To think motorway speeds have slowed down a lot in recent years

[Wertie]

Has anyone else noticed this? Obviously in some areas you get pockets of speed, but mostly I find motorways have slowed.
I remember the ‘fast’ lane was something I avoided. It was an 85+ space. I was a slow lane driver. More and more though I find myself going right even in 3/4 lanes just to cruise at 70. Many people hover nearer 60.
Im far from a reckless driver, I have an old car. But I’ll do the speed limit in good road conditions without seeing any reason not to.
The M25 is a 50/ 60 zone and even the M11 is getting sensible.

I often drive from the M18 on to the M1. The M1, with speed cameras every two seconds, is very restrained these days which can be disappointing in the four lane sections where every lane ends up going at the same speed - can’t see the point in building the extra lane really! However when you get onto the M18 with far fewer cameras it speeds right up even with just two lanes.

I think most people drive reasonably on the motorway and want to make progress. On the motorways near me the speed camera vans are often out in force, which is nice and keeps people sensible.

What I've noticed more of is the people who aren't confident on motorways driving in a way that's annoying to others eg not accelerating properly on slip roads to merge with traffic, sitting in the middle lane at 60/65 with nothing on the inside lane, random brake tapping etc.

I went through essex and the speed control I saw was a traffic officer in the middle lane flashing his lights at anyone who was approaching too fast. No cameras but it was effective!

I do a lot up and down the A1. It's fast. Agree with pp that traffic is moving on the M18.

The M25 sounds to be tail backs and accidents half the time, which obviously slows it down.

On the M11 today the traffic in the right lane was bumper to bumper at 65 ish, whilst the left lane was almost completely empty.

Yes I have noticed this too.

Must be all the speed cameras and perhaps fuel economy.

IMO a lot of it is down to increasing traffic density and poor lane discipline.

Yes I've noticed this too. But conversely, dual carriageway A-roads around me are horrendous. I was doing 70 in the left lane and at least four cars passed me so fast they couldn't have possibly been doing anything less than 110 and people don't seem to look properly on roundabouts or junctions anymore, they just pull out because their journey is obviously more important than rights of way rules or avoiding accidents. The number of tailgaters seems to have reduced lately though as well, it's rare now that I have anyone up my arse end whereas a few years ago it was rare that I could do a whole journey without getting at least one twat.

The 50mph average speed check zones have had an overall calming effect I think.

Same in London with the 20mph zones everywhere and now people seem to drive through lots of 30 zones at 20 because they don't notice the zone ending

Definitely the case, at least on my regular long journeys on the M1. Quite a bit of it is smart motorway, so speed is being checked pretty much all the time.

I certainly drive much more slowly. My long regular journey is not for pleasure and as I wanted to get the task over and done asap, I used to drive too fast a lot of the time and did a lot of lane changing.

Now my approach to the drive is much more zen-like. Radio on, I mostly keep to my lane, and rarely go above 70. The whole motorway is much calmer than it used to be. And traffic jams are rare because of the adaptive speed limits.

Yes to A roads! I went on a single lane A road this week due to diversion. It was moving at 65ish and wasn’t really appropriate, many T junctions and crossroads,unclear bends and dodgy cambers. Miles later joined a motorway flowing slower.

Yeah I've noticed this I think it's a combination of the increasing amount of speed cameras and traffic.

Definitely. Fast lane used to be at least 85. You’d get people hammering past at close to 100. Now no-one goes above 80.

Definitely. My standard speed was 85mph in the fast lane when I used to bomb up and down the M1 in my 20s. The mere thought of that terrifies me now, I stick to 70mph and that feels fast enough to me (also tempered my speed after attending speed awareness course).

Fuel prices

Yeah I think so. Also some cars have cruise control. My DHs has it and I like that. I just pop it at 72..... got to be a bit of a rebel... and off I chug all the way at that speed unless there is traffic or lots of 60s overtakers.

A lot of cars have cruise control now as well, which keeps the average speed down.

The middle lane people are definitely increasing. Do they not teach that they're overtaking lanes anymore?
It's so frustrating having to pull out and go round two lanes so as not to undertake some plonker sat in the second or third lane drifting along oblivious that they're a mobile roadblock!

If it was single lane and you felt 65 was too dangerous, why not just slow down. You don't have to keep up with the car in front. You drive at a safe speed and sod it if people behind get grumpy about it.

Not the case on the M4 in Wales for sure!

Cruise control is a bit of a misnomer really. Have you seen the trailers for Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning? He's going way too fast.

I think you get used to the speed you and others do. In my 30s I lived in Germany by a stretch with no speed limit. You had to have your wits about you as there would be Porsches arriving on the horizon and upon you in seconds whilst some twat would occasionally pull into the fast lane in front of you, making you into the sandwich filling if not careful. I was told by locals there were many fatal crashes between Porches and Trabants post reunification. This was some years later btw and dh and I lived in Western Germany. I drove comfortably at 100 mph and faster and was acutely aware of the cars around me.

I do have to force myself to slow at 11am / 1pm when driving on a stretch of motorway, which is snarled at rush hour but almost empty during the day. In such circumstances, it would definitely be fine to do 85 in the fast lane if people drove correctly. Speed is something you get used to and drive accordingly. I do agree that variable speed limits have helped immensely with traffic flow so a speed increase limit is never going to be allowed.

I agree @Barelyable lane hoggers are a real issue and can be a threat to life even if everyone is doing the speed limit.

Yeah I didn’t think of that one. I guess many crept up to speed, rather that consciously deciding to speed. So they don’t enter a faster speed with cruise control

I would agree motorways are slower - due to speed cameras mainly.
Also another thing I almost never see is fast cars joining the motorway and shooting right across to the fast lane - was crazy, seemed to be a thing maybe 5 + years ago. So dangerous and if they caused a crash they wouldn't even have known as they'd be away ahead by then.

But I think Satnavs have made a difference - you start a 300 mile journey and it tells you you'll arrive at X time - all the overtaking and faster driving makes little difference, you'll arrive at X-20 mins instead - hardly worth it on a 5 hour drive.

I drive down the A3 a lot and yes driving at 70 I seem to pass a lot of cars. But there are a few speed cameras and with having to slow to 50 for the roadworks at M25 junction and Guildford I guess that contributes. Frustrating though as I'm usually trying to catch a ferry!