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?

When DH did emergency response driving one of the messages he had hammered in to him is that making progress isn't just about speed. It's about anticipation too.

Instructor is a dick.

😄😃😃😃😃 still.a cunt

And you’re still talking nonsense.
But we’re both still laughing.

Ugh. Macho pillock. Are there many like him I wonder? A lot of drivers seem to get into a state when they are stuck behind a bus or truck. They simply must overtake. Its not illegal to keep to the limit !

I think the person getting bent out of shape here is the one resorting to using “cunt” 🤣
All because mummy’s little precious can’t drive well enough yet and mummy would rather spout conspiracy theory nonsense than accept that.

If on a motor they would doing under the limit I'm aloud to drive at. So of course I would overtake. And for a clearer view of the road

Some people want to travel faster than a bus, truck or even a car driver who is too nervous to drive at the appropriate speed for the conditions.

I've actually allowed HGV drivers overtake me to over take the latter because HGV drivers drive to a time limit. I don't for buses as I'm aware bus drivers can be late.

do you look in your rear view mirror you may not get in an accident but you will be causing carnage behind you.

you will be forcing lorries out of the lane on slow entries causing a cascading effect , or causing a collision by having someone behind you join at a slow speed and someone in lane 1 miss judging (not expecting a 45mph entry and ploughing into the back of them.

lorries also drive using ‘ energy’ and cannot just stand on the breaks. They are taught to maximise the energy and minimise breaking.

you are a danger

Definitely this. Applies to IAM too (although response training is at a higher level). I was in no way asked or encouraged to ever exceed the speed limit as you just don't do it. Generally you can make optimum progress via anticipation and applying speed at the right time, rather than going for outright speed (which is dangerous anyway).

I've no idea what this instructor was thinking but can't be in any training manual.

@User112 and @VioletInsolence I would suggest you both stick to the A and B roads if you don’t want to drive above 50mph. Motorways are designed for driving at faster speeds - most of traffic safety depends on predictability I.e. that we all follow the rules of the road. To come across a driver doing 50mph on a road that’s to be driven on at 70mph is dangerous as it’s unpredictable.

Now of course a good driver will anticipate variations in speed and adjust their driving accordingly, and leave plenty of space to move over. But as we can see from this thread there are some shocking drivers on the road and they WON’T anticipate unpredictability. That’s why crashes happen.

Also much slower drivers change the flow of traffic significantly, causing bottlenecks and reducing the smooth flow of traffic.

@Sidge

Sorry but I don't agree. Plenty of traffic on motorways is travelling at 60mph or below. Caravan towing and towing in general is limited to 60mph. It's not unusual to see towing done at 50mph if the load dictates it, especially when large plant or civil/industrial loads are being transported. Also lots of classic cars, campers and other vehicles drive more slowly but are still entitled to do so perfectly safely.

Traffic flow is rubbish generally because of poor lane discipline. I generally have more hold ups and inconvenience due to middle lane hoggers.

The two PP's you're telling to get off the motorway are not really doing any harm so should carry on as they are.

@Lunar270 we’ll agree to disagree!

For me it relates to the predictability. One expects lorries, caravans, HGVs etc to be travelling around 55-60. One doesn’t expect to see cars doing that speed. And there’s a significant difference between 50 and 60 I think.

Driving at 55 or 60 because you’ve got a wide or heavy load is reasonable. Driving at 50 because oooh the motorway is a bit scary is not reasonable. Get off the motorway and use the A roads.

@Sidge

It makes absolutely no difference. You see something in the road ahead and drive round it accordingly. It doesn't matter if it's a motorbike, car, truck or whatever. I think you're clutching at a very thin straw.

As I said, I often see classic cars, campers and suchlike. Never seen any whiff of a problem.

I have seen issues with broken down cars in limp mode causing issues but that's with them doing 20mph.

In any case, you can be stopped by the police if you're driving too slowly but there's no actual minimum speed limit. Therefore, nothing wrong is taking place if people don't want to exceed 50mph. If it was as dangerous as you're claiming then something would've been done by now.

Absolutely..

you are a new driver. He is insane.

Absolutely agree with this. I live overseas most of the time but definitely over the past 10 years speeds on the M25 seems to have come down to be not much more that 70 mph now when it used to be around 85/90 mph. I assume frequent users have had sufficient speeding fines to know best. (Of course most of the time on the M25 is seems to be around 20mph)

Well, I had to go on a speed awareness course run by the police and they said "it's a limit not a target". So your instructor has made you break the law. Did he make you slam on the breaks for a speed camera as well?!

In addition they said there is never a time it is appropriate to speed due to other drivers / tailgating and all the other reasons people have for exceeding the speed limit. Easier said than done sometimes, but your instructor must have been crazy to tell you to do this. Or you are making it up!

If anyone with a licence is going to speed because someone else has to told them to, they shouldn't be on the road. There's only one person responsible for breaking the limit and that's the driver.

I don't disagree that the instructor shouldn't be encouraging speeding, but if it comes to it only the driver is going to end up in court.

I got caught doing 77 on the motorway and sent on a speed awareness course

I got caught doing 77 on the motorway and sent on a speed awareness course

That's very unusual if it was a 70mph limit and was in England?

It's outside the guidelines if so.

(Image courtesy of Counsel Direct, specialist motoring barristers.)

Yep. Just pointing out that it does happen though it’s not something I’d lose sleep over. Suspect it was a very zealous traffic cop

@FurAndFeathers

Suspect it was a very zealous traffic cop

Sounds like it!

I'm always travelling the M25, and I think the reason speeds have come down, is because of the constant changing smart motorway speeds, all the gantry cameras, and the huge influx of lane hogging bellends that force people trying to do 70, in to 1 lane