To think 70mph is an acceptable speed in any motorway lane?

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

Disclaimer: I have only recently started driving on the motorway regularly

Surely whatever lane you're in, 70mph is an acceptable speed to be doing? I keep finding that when I'm in the fast lane (eg when overtaking cars in the middle lane) at 70mph, I find I have someone driving 2 metres behind me in a way that suggests they enjoy causing a pile up. Once I'm able to get back into the middle lane they will rush past at well over 70mph.

Did I miss the memo where the fast lane became part of the German Autobahn?

out of interest what car do you drive?

An E Class Merc with the Driving Assistance Package

Thank you. Is it worth it? Getting a new car soon so will investigate!

On another point, I hate overtaking lorries especially on a bend. Illogical I know but I just do. Just me or anyone else? I regularly drive on the motorway & do overtake but just hate overtaking lorries. Obviously I still do or it would take me forever to get anywhere!

Keep left unless overtaking (and pass with a sensible difference in speed to avoid prolonged passing and holding up traffic)
Keep a safe stopping distance.
Drive with the flow of traffic.
Observe what is going on around you. Anticipate likely changes around you.

Pass plus is well worth doing for new drivers.

Yes, 70 is the legal maximum. In reality speeds of up to 80 are commonplace and in the absence of any other aggravating behaviour it is unlikely to attract the attention of the police. Some drivers drive faster and where possible it is better to let them pass rather than pulling out and forcing them to brake. Indeed, you shouldn't be forcing other drivers to adjust their speeds anyway. (Although if you do get the random 90+ person charging up from behind, they may have been difficult to observe and anticipate as they may not have been in view as you mirrored and signalled)

On a congested section of motorway, I find it easier to stay at the lower speeds in lane 1 with a greater stopping distance and occasional passing into lane 2 rather than attempting to join the 70+ bumper to bumper in lane 3. In free flowing traffic I'm happy to go faster where there is sufficient space and chance to change lanes easily.

Some people are just arrogant twats who will attempt to intimidate other drivers by tailgating and flashing at any speed. They won't care if you're doing 70, 75, 80, 85 as long as your car has the audacity to be in front of theirs. Just don't be the person with a clear road ahead and a tailback behind- that's the sign that it's you not them.

The 'fast lane' is for overtaking - you shouldn't be cruising in it - move the fuck over.

The OP did not say she was cruising, she said she was overtaking.

Hardly anyone has said they think it’s fine to speed yet there are 7 pages of aggressive posts about how ignorant everyone is and how gobsmacked they are at the mere suggestion that people speed
On the contrary, at least one poster said they drive at 80+ and are irritated by others who are legitimately overtaking using the 3rd lane because they get in their way

One poster isn’t contrary to “hardly any”
Is it?

OP said she was overtaking.

“Its because you are a new driver. For me, 70 belongs in the middle lane”.

Third post in set the tone for people to say that overtaking at a max of seventy puts the op in the wrong. People have acknowledged that people drive over the limit on the motorway. Plenty of other people have stated that it is acceptable for them to break the speed limit. It’s not.

Not acceptable to whom? You can’t police peoples attitudes. I find this really odd. Some people choose to break the law and risk the consequences. That’s life. Whether or not you think it’s acceptable is totally meaningless.

70 mph is the fucking speed limit people not a suggested speed, you should not drive faster than this in any lane on the motorway, whether overtaking or not! if you drive at more than 70mph you are breaking the fucking law!

" Whether or not you think it’s acceptable is totally meaningless. "

no it isn't. The more people who see this as unacceptable, the more likely it is to become so.

Thank goodness for you clarifying blue! Hope that one poster is still round to hear that speeding is illegal for the billionth time.

That’s a fair point fourfried but tbh, if the police don’t care enough to concentrate on it I can’t see you getting far

Oooh I like the sound of the little warning light/blind spot thingy too Illustriously. Hopefully the braking isn't as hyper aware as the parking sensors ? the ones on DH's car are triggered by blades of grass

If your speedo shows 70 you are doing 66..false

Actually that one can be true. When the limit is 70, in my current car I set cruise control to 73, with previous car I could have set it to 77. In both cases I would actually have been travelling between 69 and 70.

The speedometer must by law be between 0% and 10% wrong, in the direction that makes you think you are going faster than you are. My current car is in the exact middle of that range, previous one was at the extreme end.

I use the Sat nav to work out how far wrong the speedometer is. At 5% out, I travel at 31 when the limit is 30, 42 for 40, 52 for 50, 63 for 60 and 73 for 70.

For those liking the sound of speed control, automatic breaking and lane control, you can get all those on a VW Golf. Adaptive cruise control and crash prevention were standard equipment on a medium specification Golf, when I bought mine four years ago.

On my Golf, adaptive cruise control uses radar to measure distance to car ahead, crash prevention uses Lidar sensors, the two systems seem to work independently, amusingly, they sometimes have different ideas of what's reasonable. I've had the crash prevention system automatically brake and shout at me (audible alarm and graphic on the display) when the adaptive cruise control was in charge of braking. Don't shout at me dear car, you are supposed to be in charge of braking at the moment!

I should add that you have to pay attention, you can't rely on the adaptive cruise control not trying to drive into the back of someone. Apart from the fact that stationary cars are invisible to it, for example ones that are stopped at lights having never been previously observed moving, it has rare glitches where it simply decides the car in front of you has vanished, and tries to accelerate into the back of it. I had this twice coming uphill out of a tunnel in the first year, but not in the three years since, not sure what caused it.

I always drive with the information console showing what the adaptive cruise control is thinking, it displays a graphic showing if it thinks there's a car in front of you and how far away it is.

So for those saying speedometers are wrong, are speed cameras set at the miles an hour most people see on their speedometer or an actual speed of X miles per hour?

if you drive at more than 70mph you are breaking the fucking law!

Boo fucking hoo.

So are you if you sit in the outside lane when the inner lanes are empty.

So for those saying speedometers are wrong, are speed cameras set at the miles an hour most people see on their speedometer or an actual speed of X miles per hour?

They're calibrated according to actual speed. Everyone's speedo's will be reading slightly differently. They all read under, so if you're doing the speed limit according to your speedo, you're very likely going slower & are quite safe from cameras/speed guns which measure the actual speed.

Where is 80-90 legal on UK motorways. It's illegal and I wonder how many points you have on your license if you believe stupid shit like that?

Last set of points I had was in 1998.

Driving isn't just about laws, experience is extremely important too.

Knowing the roads, conditions, abilities and limitations of you and your vehicle are vital.

The trouble is, people seem to deal in absolutes!

Speeding = Bad
Not Speeding = Good

By far & away most of the terrible driving I see is under the speed limit - it's people drifting around in 20mph traffic because their mind has wandered, they're on the phone, lighting a fag, trying to sort a kid out or just daydreaming.

Whereas driving fast along a motorway tends to keep you pretty alert.

@IIIustriousIyIIlogical Thank you.

I always wondered why everyone seems to be going slightly faster than me in the 50 mile an hour zone on the M4 and now I know why!

Yep absolutely illustrously. I got 3 points in 1988. Never had any since, never had an accident.

Keep left unless overtaking (and pass with a sensible difference in speed to avoid prolonged passing and holding up traffic)
Keep a safe stopping distance.
Drive with the flow of traffic.
Observe what is going on around you. Anticipate likely changes around you.

All of the above.

If i am in the middle lane at 70 and a car in front is doing 65mph I will want to overtake.
Pulling out at 70 when there is clearly someone tearing down the outside would a stupid thing to do.
Sure, there's probably space to stop & slow, but do I trust my life on their reaction speed? Probably not.
We'll assume they've managed not to rear end me and we've not had a crash. There's now me shaken up, them shaken up abd probably irate rightly annoyed that I have essentially cut them up, it's going to take a bit for me to get past 65mph driver whilst I'm doing 70, speeder is probably getting more irate because they want ro go quicker and already think i'm a fucking whatever for cutting them off. They end up too close probably to start with because of them slowing down, but now they're impatient and tailgating.

But I can feel right because I was doing 70 and because I was doing 70 I can ignore the fact that me pulling out 'because I'm right and they shouldn't speed' means that my actions are beyond question.

Drive for the conditions and surroundings and likely driving of others, not out of some odd sense of being right. Being right is no good to anyone when you're lying in hospital.

This made me think of this thread....

www.thedailymash.co.uk/features/how-to-drive-on-the-motorway-20180604173852