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.

it's so dangerous as other drivers become frustrated and then accidents happen

Surely it's still the impact impatient driver's fault, no?
Shouldn't instructors teach not to be impatient instead?

OP where are these roads where someone can drive for miles at 50 or 60mph?

Any A or B road i'm on and at at pretty much any time of day, there are lorries, vans, horseboxes, hills bends etc that all slow you down significantly.

Waste of time trying to drive at the speed limit in this country, roads are far too congested and in places like mid wales where they are not, its easy to over take, YABU !

It is perfectly safe on the main A road to drive at 60. It is wide enough and not overly bendy. However it is busy which makes over taking almost impossible in peak times. The number of people I see who go 40-50 miles an hour, oblivious of the 20 car tailback is shocking.

That perfectly describes a road near me and while I would just grin and bear it or just enjoy the view as others have suggested, other drivers will overtake. Then they not only have to overtake the original slow mover but also all the other drivers with the more relaxed attitude, thus compounding the danger.

I suggest op moves to France the roads far less crowded

Surprised as this thread tbh I grew out of this - weird so many mothers still on this go fast and damn you if you stop me mentality as grown adults. We live in a crowded country get over it

We are not talking about going fast, we are talking about appropriate speed and even mothers have to get to places. Some mothers even work as delivery dr. Mind blowing, I know!

I confess I’ve only read about a third of the thread so apologies if someone has already made this point but...

Driving at 45 doesn’t use less fuel than driving at 60 if you still slam your brakes on at every bend in the road.

Read the road. Then maybe the bend won’t be such a surprise.

Yes those bastards tourists driving carefully and looking at the view how very dare they! Listen to yourself!

No. You listen to yourself if you think it’s appropriate to be gazing around at the view if you’re in command of half a ton of moving metal!

If 'mothers need to get to places', maybe mothers should leave more journey time.

If you don't drive super fast then one can indeed take in their surroundings better, including the view. Why's everyone rushing all the time?

For most journeys, driving 10 mph faster doesn't save that much time. And nobody gets stuck behind a slower driver for more than a few minutes. It would have to be a very long road indeed.

Oh yes they do! Once happened to me between Aberdeen and Fochabers (about 50 miles). Too much traffic coming the other way to overtake. The journey goes through several villages where they could have stopped for a few seconds , but no!

I would imagine you live I a city or somewhere well blessed with motorways, Lweji.

I am not a slow driver, but I still think YABU. The people who are the real problem are the angry ones who get so incensed at being delayed a tiny bit. They are the ones who actually cause the accidents.

There are lots of things that can temporarily slow you down on the road - bad traffic, farm vehicles, bin lorries, bicycles, horses, roadworks, adverse weather conditions, slow drivers. They are not all going to get off the road to let you go faster, nor should they. It's not going to kill you to exercise a bit of patience. It might even be good for your blood pressure.
I live fairly rurally. There are lots of single track roads and lots of tractors. There is zero point in getting worked up about it - my journey is no more important than theirs. I do not take priority. There are also lots of tourists. They don't know the roads, so it's natural that they would go a bit more slowly. It's mildly irritating if I'm in a hurry, but it's really not a problem.

AlexaAmbidextra
I agree.

What amuses me is that there seems to be two groups of people on this thread.

Group 1 - It's not ok to tailgate or speed, by people should drive in a way that's appropriate for the road and conditions without hindering other road users making progress. It's not about doing 60mph on every road, but reading the road and adapting driving accordingly. Of course you factor in float time in your journey to account for delays and so on, but it's still annoying.

Group 2 - I'm a much safer driver because I drive slowly. If I want to do this speed then I'll do that regardless of what other people think. I want to save fuel and it makes no difference to anyone if I want to drive over 10 miles under the speed limit when it's safe for other drivers to go quicker. They shouldn't be in a hurry. I'd rather be cautious and safe than a tailgater who is aggressive. Why are people always in a rush? They should slow down and enjoy the views. Maybe if people want to get places they should leave more time to account for my desire to slow the traffic down. It's all either/or, you're either in group 2 or you're an aggressive driver who tailgates and is unsafe and can't possibly use hazard perception skills.
But a national limit road near me has animals on it sometimes so you shouldn't drive at 60.
But a national road near me has some bends that it wouldn't be right to do at 60.
But someone tailgated me once when I was doing the speed limit
But technically what is reasonable progress? It's all subjective anyway, I mean what do we mean by not hindering other drivers? I think my speed is reasonable for me so it must be fine for everyone else?

Meanwhile group 1 are exasperated because all they're on about is a tiny bit of common sense and driving in a competent way that is appropriate for the conditions.

There's a rural, modern, bendy but well cambered road near me that is generally driven at about 50-60 mph. The stretches with markings permitting overtaking are quite short, plus it's busy, but wide enough that you can safely pass a bike. Assuming normal range of driving conditions, 50 is about the lower end of the normal range. It does attract some of the 35mph drivers which in good conditions is very slow and a hinderence to other road users. These 35mph-ers are inevitably the ones who reach the 40mph zone at one end of the road and then speed up to 43! So why if it is safe to do 40+ in a 40, why on earth do they have to do 35 in a 60? And they do obliviously bank up trails of traffic behind them who should otherwise reasonably expect to be driving at least 15mph faster.

I suspect a lot of people don't know what a NSL sign means. With smaller rural roads, it is basically that they are unclassified and that is the default as there may be stretches where that could be an appropriate speed as it's just not viable to give an accurate assessment to each stretch of rural road (indeed the A roads that switch from 60, 40, 30, 50, 40 etc in succession are difficult to keep track of)
I also suspect that a lot of people don't understand road markings of solid and broken lines.

I aim to drive to the road conditions. It is a bit vague and subjective, but there can't be a blanket rule to suit every road, condition and vehicle. Have I ever driven too slowly, yes, and if I have a clear road ahead and a line of traffic behind, that's a sign that I can be reasonably driving a bit faster (usually happens on an unfamiliar route) and therefore I adjust my driving accordingly, because it's more likely to be me at fault in that situation than every vehicle behind me. It doesn't happen often!

I would imagine you live I a city or somewhere well blessed with motorways, Lweji.

Where I live I get all kinds of roads and make different kinds of trips.

It's only in heavy traffic that I find myself stuck behind slow drivers for long. Occasionally behind long groups of cyclists, even.

I do find them annoying, as I mentioned several times here, but I know it's my issue. Not theirs. And I know that overall my journeys aren't that affected.

If you're stuck behind a slower vehicle crossing villages, etc, it's not likely that you'd be able to go at a much higher speed than them anyway... Try and figure out how much time you'd save by going at the speed you wanted. Then let me know the results.

I used to drive a Morris Minor with a max speed of 50mph and would struggle on hills and I would always pull over for people

^surely it's still the impact impatient driver's fault, no?
Shouldn't instructors teach not to be impatient instead?^

But it is perfectly legal to overtake, so unless instructors tell clients they should never overtake, they can’t do that. Yes, it is a given that you shouldn’t overtake a car going at NSL, but if a car is going well below that, you are allowed to overtake. Therefore drivers avail themselves of that right but sometimes misjudge the oncoming traffic.

Again, new driver here. Is it because the speed limits are changing along stretches of roads?

Took son and his mate to a museum place about twenty miles away. The sat nav took me along all sorts of weird country roads (still scared of motorways) and I had the lads shout out the speed limits as we drove as they changed so much. It kept them occupied and gave them something different to argue about.

Is it appropriate to be getting so stressed and impatient when 'in command' of half tonne moving metal?

But it is perfectly legal to overtake

FFS, has anyone said you shouldn't overtake a slower driver if done safely?

OP where are these roads where someone can drive for miles at 50 or 60mph?

Can’t speak for OP but the 100 mile long A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen is a good example. It is dualled to a few miles outside Aberdeen, then fairly wide single carriageway for the rest, with some, but not many, overtaking lanes. 60 MPH speed limit is appropriate speed for almost all of it. I am sure there must be similar roads in England!

^But it is perfectly legal to overtake

FFS, has anyone said you shouldn't overtake a slower driver if done safely?^

That seemed to be the implication of the post I was responding to. (No need to swear!)

There are clearly some shocking drivers around. Many of them on mumsnet. Nervous. Unable to drive to the road conditions. See no problem in driving as slowly as they wish and it's everyone else's problem.

Anyone with half a brain drives according to road and weather conditions. I usually drive at 55-60 along the A-road close to me, this morning it was more like 45 because of the heavy rain and standing water.

However. If you find a queue of people rapidly building up behind you the natural assumption is not that they are all road rage boy or girl racers who will wrap their car around a tree on the next corner. If you have a huge queue behind you while you tootle along, it's YOU who is too slow.

Unfortunately the crap drivers have no self-awareness and repeat their "it's a limit not a target"mantra.

Meckity1
Usually through villages is 30mph, sometimes with a 40 on the way in/out to control speed and allow for a phased slowing down from 50/60 depending on the road.
The rest of the roads are usually national speed limit which in reality usually means depending on the conditions and road features doing between 45/55, sometimes less where there's poor visibility.

Most people who drive rural roads regularly understand a little bit uncertainty so as long as you aren't getting multiple cars behind you then you're probably doing great.

That seemed to be the implication of the post I was responding to.

How?!

And I will fucking swear on MN if I want to.
Particularly when people post nonsense.

@Mum2jenny I'm guessing you are one of the people who drive below the speed limit. Someone who causes accidents by driving that way, and it's nothing to do with being 'competent enough to overtake' because in most country roads there aren't areas to overtake so it's incredibly selfish to drive that way.