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.

Not someone overtaking, no. That’s just a normal and routine part of driving on motorways. I drive round the M25 six times a week and twice up and down the M1 per week. I’m talking about people burning past you at over 90mph. By definition they don’t care about a lot of things, including the cost of fuel! If a proportion of them don’t actually see that cost coming out of their bank account, then that makes sense.

I have to pay for all my own travel out of my take home pay, so I do pay attention to how much fuel I’m using per mile.

Yes, if you can sustain that speed all the way. But you can't! Traffic, 50 limits, average speed cameras, 40 limits, etc etc. Doing 85 on the bits when you can doesn't make up for all the bits when you are stuck!

Well, the point is you can, outside of rush hr madness though.
If I set off a 730 am the same journey takes 3 hrs plus. If I set off at 9 am its 2hrs ish. The arrival time is nearly identical.
It's interesting different parts of the country are significantly less congested than others.

Yes. 15/20 years ago 80-90 seemed the norm, then 70-80 as cameras appeared and now it’s 60-70.

the lane discipline now is so dangerous. You’ve the line of traffic who can’t overtake, someone storming up the inside because of the line of traffic. one twat weaving in and out.

that’s before you look at the pootler. What are you meant to do with the Prius in the middle lanes doing 50. Are you meant to sweep around and overtake? You shouldn’t undertake. But moving out three lanes seems madness really.

Regularly drive m1/m42. Other than weekends, there is a large amount of freight on the road, so the left lane usually goes about 55-60 and therefore using the middle lane to do up to 70 is usually necessary. There are loads of speed cameras all along and the use of smart motorway speeds. So it does keep the speeds down. On the M1, it’s very usual to do 60-70 all the way.

Still gets snarled around the major cities though and they use a lot of rolling road blocks to clear bad accidents so you can get completely stuck!

Yes speeds definitely slower. It's because up until 5 years ago the speed cameras only enforced speeds shown on the signs so NSL wasn't enforced which meant if a sign wasn't showing a speed then there was no enforcement

The newer cameras enforce NSL even if no signs are shown and enforce in all lanes not just the outside lane

Doesn't take long for speeding fines to change behaviour

I've noticed on the 4 lane motorways that the inside lane now seems solely for lorries & joining/leaving the motorway & car lanes have moved over.
EG lane 2 is now the car slow lane, lane 3 is what was the middle lane & lane 4 is still the fast lane.
I used to weave in & out between the lorries in lane 1 but their speed is limited so it's easier to drive in lane 2 ~ hangs head in shame ~
On 3 lane motorways, it's in & out of the slow lane for me but f**k it, provided the motorway is moving, going along in the slow lane at the HGV pace isn't that bad...

I don't understand your title @Wertie
The legal speed limit is 70mph.

Do you mean there are mandatory lower limits or drivers are driving slower?

Obviously there are stretches when lower speed restrictions are in place.

On the whole I find lane discipline and lane hogging the issues on motorways.

The Middle Laner who feels 'safe' in lane 2, usually doing 60/65 won't move to lane 1 and causes a build up of cars behind them.

The ones with poor lane discipline who can't read the road- overtaking one car at a time, often too late, not looking 400 yards ahead and noticing slow lorries, They then overtake again, and again, and again. Pulling in and out multiple times often at the last minute.

Rant over.

I agree. I've noticed much more moderate driving since the price of petrol got stupid.

that’s before you look at the pootler. What are you meant to do with the Prius in the middle lanes doing 50. Are you meant to sweep around and overtake?

Yes, of course.

Flashing your lights until they get the message sometimes works (even though it's not really acceptable road behaviour.)

The ‘HGV Lane’ is probably a good description. Sometimes the middle lane is 60 max because the alternative is a bumper hugging truck threatening to sandwich you with another hgv. Coming out of the dartford tunnels can be miles of lorries at similar speed in the first 3 lanes

That's an interesting point about those that pull out and overtake at the last min.
You can see them clearly, there's a tell both positional or brakes lights are on and off.
The more manoeuvres a driver makes the higher the risk of a mistake.
Does anyone care to offer an explanation on why they do this?😂

Personally, to be safe you need distance, especially at speed.

You are right and it's mostly a good thing.

Yeah, speed cameras everywhere have done a lot to stop people getting away with habitually speeding. When I was a child we had a family friend who'd routinely do 100 including when I was a passenger, if he tried that now he'd lose his license pretty damn quick. (He was a freaking A&E nurse too, so he really should have known better.) And the price of fuel has made a few people sit at 60 to save money.

I think it's less common to grind to a complete halt now too. Still happens but the variable speed limits work to dissipate jams and keep us moving.

Bad lane discipline, not such a good thing.

I definitely agree that generally people drive more slowly than say back in the 80's, when I and lots of others regularly drove in the fast lane at 90+

I thinks it's a combination of speed cameras and more awareness of keeping your speed lower in all areas, not just on the motorway, which is a good thing.

In my case I'm much older and just want to pootle along in the left lane at 60, as it's much less stressful, conserves fuel and is safer!

@Wertie
Yes, the idea of being a HGV sandwich filling doesn't appeal!

There is more traffic at all times of day and night and many more speed cameras these days. I regularly do a 300 mile drive to visit my family, motorway almost all the way, bar about 20 miles. 25 years ago, cruising at 90mph on empty motorways late at night I could often do it in under 4 hours; nowadays I consider 5.5 hours a good run.

I often feel the older 3-lane motorways are easier to drive on the 4-lane motorways have randoms pootling in lane 3 or 4.
It would actually be nice to pootle at 60 on the inside but it seems so much busier than sitting in lane 4 at 70 plus.

Driving should be fun, inappropriate speed is the problem. Doing 90mph on the motorway in an appropriate car with appropriate tuition is a lot safer than 35mph in a 30 zone. Yet the 35 is below the limit of prosecution!

I would be open to 6 monthly inspections on vehicles or remote monitoring if we could have autobahn style limits in this country.

Driving should be fun

For the driver or other road users, who takes precedent?

What road users other than drivers are there on a motorway? (not including the passengers of said drivers of course)