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.

I think some drivers as well really struggle with 50

When there's roadworks and it's 50, I find a lot of cars do 40

When it's 60, and they don't feel confident doing 60, I think the next step for them is 40. Not 55 or 50, because for some reason they just can't do 50

There's a road near me that's 50 purely for emmisions purposes, it's a dual carriageway and honestly there's so many drivers who take it at 40. It used to be 70, there's no reason to travel any less than 50 on it, they wouldn't have done it at 40 when it was 70

Its like their Speedometers just skip 50

@BlueCornsihPixie

If someone is that much of a shit driver with such painfully poor driving skills, they should have their licence revoked.

I regularly use one, and just in the last two days, I've had to slam on my brakes because of people coming around corners very quickly, and widely
If they were on their side of the road then the speed would have been irrelevant.
Their road placing is a sign of their poor driving, not an issue with the speed limit.
If they were speeding and having poor road position then whether the road was national or 40 wouldnt change that.
just 2 days ago if I had been doing 60, I would have come around the corner and killed the elderly man who was jogging...
Of course no sensible person would have done 60 around a corner they can't see round. Anyone who does that is failing to drive for the conditions. A national speed limit road doesn't mean take every corner at 60.
And then there's the time I was doing 40, the -jerk- person behind was aggressively tailgating, but hadn't seen the deer that had jumped out in front of me... ( it was that time of night, and a stretch of road that often had deer).
The issue there is with someone else's poor driving and not following stopping distances, again that's their issue regardles of a speed limit at 40 or national. Im willing to bet arseholes who tailgate will do at any speed.
Country road with deer and animals are often national with warning signs for animals. Reducing speed there is appropriate for the situation. It doesn't require a change in speed limit.

And then last week my daughter, who is learning to drive, but doing very well, had to slam her brakes, because someone pulled out from their drive without looking
Again, the issue there is with the person pulling out their drive into a national speed limit road without looking. Of course as a driver on a national road, you'd see the driveways and anticipate a potential hazard.

None of those require a change in speed limit. They are issues of poor driving.

It's like when people try to push for a 20mph speed limits in villages that are totally safe at 30. I'm never sure exactly how they think a 20mph limit solves the problem of assholes who speed in a 30.

I'm never sure exactly how they think a 20mph limit solves the problem of assholes who speed in a 30

It doesn't stop those idiots - like people near me - who think 50 is fine in a 30.

But it gets more people to slow down...and that's a good thing in a village, isn't it?

Some of those roads really shouldn't have a 60 limit!

Surely driving for the road conditions is the very definition of competent?

Completely agree which is why my AIBU wasn't about sticking to the speed limit but about pulling over if you are clearly holding people up.

The stretch of road I'm talking about mainly (although other roads are available) is the A6.

I drive it daily, it's 60mph for about 15 miles but there are a few sharp bends and sections that you would go 30/40mph on and a few small sections of 60mph duel carriageway where overtaking is possible but the rest us single carriageway with double white lines.

Most of it is safely driveable at 55 -60mph. I regularly get stuck for 5 miles plus behind people driving at 35 -40 passing multiple safe pull in points.

Tractors always pull in on that stretch. If it's safe for a tractor to pull in and out again, it's safe for Richard in his Astra.

Weirdly the worst offenders do seem to be middle aged men in economical cars.

My husband always says: ‘if another driver is forced to alter their driving as a result of something you have done (obviously excluding existing where you have a right of way) then you are driving badly.’ I am inclined to agree with him.

I always try to pull over if I am going to slowly for some reason (e.g. unsure of where I am) and there is anyone behind me/no easy opportunity to overtake. Most of the roads I drive simply don’t allow for overtaking (quite bendy) so I often get caught in long tails backs when someone is doing 30. It happens really often. I suspect it maybe down to having a lot of retirees moving to our area from London. They also tend to get really close behind (apparently it’s not immediately obvious that you need to leave more braking distance when driving fast).

It doesn't stop those idiots - like people near me - who think 50 is fine in a 30.
But it gets more people to slow down...and that's a good thing in a village, isn't it?
I'm not sure it is if it's excessive. When 30mph is safe and the highway code covers adapting driving for conditions then why would a long road through a village (with most houses being off side streets) need to be 20?
Being a safe driver is more than speed and yet those who drive slowly seem to think everyone else should drive like them, regardless of how reasonable it is, and those who have a logic problem and/or don't understand bad, risky driving fail to understand that needlessly lowering speed limits doesn't actually solve the problem of reckless driving.

@chomalungma is bad for air quality and also a bit unecessary often. I don’t know what the villages around you are like but the ones near us have no pedestrians ever.

When 30mph is safe and the highway code covers adapting driving for conditions then why would a long road through a village (with most houses being off side streets) need to be 20

Have you been to France? Lots of villages with big stretches of 30 km/h.

On the one hand, good. OTOH - people worrying too much about being caught speeding.

Being a safe driver is more than speed and yet those who drive slowly seem to think everyone else should drive like them

True - road awareness and situational awareness is important.

@IamtheOA if you flick your rear fog light on and off it puts off tailgaters. We get a lot of them where we live (and it can sometimes be a few miles before there is an opportunity to pull over).

Re 60 roads. Where the speed limit is 60 because it’s a NS single carriageway the roads haven’t had a speed limit set for them so you drive to the conditions. Unfortunately a lot of city dwellers don’t understand that and think it’s been approved as a safe speed to travel at.

Have you been to France? Lots of villages with big stretches of 30 km/h.
And? Just because they have 30km/h doesn't mean 30mph isn't safe.

Equally motorways on the continent are often much faster than our motorways and yet your average slow driver here prides themselves on doing 60mph on the motorway because they're think they're so much safer than everyone else.

road awareness and situational awareness is important.
If you agree with that then I fail to see why you think it's wrong of people to want to make perfectly safe, legal progress along a road without being hindered by self appointed slow driving monitors.

Completely agree. And the idiot who’s doing 40 in a 60 zone will continue doing 40 when the limit changed to 30! Drives me mad and should be an arrestable offence because it causes accidents with people trying to overtake.

Round here we have numerous very large farm machinery vehicles moving around on a regular basis as it is harvest time and they are making hay in the good weather. A vehicle which can do 30 MPH does not have to pull over by law, so large queues accumulate behind them.

We also have large numbers of mobile speed vans, so if cars can pass and accelerate they still need to be careful. I often see a driver who may not be familiar with the rules of our rural area accelerate like crazy then put the brakes on when a speed van is spotted, often too late. Locals tend to know where the vans sit on A roads and are more careful.

Despite being a notoriously careful and slow driver I have points on my licence so am now super cautious- terrified of racking up more points and that takes priority over pissing off strangers sorry not sorry.

That tells me you aren’t ‘careful’ you clearly speed where you shouldn't And aren’t willing to drive sensibly to the conditions that other drivers are. Get some lessons

I'm a relatively new driver, and I'm trying to go on new roads every week. Today I was on an unfamiliar bendy country road, lots of sharp corners, high hedges, and the speed limit seemed to change every sodding mile. I had a few moments, but I was keeping up the speed.

I nearly got clipped when someone towing a caravan came the other way around a tight corner with more swash than buckle, the caravan swung out and I had to accelerate out of the way.

I felt kind of good that I didn't get thumped by a caravan, but it took nerve to keep up to the speed of the traffic around some of the sharp bends after that, but I'm confident I managed it (no queue following me). Perhaps someone going slower has just had a shock.

Meckity1
As you can see from this thread, many of the slow drivers do so because they've decided that slow makes them better drivers, that it doesn't matter holding people up because the drivers might all hit the same traffic lights (no thought of different journeys), that they want to save a few pence of fuel so others should wait, that guidance on speed and progress is 'subjective' so basically everyone should abandon common sense.

Some might have just been spooked a little by something, but the I'm slow and safer than you all drivers do this because they believe they are right and because they are so right they get to police everyone else.

LolaSmiles

I tend to drive at near the maximum speed limit on our rural roads, but have learned the hard way not to exceed this. I have points on my license and do not want more, we have loads of mobile speed vans around here.

In spite of this, I often find a driver on my tail who seems to think if they sit on my exhaust pipe I will simply drive faster and exceed the speed limits.

If it is practical I might indicate and pull over to let the BMW driver past. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing their brake lights go on when they spot the mobile speed van, usually too late.

summer
But your post makes sense. You've been caught speeding and now obey the speed limit which is sensible. I don't think anyone on this thread would have had an issue with that.

Tailgaters and reckless drivers are pains in the arse and it's good if they get caught.

That's totally different to people deciding to hold everyone up doing substantially under the speed limit, then get some weird satisfaction that now and then a car who overtook them might end up at the same traffic lights (probably having got stuck behind another person who thinks their plodding speed is worth holding everyone up) and seem to think anyone wanting to make reasonable and safe progress is out of order.

@1CantPickAName

It’s an unmarked, twisty turny road, with an awful surface, that goes through a small village and has no pavements. It’s national speed limit (60, not 70 FYI) but that by no means makes driving at 60 safe or appropriate. The road is often used by cyclists, dog walkers, hikers, farm vehicles and horses. If you were to be doing 60 on it, you wouldn’t be able to react in sufficient time to a pedestrian or slow vehicle in the road, or to a car coming the other way.

If you're on a country road you've never been on before, you may well not know in advance where the dangerous spots are, where the sharp bends are, where the tractors are likely to pull out etc. I don't beep at/tailgate people who are unfamiliar with my local, pretty complicated one way system and have to change lanes or slow down to work out where they are. I wouldn't say they shouldn't be allowed on the road either.

People who tailgate are policing the road user every bit as much as the person driving deliberately slowly. I am unlikely to drive at 60 miles an hour on an unfamiliar rural road, but don't see that 50-55 should be such a big deal to you. But I would always pull in to let cars past if there was an appropriate stopping point. Please do me the same courtesy as to not tailgate me.

My driving instructor was an x policeman who used to go nuts with me if I didn't go with the flow of the traffic. He taught me well. Telling people to ignore other road users and concentrate on their own driving is very poor advice.

It's amazing how many drivers lose their shit when you stick to the speed limit though. Try and overtake a lorry at 70 on the motorway, and they drive up behind you flashing lights as if you are a middle lane hogger and have been sitting there for ten minutes. It seems as if they would prefer you to pull in unsafely and cause and accident, or perhaps levitate the car out of the way. There are some seriously dangerous, frustrated and impatient drivers around.

Can I ask where you are supposed to pull over to.

Friend pulled over for something else and got a fine in the post Photo taken from a CCTV camera.

Whilst going very slowly is annoying, I am probably one of those people who occasionally is going quite slowly because I don't know the roads . I don't know the twists and turns of the road or I am looking for the right house number.

I am also conscious of streets with parked cars.

Years ago I was going down a road and had a feeling I should proceed really slowly. Suddenly a little girl ran into the road and if I hadn't been going really really slowly I would have killed her.

It shook me up and now I drive at nearer 20mph if there are cars parked along a road and I can't see the pavement

I agree - but are they not doing the speed limit or not doing the speed you want them to?

I keep well up with the speed limit when safe to do so. Even been done for speeding 😬 (34 in 30 no excuse) but even then I'm constantly tailgated usually by an Audi or Golf lets face it who are desperately trying to get round me. I got called a 'fucking cunt' the other day by a man as I was doing 51 in a 50 and it wasn't good enough apparently.

I do agree that people tootling about in a daydream are infuriating and distracting.

People so angry and in a rush in this country. Really bad attitude as displayed on this thread. The time gain is negligible too. A friend was told in a speed awareness course that if they were speeding from where we live to Heathrow they would get there 6 minutes earlier (1.5 hr drive). 6 minutes!
In California it seemed everyone drive pretty slowly no road rage and dh encountered no negativity while on his road bike. Came back here and so much stress and fury. Chill out. Slow the fuck down.