you really think he gives a fcuk what you think of him?

user1488397844 · 09/04/2018 21:58

I might be being stupid (I definitely am) and I know you should never undertake, but when people say it's because the driver won't see you in their blind spot, how does this differ when you are indicating back in to the left hand lane & end up passing those in the middle lane? If I indicate into the left as I'm coming off at the next exit and I'm doing 60 but the car in the middle lane is doing 50 am I undertaking them? Should I not do this?

Caramina · 09/04/2018 22:00

@ButternutCrinkleFries amusing thread.

I think some people just can't drive to save their lives!

StormcloakNord · 09/04/2018 22:15

This has probably already been said...

But fucking bastard twat lorry drivers who pull into the middle of 2 lanes to stop a second lane of traffic make me indescribably livid. IT SAYS MERGE IN TURN YOU TWAT WE ARENT CHEATING THE SYSTEM BY SKIMMING PAST ALL THE IDIOTS QUEUING. THE POINT IS TO USE 2 LANES!!!

Aaaaaarrrgggghh

Lewwat · 09/04/2018 23:31

My blood boils when I see the tiny dicked wankers driving 100 in the fast lane as if it makes them some sort of superman

Last time I checked I didn't have a penis 🤔

Mybabystolemysanity · 09/04/2018 23:43

Don't tailgate me. I will slow down, either to give you the opportunity to pass when it's safe, or because I'd prefer you to run into the back of me at 30 than 60. And don't dick about at the bottom of a sliproad. If you have trouble using your mirrors and driving forwards, you need to have more lessons or stop driving. Finally, just because it's an (insert German manufacturers name here) doesn't make you suddenly a better driver than anyone else. Speeding girlie with the Audi three doors down from me I'm looking at you, and yes, next time I will report you.

Feel better after that!

Lethaldrizzle · 10/04/2018 08:33

' Driving slow is as dangerous as speeding' - all those slow driver awareness courses I keep hearing about that people choose instead of points Hmm

reddington · 10/04/2018 09:10

My blood boils when I see the tiny dicked wankers driving 100 in the fast lane as if it makes them some sort of superman. It’s sad. Get a life.

a) there’s no such thing as the “fast lane” and b) there’s nothing inherently wrong with doing 100mph where conditions allow.

Exceeding an arbitrary figure isn’t dangerous itself (with the exception of 20 & 30 limits) it’s not driving to the conditions, exceeding your ability and lack of thorough observation that causes accidents.

peacheachpearplum · 10/04/2018 10:42

there’s nothing inherently wrong with doing 100mph where conditions allow. Yes there is something wrong with dong 100 mph, you are breaking the law. I hope you get caught and disqualified if you are doing 100.

Faultymain5 · 10/04/2018 10:45

@ButternutCrinkleFries A woman driving at the speed limit in the overtaking lane, then being confused as to why she was being flashed and undertaken.

I would be confused too. Are you saying you should be going faster than the speed limit in the overtaking lanes?

reddington · 10/04/2018 13:05

Yes there is something wrong with dong 100 mph, you are breaking the law. I hope you get caught and disqualified if you are doing 100.

Obviously discounting the fact that it’s illegal. My point is that there’s nothing inherently dangerous about it in the appropriate conditions. In the same way 80mph on an empty motorway in the UK is no more or less dangerous than the same speed on a empty French autoroute. One’s legal, one isn’t. Go to Germany, sit in flowing traffic at 110mph, appropriate and legal. Simply plucking a number out of thin air and saying it’s dangerous is nonsense without the circumstances.

specialsubject · 10/04/2018 13:29

Still against the law! Perhaps there are people having sex for fuel and so not bothered what they spend, or the waste.

For the rest of us, drag goes up as square of speed so speeding costs.

BonnieF · 10/04/2018 13:38

To all those people who are not confident driving over 40 mph outside town :

If you must drive at 39 mph on NSL roads, and slow down to 20 mph for anything resembling a bend, please show a bit of consideration for other road users. When you are obviously holding up the vehicles behind you, just pull over and let them past. You will be less stressed without them in your mirrors, and we will be less stressed if you just get out of our bloody way.

Thank you Smile.

IIIustriouslyIllogical · 10/04/2018 13:51

it's a limit not a target

Actually, it's both. If you consistently fail to reach the speed limit (when safe to do so) on your test you'll fail for "failing to make progress".

So, just because you're not confident (should you even be driving then) or your passengers are "weirded out" it doesn't mean you can drive like a twat.

And lane hogging is just as illegal (and dangerous) as speeding...

WaxOnFeckOff · 10/04/2018 13:55

I'll add another bugbear. People who pull out in front of you to join the road, there wasn't room really so you have to brake, then they piss about doing 30 in the 50 with no room for you to pass. If you aren't in a fucking hurry then what was the rush to get in front of me?!!

WaxOnFeckOff · 10/04/2018 14:07

Obviously everyone should be driving to the road conditions and style and speed limits and no one should ever go at a speed beyond their capabilities, but in general if you are not able to drive at a reasonable speed for the road then you need to question if you might need extra lessons or not to drive. If it's practice you need then P plates may at least explain the hesitancy and stop people get annoyed and frustrated.

I would suggest that less than 50 on a motorway or 40 on NSL country road in good visibility/dry conditions is too slow (not including particularly windy bits). 20/30/40/50 roads really depends on busy-ness etc how much at or under the limit you should be.

Driving above your abilities causes accidents, frustration also causes accidents. Driving too fast for the road gives you less time to react to hazards, the speed limit should be based round the likelihood of hazard and the visibility of the road ahead in order to anticipate it. This is why tailgating is dangerous as not only have you reduced your time to react safely, you are also reducing your ability to see potential hazards ahead. I always wonder what is going through someones head when they are tailgating a van or lorry on a NSL road. They have no idea what is going on up ahead.

Lethaldrizzle · 10/04/2018 14:08

All you stressed out drivers should maybe consider a bicycle or a train!

reddington · 10/04/2018 14:10

For the rest of us, drag goes up as square of speed so speeding costs.

Some of us really don’t care about fuel costs.

moonfacebaby · 10/04/2018 14:38

I often say that if there was a common sense & courtesy component of the driving test, the roads would be much less congested.

And four lanes on a motorway- that confuses the hell out of these halfwits. They sit in the third lane for miles.....how can you be THAT stupid??

IIIustriouslyIllogical · 10/04/2018 15:16

All you stressed out drivers should maybe consider a bicycle or a train

Alternatively, you pootlers should follow the highway code & get out of the fecking way so that people who are confident & capable can get where they want to....

IIIustriouslyIllogical · 10/04/2018 15:17

Some of us really don’t care about fuel costs

Exactly, it's still cheaper (and nicer) that the train!!

"Drag" my arse.... Grin

ButternutCrinkleFries · 10/04/2018 20:33

faulty it’s all in the thread linked to earlier. The woman was sitting in the outside lane (not overtaking just driving along at the speed limit) and was feeling ‘bullied’ because she was being flashed and undertaken.

The consensus was generally ‘why didn’t you just move into the inside lane’ and her view was ‘I was doing the speed limit so what’s the problem?’ So, basically taking it upon herself to ensure the rest of the road sticks to the speed limit.

Whitelisbon · 10/04/2018 20:53

I got stuck behind someone earlier who pulled out in front of me, making me do an emergency stop, and then pootled along at 15mph. On a nsl road, where it's perfectly safe to do 50 along most of it. Every time a car was coming the other way, twat in front would stand on his brakes, steer almost into the ditch, and wait until the car had passed.
There are very few places to pass on the road, and I couldn't have passed twat anyway, as the car was straddling the white lines.
Twat drive like that for the 3 miles ish of the nsl road, and then, as we pulled into the village, with a 30mph limit, he peeled off ahead of me at approximately 50mph.
Twat.