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!

@Tattletwat

There was a post earlier with someone boasting about turning all the modern safety features off on the car as they don't need them.

Arrogance hardly covers it.

I'm pretty sure insurers pay out all the time for accidents where the speed limit was exceeded, or speed was a contributing factor, so that sounds like scaremongering to me

Is there a correlation between not knowing the laws of the road and also not being able to actually read the opening post?

None of the first dozen or so replies managed to notice that the op said she was overtaking when she was in the right hand lane.

Driven for 22 years with no speeding or jumping red light convictions.

Me too, doesn't mean I've never done either though.

Shouldn't be there for more than a few seconds though

I’m there for as long as it takes to pass the slower cars. If it’s only one car- a few seconds. If it’s a dozen- more than a few seconds.

I’m going to France soon and in dry conditions the speed limit is 80 and when wet it reduces to 68 - we drive at these limits when traffic volume allows.

This gets so tiresome. Bad driving is not exclusive to the drivers of those cars.

Watch this for evidence, proves a point, and this was 9 years ago even. My car has automatic accident prevention as most new cars do even.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=lWmEbbPlQ_c

Some of the modern features are a bit dodgy though.

I have something called lane assist that wrestles the steering wheel from you and tries to pull you back into the centre of the lane when you go outside it.

It doesn't work all the time though, and sometimes it tries to wrestle the steering when it shouldn't.

I would say it is 95% OK. But if that 5% happened to happen at a time when the car was already in some sort of difficult situation I think it could prove quite problematic and maybe cause an accident to be worse.

IMO there is still no substitute for a competent alert driver and some additional safety systems might lull people into a false sense of security.

I can see how some people might want to turn stuff like lane assist off. Stuff like traction control and ABS harder to understand (most cars of course don't allow you to turn off ABS) and traction control can normally be turned off in unusual conditions.

@CantHoldMeDown you sound quite proud of breaking the law regularly. You might be Lewis Hamilton or Lando Norris, but there are speed limits and regularly exceeding them is breaking the law.

The 70mph limit was introduced in 1967 and was commensurate with vehicles of that era, but it is out of touch these days.
Other places (Germany for example) have higher (80) or unrestricted motorway speeds which I think is far more in-line with 2024.

Personally, there is nothing more frustrating than people in the middle or outside (dont call it fast!) lane blocking traffic by trying to overtake at 70mph and leaving everyone sitting behind them unable to progress while they wheeze their way past for the next 5 minutes.

(Yes, i'm comfortable breaking the motor/dual carriageway speed limit.)

Most cars on the road aren't new.

We also have the rules of the road set up to allow an average level of competence in driving, not just extra special competent drivers. We don't have several types of licence and two sets of rules. We've gone for 'passed your test, off you go'. So our driving rules have to accommodate that level of competence.

Other countries do have different rules. Some of their rules might be better, some might be worse. But they aren't in place here. Things like the autobahn work as everyone is driving according to the rules of the autobahn, with minimum speeds and an expectation how the outer lane is used. You cant just do the same in the uk where those aren't the expectations.

Wow what I have learned from this thread is that most drivers shouldn't even be on the road if they think 70mph is 'slow' and think the speed limit is a guide. That is truly worrying. No wonder there are so many accidents.

Cars built prior to 1967 are still regularly driven on roads now , especially on summer weekends.

I definitely leave all the safety fearures on, especially the one (which BMW charged me £49 subscription for) that warns me where the speed cameras are ;)

Most accidents aren't caused by speed alone. They're caused by lack of attention, unsafe vehicles, incompetent drivers, medical episodes, drivers without licences, etc., and mostly at speeds within the speed limits.

Overtaking lane

But mostly aren't doing 80/90 on motorways!

Perhaps it's time to remove them from motorways in the same way that we remove mopeds.

You can't set the rules of the road based on a small percentage of older cars though.

Otherwise we would still be driving around with people walking in front of cars waving red flags.

If you choose to drive an older car the lack of safety is something you have to accept. In the same way that you have to accept it if you choose to ride a motorbike.