Learner doing 25mph in a 30

[Hullabaloo9]

I'm taking my son out driving to consolidate what he learns on his professional lessons. We drive round residential areas at non peak times.

Is it acceptable for him to be driving generally at 25mph on residential 30mph roads?. I encourage him to go a little faster but with lots of road parking etc he says he only feels confident to go at that speed at the moment. Are we a total nuisance or is this OK? Xxx

@LegMeChicken I said it was when I first started. It was literally my first ever time driving a car! On my 17th birthday. I was SO scared. Dad just got me to drive to the left and keep pulling in to let cars pass. He was in the police so wouldn’t have put me in any danger and knew what he was doing. We’ve all got to start somewhere.

You would fail a driving test for driving in excess of a speed limit but not for going slower speed limit.

That's incorrect @Muchtoomuchtodo. You can absolutely fail your test for driving too slowly, it's under the "fails to make sufficient progress" bit on the test.

@WhatTheWhoTheWhatThe

25 miles an hour on a residential road with parked cars is fine.

You would fail for doing 25 miles on a country road with a national speed limit of 60 if there were no obstruction causing you to need to slow down

By no obstruction do you mean ‘normal conditions’? No rain, etc. I was taught to drive close to speed limit under normal conditions . Except on rural roads. Many have the default national speed limit but have so many bends, limited view etc that it’s impossible to drive fast. The majority of fatal young driver crashes happen on country roads, because of the National speed limit…

The OP isn't asking if he'll fail his test though, they're asking if 25mph is OK around residential roads whilst learning. And of course it is. Speed comes with increased competence and confidence.

@Blossomtoes

I do 25 under the circumstances you describe and I’ve been driving for over 30 years. There are some residential streets where 25 isn’t safe.

She's probably better off without P plates tbh. They make her a target for exactly the kind of arseholes she's trying to avoid IMO.

I mean, if you or I saw someone with P plates, we'd make allowances, but - I assume - we're also not the kind of people who give new drivers a hard time because we're arseholes, are we? You need to think like an arsehole to work out if the P plates are worth it.

[quote Mummywantsaweewee]@LegMeChicken I said it was when I first started. It was literally my first ever time driving a car! On my 17th birthday. I was SO scared. Dad just got me to drive to the left and keep pulling in to let cars pass. He was in the police so wouldn’t have put me in any danger and knew what he was doing. We’ve all got to start somewhere.[/quote]
You start by going on 20 roads and slowly building up. Not going on a National speed limit road straightaway.
Forgivable if you ended up there by accident, dangerous and reckless if he did it on purpose, especially if he was a police officer.
Anyway this thread isn’t about that

The key thing for me is that you're doing it on quiet residential roads off peak .... in which case, of course, that's fine. Where I grew up, professional lessons were not a thing except for the last few to help you make sure you could pass the test. You started out in random car parks on sundays out of hours, then progressed to quiet residential streets, usually at 8am on a Sunday and then continued up. This was so that you could get used to the roads and the car before you got used to driving with lots of other people.

It would not be okay in my opinion to be doing this on a busy thoroughfare at a busy time and in fact, would be likely to cause him MORE stress as he'd be able to see and hear the drives getting frustrated around him.

However he could potentially fail his test if he consistently drives under or over the speed limit.

Only if it’s consistent or really slow. I passed my test last summer and was driving in a built up city at school time. I didn’t realise the speed had changed from 20 to 30 and spent two minutes tootling along at 20 before the examiner reminded me I was driving in a 30 zone. Received one minor for this. Still passed my test.

My instructor always reminded me that the speed limit was the limit and not the target. Although to try and stay near it if I could. If there were cars parked up on one side, he always told me to drop my speed. I think I spent most of my test at around 25-28 in a 30 zone and passed just fine.

@Favourodds

The OP isn't asking if he'll fail his test though, they're asking if 25mph is OK around residential roads whilst learning. And of course it is. Speed comes with increased competence and confidence.

It is okay, but it should also be the case that OP gets him to pull over if he's causing too much of a backlog or being too hesitant.

?? 30 mph is the maximum speed not the average.

You should always go between 20 and 30 so yes 25 is fine.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts would you really consider 25mph in a 30 zone too slow though?

Yes if you were doing that speed in a 60mph area for no good reason you should fail your test for driving too slowly but not in the example given by op.

Much of our closest city is now 20mph which I hope gets rolled out to my town

entered too soon, He should try to stick between 25 and 30 when just driving normal though and slowing down for junctions and passing smaller to pass through areas

If there are various hazards like parked cars narrowing the road or affecting visibility, 25mph is actually driving for the conditions and not too slow.

Might be useful to read up about defensive driving?

It's also good to have conversations about why he's choosing his speed to be clear it's based on good judgment of the conditions not just fear or lack of confidence. So on a clear road, not narrowed by parked cars, good visibility, he needs to be doing 30mph. On a 30 road with lots of hazards, even less than 25 might be safest.

"What's the speed limit here?"
"And is it safe to do that?"
"Why/why not?"

I think it depends on the road. If there are lots of cars parked too that it’s single lane and you need to stop frequently to let cars coming pass I think 25 is fine. However if the roads are relatively straight and clear he should probably be going a bit faster, I was anxious going at 30 when learning but my driving instructor would encourage me to at least aim to go at 27/28 so it was less frustrating for the cars behind as otherwise cars behind can start getting too close or trying to overtake which made me even more anxious! He doesn’t have to be going 30 on every road but 25 is going to be slow enough to be a nuisance on a clear, straight road and he will need to develop the confidence to get his speed up.

It is okay, but it should also be the case that OP gets him to pull over if he's causing too much of a backlog or being too hesitant.

What kind of backlog is he going to cause doing 25 in a 30?

Noone is as busy and important as they believe. People having to briefly do 25 in a 30 because of a learner will survive.

A word of caution: while I totally agree with those saying that 30 is a limit not a target…

My friend just failed her test on the basis that she never drove over 25 and the instructor felt there were times when she should have been doing 30.

So before he does the test, make sure he is confident to drive at 30 and can spot situations when he should do so, or he may find that he fails ☹️

When you say "lots of road parking" does that mean roads where there are parked cars on both sides of the road so that there is just enough room for two cars to pass/points where cars have to stop to let others pass because it is too narrow for two cars or just lots of parked cars but roads wide enough for two cars to pass comfortably?

If it is the former then 25mph is perfectly reasonable - there is a road I have to use to go to work and it is a massive PITA because there are cars parked on both sides and there is only room for one car to drive down it at a time so, at peak times, you have massive queues of cars backing up into other streets because it is such a bottleneck. However, if it is the latter then I don't think you are being unreasonable to encourage him to drive to the speed limit as ge should be travelling with the flow of traffic and he may start to cause traffic to back up (if he does insist on staying 5mph under the speed limit then if he starts to build up a trail of cars then he needs to be courteous and pull in when safe to do so to let the other cars pass)

[quote Muchtoomuchtodo]@fairylightsandwaxmelts would you really consider 25mph in a 30 zone too slow though?

Yes if you were doing that speed in a 60mph area for no good reason you should fail your test for driving too slowly but not in the example given by op.

Much of our closest city is now 20mph which I hope gets rolled out to my town[/quote]
If driving that speed means holding up a load of traffic then yes, it's too slow.

When I was learning to drive a few years ago, my instructor would say "What's the speed limit?" and I'd answer, and he'd say "well, let's go at that speed then, come on!"

Unless it's dangerous and the road conditions are poor, you shouldn't be consistently driving under the limit. If you can't keep up with the flow of traffic, you should pull over and allow vehicles to pass (as per the highway code), not just pootle along and get in the way.

@Favourodds

It is okay, but it should also be the case that OP gets him to pull over if he's causing too much of a backlog or being too hesitant.

What kind of backlog is he going to cause doing 25 in a 30?

Noone is as busy and important as they believe. People having to briefly do 25 in a 30 because of a learner will survive.

The highway code states that slow-moving vehicles should pull over where possible and allow traffic to pass.

Yes, that primarily applies to lorries or tractors, but not solely.

Being a learner doesn't make you exempt from the rules of the road - if you are too nervous to drive at an appropriate speed while accompanied by mum, then maybe you need more lessons first.

Of course you'll survive if you're stuck behind a slow driver but that doesn't mean it's okay for said slow driver to not pull over and be aware of other people.

I don't know how your voting is set up but he's smart to go at his own pace, 25 is ok in a 30.

Much of our closest city is now 20mph which I hope gets rolled out to my town

I disagree - it's bad for fuel consumption and is a pain in the wotsit when you are waiting to cross. Too slow to wait, too fast to go in front of.

30 is fine. 25 is fine if you are a learner (and if you are not) and there are lots of parked cars.

And o a 60 limit road you take a view. Some are perfectly safe at 60, some should have 40 limits. Others depend on weather etc.

That's fine. Doing 30 in residential streets where I live is impossible due to parked cars.

I can confirm you can fail a driving test for going too slowly….

It happened on my first test.

I drive at 25 in a 30 😂

30 is the limit. he doesn’t have to get to it. Get some mileage under his belt first,build confidence, can he react to a child or ball coming from nowhere,? 25 is fine in a built up area, in fact that’s my usual speed,if they don’t like it behind me,tough