AIBU - If you want to drive below the speed limit you should pull over at regular intervals

[TheCumbrian]

'It's a speed limit not a target' etc

But equally, on a good road in good conditions theres no reason why a competent driver shouldn't be able to drive somewhere close to the speed limit (sharp bends, single track national speed limit C roads etc excluded) and make reasonable progress without holding up other road users.

If you can't, you should pull over, when safe to do so, once you have 5 or more vehicles trundling behind you.

If youre on the A303, i would hope you're on the way to the beautiful west country, a great place to chill and not be so stressed about drivers looking at stonehenge

Is this caused by generational difference? No, not being ageist, but I know when I learned to drive (back in the early 80's), we were taught differently.

I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. I learned to drive in central London in the early 1970s. My instructor was a driving instructor with the Met Police. He taught me to drive ‘forcefully’ by which I mean realising that it’s no good dithering about expecting everyone else to be polite and give way to you. This made me a confident driver and in the very early days I remember him constantly telling me to keep my speed up. There was no way he was going to let me poodle along when there was no need for it.

Alexa
Your instructor sounds like mine.

Really good at teaching the difference between appropriate caution and over cautious, how to judge hazards. Pointing out the aim is to keep things flowing, if I was driving too slowly then I was hindering others. How to driver confidently and assertively and safely rather than dithering.

I think his methods made me a more confident driver, which is saying something as I put off learning to drive due to nerves (hence being taught to speed up and stop worrying).

Basically you can't control other people's behaviour, only your own reaction to it. Since you are never going to be able to eliminate slow vehicles on the road (of whatever kind, and even through legislation), it would be much better to accept them, stop raging about it, and simply calmly overtake them where appropriate.

Funny that there should have been a mention of Stonehenge. Some of the maddest driving and manic overtaking I've ever witnessed has been in that immediate vicinity.

And it wasn't normal overtaking of sluggish drivers (most were doing the stipulated speed). It was someone driving like an absolute lunatic.

Threads like this always make me smile - reminds me of years ago when I was stuck behind a 20-odd car tailback in A303 going 30 miles an hour in a 60 area. Everyone was desperately trying to overtake but the road was so busy going the other way that only one car could nip past at a time. I eventually got to the front of the tail, by which time I was raging, only to see as I finally overtook that the car causing the queue was being driven by my lovely 80 year old granny .

She was taken off the road a couple of months later...

"if you don't like my slow driving then overtake"

1. we are talking about times when you cannot overtake due to traffic in the other lane or where it would be unsafe due to poor visibility. If you cannot comprehend that there are VERY OFTEN conditions in which overtaking is very dangerous then you should not be driving.

2. as a slow driver you would greatly facilitate overtaking by pulling over in exactly the way the OP describes.

The a303 needs a thread forum of its own!

How funny... I hadn't rtft and just seen that the last few posts were also about A303! It's a nightmare road.

Apart from cars not needing you to change down the gears any more

What?
To slow down your car, you change gears. Ideal at corners and junctions.

Everyone driving slower than me is inconsiderate. Everyone driving faster is a maniac.

Question for the drivers that think it’s acceptable to aim for 10/20 mph under the limit, rather than driving for the conditions.

If I or anyone else rode a horse for miles on end at 10mph down roads where 20 or 30 is the general traffic flow, with you and no doubt plenty more drivers stuck behind, ignoring places to pull in, would you be happy to accept your reasoning thrown back at you?

Granted there are occasions when stopping a horse isn’t safe, in which case you’d find a turning asap, but I’m thinking if I turn round and tell you the horse would be fine to pull in. But refuse to because:

• you can enjoy the scenery
• if there are cars coming the other way so you can’t overtake clearly 10mph is a suitable speed for the road
• I’ve not ridden in built up areas before so can’t possibly be expected to follow the Highway Code.
• Some car drivers pass too close and/ or too fast so I’m policing your speed
• What constitutes impeding the flow of traffic is subjective
• I’m too incompetent to get my horse back out and going again if I pull in
• It only adds 20 minutes to your journey which isn’t a problem for me.
• I’m a shit rider that’s never been faster than a trot so judge any vehicle going faster than me as a maniac
• Being frustrated by my selfish attitude means you want to speed, and aren’t as safe as I am
• I don’t know where I’m going so tough, you’ll just have to wait till I figure it out
• don’t be impatient, you have road rage.
• it’s more economical for my horses shoes and feed consumption

Also, I don’t really care if I overtake someone and they catch me up at a junction 500m after. What’s important is that I avoid them turning down my next road before me and having to crawl down that too. Especially one regular route where I turn from a road where it’s perfectly safe to average 55mph, onto a narrow twisty one where a safe average is more like 40mph, because I know anyone averaging 40 on the first will be doing 15 on the second.

MLMsuperfan
I think most people operate in a reasonable window of appropriate and reasonable and deploy common sense. Sometimes that might be a bit quicker than me, others it's a little slower. Sometimes we all have moments where we feel unsure and check things or ease off because we thought we'd seen a potential hazard.

Beyond that majority band of reasonable there's people who are cocky, reckless or aggressive and then there's the smug, pootling along types. Both those groups generally provide a source of irritation to the majority.

If I or anyone else rode a horse for miles on end at 10mph down roads where 20 or 30 is the general traffic flow

If you were doing 50% of the speed limit, that would be a problem.
If you are doing 80% - 90% of the speed limit, is that a problem?

My mother is one of these very slow drivers who has no idea of what's going on around her. She's always been a dreadful driver, only passed her test in her 40s and hasn't improved in 30 years. She still struggles with the very basics such as positioning in the road, what gear to be in, when to indicate going round a roundabout, parking - all of it. She still clutches thee wheel in the 10 to 2 position exactly as she did in her driving lessons and unlike most people who improve through experience, she's still shit. She also thinks she is "better" than other people who drive faster because quite obviously, slower is safer and better. In all circumstances.

So she would be totally oblivious to a queue behind her because all of her brain space is filled up with what gear do i need to be in, ooooh panic there's a corner coming up, another wee panic there's a lorry coming in the opposite direction, what lane do i need to be in here, mirror, signal manoeuvre, omg another corner and so on. Thank fuck she doesn't drive on motorways.

I or anyone else rode a horse for miles on end at 10mph down roads where 20 or 30 is the general traffic flow, with you and no doubt plenty more drivers stuck behind, ignoring places to pull in, would you be happy to accept your reasoning thrown back at you

If someone is going at below the speed limit and allowing a large queue to build behind them, completely oblivious to it, then that's an issue.

It is possible to drive below the speed limit and be aware of what's behind you and show some consideration to them, without wanting to drive at the speed limit for the road.

To slow down your car, you change gears.

No, you change gears because you've slowed down, usually by breaking.
If you drop down gears without breaking or slowing down first, it's not healthy for the car.

Quite different from using a low gear for safety down a hill rather than relying on the breaks alone.

My MIL used to drive so slowly (and only very locally) that unless you had something heavy to carry it really was quicker to walk.

Moondancer73 I do not generally drive below the speed limit, and the rural roads near me have many places where it is possible to overtake slower drivers safely. Of course, it does depend on whether the car you are driving has enough power...

Of course, it does depend on whether the car you are driving has enough power...

So true! I miss my old car.

I am rather worried by these exhortations to 'enjoy the scenery' if you are forced to slow down. Your eyes should be on the road, nowhere else.
It is an offence to travel too slowly, and there is an unlimited fine and up to 9 points on your licence. In practice there are simply not enough police (never see them round here anyway) to worry about someone creeping along an unclassified road, but where it is really dangerous is on motorways. People who fail to match speed when joining a motorway for example, or failing to keep up with, or impeding, other traffic in any lane. Police can, and do, fine people for this. I do wonder how some of the posters on here manage on motorways. Or perhaps they avoid them?

@Lweji Where on earth did you learn to drive? and when?

Of course you use the gears to slow down. That's what they are for. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Yes, use your gears to engine brake! Less wear on the old brake pads and calipers. Also very handy if it's icy, as you'll slow down without the possibility of locking the wheels.

When I passed my test at the end of March, the examiner said that I now started to learn how to drive. Fortunately I learned how to drive around Heckmondwike, so you are not likely to get stuck behind me on bends, but it's true. I'm getting out on the different roads and trying to work out what's going on and it's tough. This is why I'm keeping my P plates for now.

That said, I was taught that driving too slowly for the road and conditions made you a hazard, as did hesitating too long at junctions and roundabouts. I work hard at avoiding being a hazard, and I'm sure most drivers do as well.

On some roads in Germany there are minimum speed limits. What annoys/amuses me is, being in rural North Norfolk, the number of the green wellie brigade who come up for the summer in their Chelsea tractors and can't cope with the very narrow roads, they crawl round corners and don't understand passing places.