To wonder how so many people are comfortable breaking the speed limit?

[AngeloMysterioso]

Is it just me? I’m pretty vigilant about sticking to the speed limit but more and more I’ve noticed recently that I’ll be doing 70 or just below on a dual carriageway or the motorway and someone will go flying past. God forbid I be driving at the limit on the outside lane, even if I’m going faster than everyone in the middle lane it’s only a matter of time before some knob is either flashing their headlights at me or driving up my arse (or both) while I wait for a big enough gap to move across so they can shoot off before doing the same to the next car in front.

It tends to be most often 4x4 drivers or Mercedes/BMW/Jaguar etc types. Maybe they just don’t think they should have to see the back of a 16 year old Fiesta!

Police also do "plains clothes" mock high speed pursuits using vehicles without blues and twos activated.

So, people with specific high speed training.
Would they not even use the blue light at the front of the car thing (there's probably a proper name for it) if they're approaching traffic in front?

And unless the driver in the overtaking lane is actively overtaking, then they've no need to be in an overtaking lane!

But that's not what we're talking about in this thread is it. I think the point is that it's not up to the average car on a motorway to "police" how other vehicles drive.

The op wasn't remotely talking about 'policing' other drivers though. No, that's really not the point of this thread.
It's the speeders and tailgaters who are trying to force behaviour on other road users, in the main.

It kind of defeats the object of some elements of their training if they're on blues and twos and all the traffic in front of them moves out of their way. Part of the training has to be how to deal with traffic that doesn't shift, whether on blues and twos or not, i.e. how to deal with traffic if you're deliberately driving without blues and twos, say, to follow a vehicle without wanting them to know you're police whilst waiting for backup or just for observations, or because the blues and twos aren't working, or because you're in a vehicle without blues and twos.

You mean "forcing" other vehicles who are dithering in an overtaking lane without actively overtaking at that point in time? When they should move over without "prompting" back into middle or left hand lane until they are next in a position to do another active overtake manoevre, rather than thinking they'll just stay in the overtaking lane because they're too lazy to move over (or oblivious) as there's another vehicle on the horizon they'll probably want to overtake in half a mile or more!

That's true as well.

I’m always frustrated on these threads by posters who smugly brand everyone driving over 70 on a motorway as equally dangerous and irresponsible. There is a world of difference between the sort of driver who rarely drops below 80, tailgates and undertakes, and someone who is driving at, say, 75 and otherwise complying with the rules of the road.

I have to say, though, that I have definitely been in situations recently where I’m driving below 70 and yet overtaking in the third lane!

You're missing the "makes" part of the statement. In your slip road example, most sensible drivers on the motorway would create a space for vehicles entering from a slip road by adjusting their speed to create a gap or by moving into the other lane if safe to do so.

Well, I think you’re changing the terms of the examples to suit your agenda. In my slip road scenario, you’ve for some reason assumed that the other drivers are ‘sensible’ and moving over nice and early. Clearly, this doesn’t always happen, so you can be as sensible as you like on the slip road, matching speed, attempting to merge… but many drivers will grudgingly leave it to the last minute to move right. So you’re effectively ‘making’ them move.

In OP’s example, you’re again assuming that the other road users are sensible and that she’s in the wrong. But, again, the knucklehead driving at 90mph right up the back of other road users is not driving sensibly. There’s a far greater chance that OP is driving sensibly, given the evidence we have, but you’re still determined to back knucklehead-90mph-guy. You’re inventing all sorts of details about OP having pulled out unsafely. Much mire likely is that knucklehead has covered a mile in way less than a minute and is up her arse while she’s completing her safe over-taking.

Honestly, the absolute desperation of some posters to find an OP unreasonable is just madness.

She’s explained a perfectly legitimate gripe - bullying speeders who flash their lights and drive unsafely close. And out come all the far-flung reasons why OP is probably a danger. Even to the point of suggesting all those speeding BMW drivers are plain clothes police 🙄

There’s also a weird sort of boasting going on (see @CantHoldMeDown ) where we’re supposed to be impressed by how fast and clever people are behind the wheel, even though we have literally no evidence of this. It’s all very childish.

You mean "forcing" other vehicles who are dithering in an overtaking lane without actively overtaking at that point in time?

No, I meant trying to force drivers who are overtaking (or moving at the speed of the cars in front in their lane in the dense traffic situation) to exceed the speed limit or pull into an insufficiently large gap. Not 'dithering'.

But as you say, it's 'it's not up to the average car on a motorway to "police" how other vehicles drive.' ... presumably you agree two wrongs don't make a right, and it's not ok to police a ditherer or even a lane hog by yourself breaking a different set of rules or speeding or tailgating?

I’ve done a couple of long motorway drives recently. There are stretches of the M6 where there will be several lorries crawling in lanes 1&2. So obviously normal law abiding car drivers have to move into lane 3.

if I’m halfway up a close together platoon of lorries I am never going to dive in between them - that’s not safe. Instead even with a bmw driver 2m behind me at 70mph I have to continue cautiously. I had moved out into a large gap and not caused sudden breaking btw.

This is a common occurrence. It’s illegal and unsafe behaviour in the side of the tailgater, and just reflects that on a very busy motorway no one can safely go over 70mph.

I imagine many of them are Londoners sick of being done for doing 22mph in a 20 zone.

😂I rest my case.

I wondered why some of this made me feel so uncomfortable, and then I realised, there's more than a touch of victim blaming going on here.

The number one aim when on the road must be for it not to kill you, and so yes, it's sensible not to aggravate the idiots. But that seems to have turned into almost an obligation to stay out of the idiot's way so they can get on with their important business of being idiots. Why isn't the obligation on the idiots not to be idiots? Their frustration shouldn't be a problem for law-abiding citizens to solve.

We rightly don't excuse a rapist because he couldn't resist his rapey urges.

A thief who can't resist nicking valuables left in plain sight isn't excused.

So why do we blame a car driving at a legally accepted speed, when an idiot can't wait, get frustrated and does a dangerous manoeuvre?

If they get frustrated to the extent they perform dangerous manoeuvres then they shouldn't be on the road.

The OP was travelling at or near the speed limit, performing a perfectly legal manoeuvre. No one should be putting pressure on her so they can get past and break the law. If that frustrates somebody enough that they're flashing lights and driving aggressively, get the hell of our roads until you manage to better control yourself.

No one is excusing idiots who tail gate and drive at unsafe speeds.

What people are saying is that it's not the job of other drivers to "police" the idiots.

Best and safest way is to keep out of their way.

@CantHoldMeDown I'm assuming you are a police officer?

Yes, it’s a good idea to do that at an individual level. That doesn’t mean at a societal level we should accept that they feel entitled to behave that way. There are pages of “why were you travelling at the speed limit in the fast lane?” When then answer is she was behaving legally (as I was) and shouldn’t be out at risk when doing so.

So write to your MP about it if you want change at societal level. There's literally nothing else people can do at an individual level.

Are they? There was no suggestion from OP that she was trying to police anyone. She was describing safely overtaking in accordance with the Highway Code.

Other people subsequently accused her of doing this, that and the other so that they’d have a reason to tell her she’s unreasonable.

What people are saying is that it's not the job of other drivers to "police" the idiots.

I'm pretty sure there's just been one poster saying her dad did something like that.

The OP and others aren't. But it's a nice red herring for the apologists for speeding.

This is the case I’m resting (quoting myself here):

There’s also a weird sort of boasting going on (see @CantHoldMeDown ) where we’re supposed to be impressed by how fast and clever people are behind the wheel, even though we have literally no evidence of this. It’s all very childish.

No one’s buying this idea of you as some sort of super-driver to whom laws don’t apply!

What it comes down to is that people like to speed. I mean, I do it myself on occasion. But of course it’s not a good idea in general. And of course OP isn’t unreasonable to want to operate within the speed limit.

But people like to justify themselves on here. So they go on about how it’s ok for them to speed, because they’re not ordinary idiots like the rest of us. It’s laughable.

If everyone drove exactly the same as they do now, but took everything down by 5mph, the net result would be fewer accidents and fewer fatalities.

Now watch the special people argue with that.