What do you think of my driving instructor forcing me to do 82mph on a motorway?

[HappyPeach]

I had a pass-plus lesson on motorway driving to build my confidence. It was with the AA driving school, not my original instructor. I am an absolute stickler for the limit being the limit & not wanting to get fines or lose my reaction time. The instructor said I had to 'do 70 + 5mph + 10%' so I wasn't allowed to drive below 82mph as he called it 'failure to make progress' and I would piss off the other drivers. I'm really unhappy about this and I'm thinking of reporting him. I know many people drive at 80mph and above but that doesn't mean I have to. What d'you think?

I wouldn't have been impressed I'm a stickler for speed limits. That said I hate driving round Glasgow. Speed limit switches to 50mph on the ring road and everyone keeps going at 70mph.

Please report him he's going to kill someone

Where on earth did he pull 70+5+10% from?!

As it well documented on here I'm very liberal when it comes to motorway speeds.

But I do think being forced to speed by the instructor is wrong. it wouldnt be him getting the points if you were to get pulled over.

Unless you were doing 70mph hogging the inside lane when theres nothing to overtake I dont see why you would fail

Given that 70+10% makes 77 and not 82 anyway he can't even do basic maths.

Unlikely 82 is perfectly reasonable speed to do on the motorway.

But I'm not going to derail the thread onto a rights and wrongs of speeding

He's adding 5 miles on and then 10% so 82.5mph.

That sounds bonkers to me

That's the wrong calculation though Dappled she's saying 70+5+10%.

Yeah, I think I'd possibly raise this with the AA and ask them what their policy is.

Given that 70+10% makes 77 and not 82 anyway he can't even do basic maths

You missed out the plus 5 bit.

You could say the plus 5 is the margin of error on your speedo, they all read under. I think that this equation is the guideline (not the rule) for police forces, anything below you’re likely to get away with it.

But either way, that’s really poor advice coming from an instructor, I’d change if you were you.

If you were stopped going 82 mph, I don’t think the police would be impressed with you saying, but my driving instructor told me to.

I see. I read it as an abbreviated version of 70+5% and then 70+10%. So he was asking her to go at 70, then 73 then at 77..

Bollocks any way round!

He's a ridiculous man. Yes many people do that speed and I would even argue it's safe to do in some circumstances but it's breaking the speed limit and you as the driver and licence holder don't wish to drive at that speed.

Prosecution is around the 79mph mark so was he going to pay your fine/speed awareness costs?
Report him!

I agree it seems mad for an instructor to force a new driver on their first motorway experience to go at 82 instead of 70 just for the sake of it.

I try to stick to speed limits too in general.

But on the motorway I do think it can be safer sometimes to go with the speed of the traffic, as long as conditions are good. For example if I move to the middle lane to overtake a few slow lorries, and everyone in that lane is currently doing (say) 77, I'll generally do 77 as well, as it feels safer than making everyone else either slow down or overtake me. BUT I'd only do this if it wasn't too busy and I felt safe to do so, and I would keep a good stopping distance in front of me.

Was he called Mike? Seriously I'd have said a firm no, it's your licence, not his and he can piss off.

He's wrong to insist you maintain 82mph and lower than that is "too slow"
If he wants you to feel confident at overtaking at speed which might mean faster than 70 for a short time, that might be OK.

Given that 70+5 isn't 70, I'd be careful about casting aspersions on the mathematical ability of others, to be fair.

He's mad.

I had to do a speed awareness course for driving at 82 in a 70mph zone. I'd not have been very chuffed if the reason I was doing that speed was because a driving instructor told me to!

The speed limit is 70, so no, no, no one should be driving at 82 mph as it's breaking the law, and certainly no one doing pass plus in order to build confidence.

An inexperienced drive doing that speed could certainly end up causing an accident and killing someone.

Having said that he can't force you to drive above the speed limit if you refuse to press your foot on the accellarator.

Agree with pps, speak to AA to find out what their policy is regarding what he said. Can't believe they're routinely pushing drivers to break the law.

I've already explained I had assumed the equation had been abbreviated and it meant 70+5% and then 70+10%. So I can do maths, I just made some assumptions about the OP writing it quickly.

Unless you were doing 70mph hogging the inside lane when theres nothing to overtake I dont see why you would fail

The inside lane is the lane you should be in if not overtaking. You can’t really hog it!

They usually read 3mph under. I've had my cruise set at 70, then reset the average speed and it showed 67. I'm comfortable doing 75 as that will be 72 and without any tolerance for the speed of being incorrect.

let me be the first... IT'S A LIMIT, NOT A TARGET.

70+5+10% sounds similar to the old formula that was used for force discretion for speeding prosecution levels. So no-one cared about 80 in a 70.
That has changed (although in practice it hasn’t) but even so you shouldn’t be forced to drive at it. It’s wrong to teach that.

Car speedometers generally under report speed though, so if your car says exactly 70 it will be more like 65-68 so 82 on the dash is nearer to 75.

82mph seems a random number. I could understand if he said 79mph as that is the threshold for speeding prosecutions on the motorway in most areas. It is (70mph + 10%) + 2mph. This is to allow for calibration variances on speed cameras and speedometers.