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.

the drivers were simply oblivious to them (no doubt busy looking at their phones!) and also oblivious to the cars going through the lights on green who had to brake/swerve to avoid them and still they just carried on oblivious.

Or perhaps they were just gazing around and enjoying the scenery as a couple of posters upthread think it’s reasonable to do while supposedly in control of a piece of potentially lethal machinery. 🙄

The only people getting het up about speeding and tailgating are people who drive significantly slower than others trying to argue there's nothing unreasonable about that and seem to think using examples of aggressive driving (which everyone is against) somehow makes their point.

Glad to know I'm nobody.
I very rarely drive below the speed limit. Yet, most people I encounter on the road drive faster than me. And I think the OP is unreasonable.

I'm finding it hard to believe that pps who complain about slow drivers don't routinely drive well over the speed limit.

If you're not able to notice the scenery while driving, then I doubt you're a capable or confident driver. Or you get so enraged by the drivers around you that you'd better take the bus instead.

@Vulpine yes I drive difficult roads every day and yes I get pissed off with people who drive 20 - 30mph or so below the speed limit when conditions are safe. Or drive significantly below the limit without allowing other traffic past when it is appropriate to do so as vehicles which are incapable of driving at a reasonable speed do. That said I don't tailgate and act like an idiot and I don't take unnecessary risks to get past because it's not worth risking peoples' lives for.

I do not drive recklessly but I do want to be able to make reasonable progress.

I'm finding it hard to believe that pps who complain about slow drivers don't routinely drive well over the speed limit.
Why?
Is it really that difficult to believe that the vast majority of drivers deploy common sense and reasonable judgement?

I find it entirely believable that the vast majority of sensible, competent drivers find both aggressive/reckless drivers and dawdling pootlers irritating.

@Lweji How is it hard to believe that I might be pissed off with people that go at 30 in a 40 AND those who speed.

I just want to drive at the speed limit, that doesn't mean that I speed about.

@Lweji - Your eyes should be on the road. If your field of vision happens to encompass a lovely view as well, that's all very lovely. But you should be looking at the road, watching what other traffic is doing, noticing road signs and generally paying attention to what you are doing while you are in motion. I have visions of you driving along with your head swivelling from side to side. It only takes a second of inattention to have an accident. Yes, one notices scenery, but you are not actually looking at it.
On the infrequent occasions I am a passenger on familiar local roads I am always amazed by the things I haven't seen ('when was that house built?', 'When were those trees chopped down?' sort of thing). I hope you don't spend time 'noticing the scenery' when you are travelling at 70 mph on the motorway.

There seems to be a correlation between fast drivers and angry drivers on this thread

What pisses me off the most is when they stay doing 35-40 in a 30mph after holding me up for a 15 mile stretch doing that speed!!

Maybe leave more time for your journeys? And breathe

I leave an extra 30 minutes every morning for my journey; I have to as I cannot stand being late. On the way home I just have to get home at whatever time I get home - there's an hour's variation generally. It doesn't mean it's not frustrating still even though I plan ahead so I am not made late. Last week I was stuck behind a man in a convertible, roof down, one elbow resting on the door, alternately smoking and drinking a coffee driving at a leisurely 30mph. It was just a selfish way to drive.

Actually, I find it far more annoying when I’m driving something slower myself than when I’m in my car and driving at the limit for the conditions.

My car is powerful enough that I can take any opportunity overtake safely without worrying about whether I have the speed or acceleration. And if some idiot decides on the corner last minute to crawl round even slower before going uphill, again it’s not a problem. Being stuck behind one of these incompetent fools when I’m pulling a trailer or driving a large, heavy horse box is significantly more infuriating. I need to allow double the gap I would behind a competent driver in a line of traffic because I don’t have the same freedom to brake suddenly and I don’t have the ability to overtake or accelerate quickly uphill. And it’s often these idiots that have a tendency to drift onto the wrong side on twists and corners because they are too incompetent to drive them. Invariably what they learn from whacking their brakes on mid corner and drifting is to drive even slower next time before locking the brakes again. Rather than having any concept that their fuckwit driving skills are the problem, rather than their speed.

If you're not able to notice the scenery while driving, then I doubt you're a capable or confident driver.

There’s a vast difference between noticing the scenery and deliberately dawdling along so you can gaze all around you.

There seems to be a correlation between fast drivers and angry drivers on this thread

Only in your imagination.

Maybe leave more time for your journeys And breathe
Again another pointless suggestion that suggests the issue with anyone who dislikes ditherers must be at fault. If they're not secretly a speeder and a tailgater, they must not leave enough time.

I don't find ditherers annoying because I'm about to be late. I find them annoying because the hold world up based on either an inability to drive appropriately and reasonably for conditions (incompetence) or they willing choose to drive in such a way despite being aware of the impact (smug and inconsiderate).
Either way it is bad driving.

Now if my additional time is taken up with a traffic jam, new set of temporary lights, a cyclist or two (assuming they're riding correctly in a group so I can do one safe overtake and not one of those long chains to bunny hop), a horse box, a bus or any other issue I have absolutely no issue at all.

Im not sure why fast drivers needs are greater than everyone else's needs. You sure all think you're superior drivers.

Just pull over vulpine if you see loads of people stuck behind you. That’s all. Isn’t that just being polite and considerate to others?

All these people saying 'just allow more time for your journey...' Life doesn't ways work like that. If you can't leave before a certain time due to other commitments (DC to get to school, for example) and the clinic appointment the NHS has given you is 30 mins after drop-off and a 25 minute drive away, you should be fine (and you don't want to rebook because you've already waited six weeks). But then you get stuck behind first a tractor and then someone who can't manage more than 40 mph in a 60 zone and all advice to 'allow more time' and 'just chill' is totally fecking useless.

I think my needs are as important as everyone else's, they don't trump anybody else's the same as no one else's trump mine. It's about understanding and being courteous to each other; when I have driven HGVs I have been aware of being slow and have driven in a way that allows traffic to get past me as easily as possible, including pulling in to the many long parking areas to the sides of roads such as the one I drive every day to let traffic capable of travelling at a reasonable speed past. To me it's simple - use your wing mirrors and if you can see a large queue of traffic then allow it to pass, then carry on your way at the speed that you want to or are capable of.

Im not sure why fast drivers needs are greater than everyone else's needs. You sure all think you're superior drivers
You sound like a ditherer there by doing the usual thing of willingly ignoring that the vast majority of drivers are not fast drivers. It's a funny thing that ditherers do: they categorise everyone who doesn't dither as fast and reckless or needs to chill out or needs to leave more time, anything but consider that their driving habits are out of whack with the majority of drivers (who are neither ditherers or speeders).

It's not about the needs of fast drivers (most of us have established that the vast majority of drivers are sensible and reasonable and also have an issue with those who speed and drive recklessly). It's about driving in way that makes reasonable progress, is appropriate for the conditions and doesn't hinder everyone else making progress.

Some vehicles can't help but be slower. Sometimes there's roadworks and traffic jams. That can't be helped.

People dithering along can be helped, though as this thread shows its to do wth willingly being inconsiderate and unreasonable as often as it is to do with incompetence

People dithering along can be helped

Go on...can you define 'dithering'....

Is doing 55 in a 60 dithering?
65 in a 70 dithering?
27 in a 30.....

Straight to the weakest argument that i am said ditherer! I've been driving for years and have come to the conclusion that life is too short to get upset by traffic. Road rage is a wasted, useless emotion.

Nobody has said ditherers upset them or give them road rage.

Nobody has said ditherers upset them or give them road rage

I think there's a lot of anger from some people on this thread when they encounter a car not travelling at the maximum speed they think they should be going for the conditions of the road so they are unable to make reasonable progress.

Frustration at another’s lack of consideration isn’t anger.