Seven people overtook me in the space of 20 minutes

[Tankersome]

AIBU to be so bloody annoyed by how easily some people find it to speed?

I live rurally with lots of windy, pot-holed single track roads. I commute into the town every day. The rural roads are all NSL but I drive them around 35mph max - and always pull over on the rare times a car is behind me to let them pass if they like.

When i finally get onto the main road that takes me into town, i get myself up to 60mph and switch on cruise control. It's a lovely straight single-carriageway with no pot-holes so I feel comfortable doing this.

But despite going the speed limit, I'm always overtaken. This morning it was a new record with seven people overtaking me in the space of the 20 minutes I'm on that particular road (it was five last night on the drive home).

They don't just speed to overtake either - they continue along at 70-80mph until they're out of my sight. It's not a busy or congested road whatsoever, and there aren't any pavements. So they probably feel safe going at that speed but it's illegal. I've never once seen a speed camera van parked at the roadside either so there is no incentive for these people to drive within the speed limit.

It just really annoys me. Yes, we all have places to be. But why do some people feel so at ease with speeding like that? And the annoying thing is, it makes me feel like I'm the one in the wrong because it's as though I'm holding people up despite going the fastest speed allowed on the road.

Honestly, I'm getting more wound up by some of the numpties on this thread than OP can possibly manage having impatient drivers exceeding the speed limit to overtake her on a 60 mph road. Let them get the speeding tickets, and forget about them. That single track road OP posted upthread is like a racetrack compared to some of the 'NSL' rural lanes around here. You can't see over high banks and seven foot bloody hedges or around bends to anticipate oncoming traffic or other road users. 35 would be suicidal, never mind 60. There's only room for one vehicle to pass the road at a time. 2 vehicles approaching one another at 60 equals collision. Those of you calling OP unsafe: never heard of stopping distances?

National Speed Limit on a single lane road is 60 mph. How on earth are people overtaking someone who never goes above 35mph speeding??

Don't let other drivers wind you up, it's a distraction which you don't need. Let them get on with it, it's really not your problem to worry about and could affect your driving if it's making you angry / tense.

crunchy you clearly haventread the OP, never mind the thread! Forgive me shouting, but this is getting fucking irritating.
THE OP DOES 35 ON A SINGLE TRACK BENDY ROAD.
THE OP DOES 60 ON A SINGLE CARRIAGEWAY STRAIGHT ROAD.
THESE ARE DIFFERENT ROADS.
THE PEOPLE OVERTAKING HER WHEN SHE DOES 60 ARE BREAKING THE SPEED LIMIT.
Is that clear?

cardi I feel like I need a gin now

People speeding on the road photographed wouldn’t piss me off and it’s not your job to police them. It’s those, carving out a third lane and driving right at me by taking part of my carriageway to pass slow vehicles and those overtaking on bends, who are the true danger.

Christ, basic reading and comprehension seem to be a huge problem for a large number of people on this thread - mostly by the numpties who advocate driving at 60 on narrow, potholed windy country lanes - go figure.

Except if so many drivers are overtaking you, it sounds as if your speedometer may be inaccurate. I never break the speed limit and find some drivers on single lane NSP roads overtake and some don't. And some go slower than me. So it sounds an unusual experience from my experience.

I know someone who went v fast on a road like the one pictured, round a bend and headlong into a car coming the other way. Totally stupid to speed on these type of roads.

Crunchy
RTFT
the op is talking about twisting, pot holed, blind bend songle track country roads not the frigging A1 ffs.

Jesus wept the photos are pretty clear surely?

Also going to drink gin & lie down in a darkened room.

OP only drives at 60mph on clear road with no pot holes. On the twisty turny pot holed roads she drives at a maximum of 35mph.

Speeding is a contributory factor.

No. Speeding is sometimes a contributory factor.

There’s a dual carriageway near me whose speed was reduced from 60 to 40mph. Notification about the change had already happened. A month before the change 2 people were tragically killed whilst crossing the road. It was late at night, they were crossing away from pedestrian crossings, and the driver’s speed was assessed to be around 35mph on a 60mph road. Speed was not a factor in the deaths. But 90% of the local residents believe that the speed limit changed because of the accident.

Speed isn’t dangerous in and of itself. It’s inappropriate speed that’s dangerous.

85mph probably isn’t unsafe at 3am on an empty motorway. 30mph might be dangerous on a poorly sighted bendy road with black ice.

From the Brake website ...

"Breaking the speed limit or travelling too fast for conditions is recorded (by police at crash scenes) as a contributory factor in almost one in four (23%) crashes resulting in one or more fatalities".

And that is why you shouldn't take any notice of Brake who have an agenda which is not just about safety!

They word it in a clever way - but it contradicts the government's own figures which show that speed causing a death is under 5%

of course breaking the speed limit may also be there in other accidents, but the government are far more careful in being clear about the cause - let us look at an example:

• clear road, regardless of the speed limit it would be safe to drive along there at 80mph (regardless of the speed limit, we can all agree that is above the speed limit!)

• driver drives down there at 75mph (below the safe amount, but above the speed limit) - but is out of their head on drugs / alcohol - crashes and dies... What caused the accident - not the speed, because we know that someone sober could do 80mph and not crash - so the cause is drugs / alcohol

this is where Brake play the figures, because they then add speed in to distort how they present it... the reality is that the driver on drugs / alcohol could as easily (and probably would have done) crashed at 59mph and still died - the speed is not the relevant factor here, it is the other causes of the accident which are correctly identified...

that is why the government very clearly states what the cause of an accident is - and speed itself is responsible for less than 5% of deaths - official gov. figures...

but of course that wouldn't suit Brake ;)

one of the biggest issues for deaths is distracted driving (mobile phone use / not paying attention / being tired / etc.) yet other than recent clamp downs on phones, we don't tackle them - tiredness is a big cause of accidents - why do we not get cross with people who drive while tired? Dealing with squabbling children in the back seats is more distracting than a mobile phone call - should we ban children from being in the car (bliss!) or from squabbling (gaffa tape across the mouth?!)

the reality is that speed is demonised and there are a lot of people who do not understand how to drive who see it as being fundamentally wrong without actually thinking through the detail...

e.g. a road near me (wide open / few turnings / no houses / etc.) i.e. very safe! has recently been moved from 60mph to 50mph - why? nothing to do with safety, rarely an accident on there - probably to do with the council not having to maintain the road to the same level - is that road now more / less / same safety if driving at 60 as before? It is now illegal to drive at 60mph on that road, but if it was legal 6 months ago and nothing else has changed, it can't be any less safe...

therefore safety and speed limits and speed and legality are not all the same thing!!!

drivers should use their intelligence, not blindly drive to their beliefs regardless of other road users...

www.thecarexpert.co.uk/how-accurate-is-a-car-speedometer/

Tawnyport
if its a winding road with no room to pass, how are they all overtaking her?

They are not. Please read beyond the first three lines of anything your reply to.

Christ, basic reading and comprehension seem to be a huge problem for a large number of people on this thread - mostly by the numpties who advocate driving at 60 on narrow, potholed windy country lanes - go figure.

:)
no - the OP was not clear on the initial road and what it was like - there are some of course who have not read the thread, but those who are sensible wouldn't advocate driving at 60mph on the the road the OP eventually posted - it is unlikely to be safe...

however, that does not make the OP safe either sticking cruise control on at 60 on the open roads...

safety comes from driving to the setting - blindly putting cruise control on is a very worrying driving habit...

Iwant
Thats what i was thinking. Fuck knows how they actually passed a driving test!
Matching your speed to the road you are on is not a difficult concept surely?

And of course its ops fault they overtook her, her speedo is obviously not right and she is not doing 60, its not the other drivers at fault who are speeding past her, who knew? All those speed demons are right after all, the rest of us are wrong sticking just under the limit.
You learn something new every day🤔

coffee That is interesting. I have noticed that on those boards that show your speed by the side of the road, it always says less than my car speedometer shows.

Yes - and on such a road (single track, which is NOT THE SAME AS single carriageway), 60mph is NOT NECESSARILY SAFE The NSL is an absolute maximum, not a target. The Highway Code is very clear on this (maybe you should try reading it )

IS THAT REALLY SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND

And if you could be bothered to RTFT, the OP is NOT COMPLAINING about people over-taking her on the single track road. Because it is SINGLE TRACK they can't overtake her - she has to pull in to a passing place to let them pass - which she has said that she does.

She is complaining about people overtaking her on the single CARRIAGEWAY road, when she is already going at NSL of 60mph (as it is now safe to do so).

Sorry but which part of this from her first post is difficult to understand?

I live rurally with lots of windy, pot-holed single track roads

If you can’t drive more than 35mph on a national speed limit road that is familiar to you then I don’t think you are confident enough to be on the road and shouldn’t be driving. A lot of recent studies suggest you are as likely to cause an accident driving 15mph under the speed limit as 15mph over it. Are you one of those drivers who can see round blind bends? We get alot of them on the rural twisty roads round here. I can't even count the number of fatals on the road I used to go to work not to mention the chaos when someone comes round a bend at 60 mph when the farmer is crossing the road with his herd of cows at milking time.

akkakk - she was clear - she specified that it was winding, it had potholes, and it was single track.

With hindsight, she'd have been better not mentioning the single track roads and just confining herself to the main road.

If i am on a straight A road where you have clear visability i put cc on. When else am i supposed to use it? I am still aware of the road and cars around me. Probably more so than many i have seen on the roads in my donkeys years of driving.

With hindsight, she'd have been better not mentioning the single track roads and just confining herself to the main road.

With hindsight I think she probably wouldn't have bothered posting - poor thing's made herself perfectly clear IMO but people can't be bothered to read properly!