Drivin in London

[Tatemoderndrawyourown]

I don't know about the rest of the country. I am in central London. I always read here that people should follow the speed limits and I am very very careful with that, though sometimes it's 22 on a 20 road. It might be that I am out and about during peak traffic times so it's more stressful, but I am one of the very few doing 20!! Yesterday so many people (men??) were angry at me for following the rules!
Am I the only one noticing this? It just feels that if I do not go faster (I don't) I am being hated. It's tiring and adding to the already not pleasant experience of having to be careful with pedestrians and random bikes and children.

Will they pay your speeding fines if you get caught by the inevitable cameras?

Random bikes? Are you not a random car? They are trying to discourage private cars in central london.

Tbh it’s everywhere. I live outside of London and can’t tell you the amount of times someone was up my backside for doing 20 in a 20. Or on approach to a roundabout they speed up on the left of me to then cut me up to go right to save what… all of 10 seconds?

I did literally have the same thought about men the other day. They always seem to make jokes about ‘women drivers’ but they do silly shit all the time. So is it actually ‘women are shit drivers’ or are we just driving like you’re supposed to and they’re the ones being shit and we’re just in the way!

To be honest, if you’re managing to do 20mph in central London at peak times, you’re very lucky! The average speed these days is less than 8mph.

Much as I hate to generalise but the majority of London drivers are either aggressive or batshit (or both). I write that as a London driver myself. 😝

I know!! But even when I know there are no speed cameras I don’t want to risk an accident!

It’s not just London. I live in the Midlands and in 20mph zones men are always up my arse and gesticulating. If anything I slow down!

I lived in London before and am amazed you can get up to 20mph tbh.

I guess I am not talking about Oxford street but Baker Street etc.

I know, I have to remind myself when I go back to my sleepy hometown that not moving 0.3 seconds after the light turns green is ok.

there are as many shitty bike riders as there are shitty car drivers

Well most of Oxford Street doesn’t allow cars anymore but around Baker St is a notorious black spot partly because that stretch is the route around the congestion charge zone. It’s frequently gridlocked (I used to cycle to work along it) and an area to avoid in a car unless you have no choice or it’s a 5am on a Sunday morning.

And quite frankly, if you were slow to move as the lights turn green, I’m not surprised you got grief from other drivers. Your hesitation will be the difference between an extra car or two making it through the lights on green. Which will mean people waiting longer for the next green light. No big deal you think, so what? Well, given how many sets of traffic lights there are in London, plus pedestrian crossings, that extra time waiting for the next green light quickly adds up and can easily turn a 30 min journey into a 1 hour journey (or much worse). Much of the traffic is work related (so tradesmen, deliveries etc) so your hesitation can cost them money. And will irritate the hell out of the average London driver.

You might be moving at the right moment when the lights turn green but can't read a very small paragraph.

I’m in London and some of the 20 mph roads near us (zone 2) are just daft that they’re 20.

So much of the time in town you’re crawling along at 10 so it’s just so annoying to get a piece of clear road for once and you still can’t get moving.

Ignore them. If you’re in front, they have to drive at your speed.

Quite often it’s the bus I’m on that has a racing car driver at the helm that is obviously going over 20.

I’m a novice cyclist so if you’ve come across me I apologise.

London’s roads are batshit crazy. I’m not a driver myself but I’m especially wary of buses, taxis and and food delivery dudes. There’s also too little space for everyone. It’s everyone out for themselves, really.

Sorry but 20mph infuriates me. I am in central London, zone 1, and sometimes there is just no need to be plodding along at 20mph with a wide clear road in front of you, no hazards, no schools nearby etc. The majority of people do 25/30 on such roads, myself included.
On heavily pedestrianised streets, narrow roads, residential roads etc- fine, but otherwise it’s extremely annoying. Yes I know it’s the law, but it’s stupid and about money not safety at least 50% of the time.

This is what gets me. I find it so annoying too.

London has some great cycle routes and paths to keep you away from the rest of the traffic. Explore!

Today it took us 40 minutes to drive 6 miles. No 20 mph roads, just weight of traffic. I don’t know what Sadiq Khan or London’s councils are up to but it sure as hell isn’t keeping traffic moving. In the 21 years I’ve lived where I am now it’s just got worse and worse.

This is why I never owned a car in the 8 years I lived in London. The drivers were far too aggressive for my liking, and the traffic too hectic. I learned to drive in a town without any traffic lights!

I love driving and being driven in London. There’s something very special about it.

Fully agree with the sentiments that 20mph is unnecessary of wide main roads with good visibility and no parked cars. 20 is plenty on the narrow residential streets, but on the main roads it really fucks me off. I wonder if a Tory mayor in London would change it back to 30. I might vote for them for the first time ever.

There are random bikes everywhere in London. I'm not talking about sensible cyclists who follow the highway code, but the complete idiots (especially couriers or delivery bikes) who think nothing of cycling through red lights, cycling the wrong way along one way streets, weave off and in pavements, don't stop at pedestrian crossings and completely ignore cycle lanes.

When I see prickmobiles racing around my noddy car (which is obeying the 20mph limit) and going full throttle ahead only to slam on the breaks at the lights, I just laugh. What have they gained? They have just put stress on their engines, burned more fuel/energy than they need, and increased the wear and tear on their break pads. It's so unnecessary and it just makes them look like utter dickheads.

Taken iver by electric scooters, sadly. They are always cutting me up. Still, I persist because sometimes the bus is too slow or doesn't go where I want it to.

Many bus drivers are certainly failed car racers! And yes, when I’m on Finchley Road, it’s not busy, and you still have to go at 20 is so frustrating! However I weave through smaller roads, in front of schools, in narrow lanes etc and if you blink you might kill someone but there are still people tailing me to go faster!

It would be much better to have variable speed limits as they do in Australia. Instead of a council applying a blanket 20mph limit across the borough and thinking they’ve done something marvellous instead of half-witted.