People driving at 50mph on a 60mph road

[impossibldream]

I have to use an A road most days which has a national speed limit (60mph). It seems like I’m always stuck behind some idiot driving along at 50mph. I find it so hard not to get wound up. It just results in people trying to overtake (sometimes taking risks so I think it increases a chance of accidents) and generally increasing levels of stress. Why do people do this? AIBU to find it rude and annoying?

I’m not sure I could be bothered about someone doing 50 in a 60.

But if you’re doing 40 or less on a straight, wide NSL road on a perfectly clear, dry day with good visibility, then you should not be on the road because to put it simply, you don’t know how to drive.

I live in a village surrounded by NSL roads and the garden centre nearby attracts a lot of older drivers who think it’s totally fine to drive at 25mph in a 60. It’s ridiculous and completely infuriating, particularly when you get a stream of morons behind the crawler who won’t overtake when it’s completely safe, so then everyone behind has to drive at 20!

They shouldn't have passed in that case.

They wouldn't have in their test if they drove that slow

And sometimes it's safe to do above the limit

No idea why you quoted me to say that but you’re right. On a freely moving motorway I rarely drive at 70. Equally, just because a road has a limit of 60 it’s not necessarily safe to drive at that speed. I’ve driven on several rural roads in just the last few days where you’d be mad to do 60 because they’re narrow and you can’t see whether anything is coming the other way.

No. No WAY would you fail your driving test PURELY for going 50 in a 60 zone. You MUST have had more things that you failed on to have failed the test as a whole. You simply would not have failed PURELY on driving at 50mph in a 60 zone. Absolute nonsense.

You can't just make stuff up to suit your agenda you know.

😂😂😂The beauty of it is, you have absolutely no idea what an arse you are making of yourself with theses comments 😂😂😂

But nobody HAS to drive at the speed limit.' As many posters have said, it's perfectly acceptable to drive at 50 in a 60 zone, at 30-35 in a 40 zone, and at 50-60 on the motorway where it's 70. (Coz people can overtake!) NO-ONE has to drive at the 'speed limit' Don't take the piss obvs, and do 20-25 in a 40 zone, or 40 in a 60 zone, but 5 to 10 mph less than the speed limit is acceptable.

@user143677433

I hate that pathetic MN phrase, ‘it’s a limit not a target’ 🙄

It's not just an MN phrase. It's a FACT. DO educate yourself dear.

If you find it hard not to get wound up by such a minor and perfectly legal thing, I'd suggest that it's you that is the problem driver, not the person driving at 50.

It is a maximum speed limit not an obligation. The OP should stop driving if unable to accept that.

Of course the law is far too lenient as to physical and mental ability to drive but two wrongs don't equal right.

The Highway Code also states that if the road conditions are favourable, that you can drive up to the max speed limit

Note it says can not must.

🤣🤣🤣
Well, it was a tick in the fail box.
Sorry, you don't believe me.
It's the truth.
A stone cold fact.

Anyway back to driving, whilst testing a remap on Skipton bypass I bailed at 145mph.😙

A de-limited BMW M6 with a little more power although that’s not strictly necessary to crack 200mph.

Can't really see the issue tbh. It doesn't make a lot of difference to journey time and it's not illegal. Driving aggressively, on the other hand, or overtaking at unsafe points ...

I ve slowed down since fuel prices rocketed, 50 in 60 is pretty normal now and it decreases fuel consumption by about 5 miles per gallon over the course of the week.

fwiw, if i set cruise control to 68 i get 74 mpg, change it to 78 and i get 59mpg, tried it on a french autoroute compared to non autoroute (1.6 tdi)

You'll always come across a caravan, a delivery van, tractor, lorry in any case.

People need to realise that UK roads are so congested and have frequent towns etc that accelerating up to 60mph every few minutes is a waste of time & money.

Or as a traffic cop told me when i was caught speeding a while ago said "what will you do with those 2 minutes you saved?

If driving close to the speed limit in OPTIMUM conditions terrifies you so much, do stay off the road dear, for the sakes of all of us good and confident drivers

People who think they are good and confident drivers, are often nothing of the sort, they lack insight into their own bad driving, as you ve more than adequately shown.

If you want to enforce traffic law, join the Police, otherwise focus on your own driving instead of getting distracted (one of the more common causes of accidents) by other drivers.

The vast majority of UK A/B or designated 60mph roads are not straight nor dueled, they have bends in them, high hedges, cyclists, caravans broken down vehicles, on coming traffic.
So if your driving properly, you'll be slowing, anticipating... non of which you do, as you focus on speed and others so called bad driving.

There are a lot of people proclaiming to be confident, competent drivers (and you may well be you can claim anything on here) I am not always super confident but I feel I am a capable driver. However one of the things about driving is that you can only control the vehicle you're in. The higher speed you are doing, the less likely you are to be able to stop, avoid another car that is driving recklessly or an unexpected obstacle, moving animal or hazard on the road.
FWIW I can't get to upset about people doing 50 in a 60 zone bit I think 30-40 would be annoying.

15 pages of people arguing and the OP hasn't returned. What a surprise.🤔

I really hope that someday soon we all have driverless cars that automatically impose speed limits and make it impossible to exceed the stated speed limit. Just to get rid of all the idiots who think it’s cool to boast about their 100+mph speeds on the motorway. If you want to drive fast, go take up motor racing on a dedicated track rather than the fast lane of a busy motorway.

And yes maybe driverless cars would stop people driving too slowly aswell.
But like other posters say I always give those drivers the benefit of the doubt as who knows what their situation is - they could be transporting a priceless statue etc 😂

And also if cars could automatically control the distance between themselves on the motorway, that would be great. Every time I pass those ‘keep 2 chevrons apart’ signs almost no-one takes any notice. Does everyone really think they are all such good drivers with such amazing reaction times that they don’t need to bother with safety advice?

50 isn’t that unreasonable, after all quite a lot of vans can only do 50mph on an A road, and the limit for HGVs is the same. Unless you’re in Scotland where it’s 40mph…

And also if cars could automatically control the distance between themselves on the motorway, that would be great

That technology has been around for years. Adaptive cruise control.

@Fatballs
I don’t have this on my car sadly. But yes maybe this explains why some cars drive so close to each other? As in you don’t need as big a distance as 2 chevrons away from the car in front if your car will stop automatically when the car in front does - as it cuts out the need for the reaction time stopping distance. Is that how it works?

Then maybe instead what I wish for is that other drivers realised I didn’t have it and would stop overtaking into my safety bubble!

But on a clear NSL road in good conditions, the ‘danger’ factor of driving above the limit is an assessment that can be made by the driver. If you cannot assess the safety of doing so then you have no margin of error in your driving abilities

I would say that if you do way over the speed limit you overestimate your driving abilities. By some margin.

The trouble is the type of person who thinks they're the best driver on the road is usually the type of person who is an arrogant deluded idiot

Indeed.

You are aware that the speed limit is just that, a maximum LIMIT, not a target. So no they are not idiots to drive at 50 in a 60.