To think it’s better to drive at 31 than 25?

[xla]

When I was learning to drive my driving instructor told me it was always better to be five miles an hour under the limit than one over. I’ve been driving three years and it seems like most people actually seem to subscribe to this method of thinking?! I drove into work this morning and spent most of it sat at 24/25, despite the roads being clear, and at one point was actually undertaking people because otherwise I would be driving at 20 miles an hour. On a 30 road! Surely I’m not alone in thinking this is insane?

Well, you’re very definite in your opinion of others behaviour OP. Very definite too, that you are correct. I hope nothing happens to prove you wrong.

20 on a clear dry road isn’t safe - it annoys other drivers and forces them into doing dangerous things

Depends totally on the roads.

Road me it’s all residential streets with parked cars down the sides. Many are 20 mph but those that aren’t really should be for safety’s sake.

And are you plagued by drivers going 20 in the outer lanes?

Well said.

If they were doing 20 on a motorway they have a problem and you should be very careful, some motorways don't have hard shoulders now or only sometimes (hard shoulder used as a lane in peak times) so cars with a problem really have to keep going to find a safe place to stop.

If you drive dangerously that is your responsibility

They are not 'forced' into doing dangerous things. They just choose to. But I agree that drivers should be considerate of others and on a clear dry road, 20 would be ridiculous.

It infuriates me when someone drives under the limit on a clear road with good conditions. No one should be undertaking because the other driver is going too slow. I think it causes just as many accidents going too slow as well as going too fast. Just do the limit or as close to it as possible given the conditions.

Of course they are. You can’t sit and drive at 20 all day.

You shouldn't have to "slam" your brakes on to go from 30 to 20. Gentle pressure will suffice.

If you do then either you're going significantly faster than the legal speed limit or there's something very wrong with your car.

Driving under the limit on a clear road (by more than about 5mph) can result in a fail on a driving test. It’s not about saving time, if you have a licence you should have a base level of competence.

If the road was clear (as you have stated) you should have been in the inner lane already, not the outer one. Then you would have been able to continue past the slow driver and exit.

The driver in the outer lane was also at fault for being in the outer lane going slow.

Speedos in cars by law must record speed higher than the car is really travelling, so there's no need to drive slower, it's stupid. Your instructor was stupid even saying that.

Driving 24/25 in a 30 zone would have been a failure to keep up with traffic according to my instructor. I used to drive at 27/28 with him.

Now I drive on the button mph and use cruise control to maintain the speed.

During a recent night drive in London, where speeds are 20mph, locals know where cameras are and , they were going on the wrong side of the road to overtake me when I was driving the speed limit, but I stated with the speed limit cos I had no idea where cameras are....

I was in the inner lane. The entire time.

You do if you are driving at 30 in the inside lane and then catch up with a dickhead in the outside doing 20!

None of this makes sense.

First it's described as a 30mph dual carriageway.
Then it turns out its two marked lanes going to different destinations.
Then OP isn't even in the same lane as the other driver?
Describes the masses and masses of everyone else doing this as old people who can't see over the wheel.
Then mentions of "doing 20mph on a motorway"?
Talk of "slamming on brakes" to go from 30 to 20 and being "forced" into dangerous driving by someone else going a bit slower than they want to?

Troll or very bad driver with no road sense. I hope for everyone else's sake it's the former.

These “30+ in a built up area is fine, sod the pedestrians, I am late for a very very important meeting” drivers need to keep away from London! Many London roads are now 20, and the safer for it. (Apart from the idiots of course)

Just someone who’s pissed off at idiot drivers. I never said it was a dual carriageway - just two lanes. I was in the inside passing people in the outside.

If you were driving within the speed limit in the inner lane you are permitted to continue past a car doing less than the speed limit in the outer lane.

No "slamming" necessary.

Then you either have very poor eyesight or very poor hazard perception, that you must brake so harshly so quickly to go from 30 to 20 to slow down on a clear road with a visible obstacle.

you can if the alternative is to do something dangerous

I really object to the suggestion that drivers going slowly and not posing a risk to others with their driving are driving dangerously because other drivers can't exercise a bit of patience.

Proceeding in your own lane isn't undertaking, by the way, it's fine to go at 30 in the left land and pass someone doing 20 in the right. It's looping about and zigzagging in and out of lanes on people's blind side that's dangerous.

From your subsequent descriptions it sounds like you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the layout and how to drive it anyway.

Even though the two lanes are adjacent, they are independently marked for separate directions and what someone is doing in the other lane is not relevant to you, so you could have passed at any speed you like, not felt beholden to stay at your hated 20mph.

Technically undertaking is any passing on the left.

Undertaking in itself is not an offence, as there are many occasions where it's necessary, e.g. congestion, filter lanes.

Undertaking can constitute dangerous or careless driving. If you are observed passing on the left and the police feel you have done so recklessly, that is when you may get pulled in for it.

You have one extreme of someone weaving and zipping in and out, and yes that is very likely to be charged if caught. But any undertaking not on congestion / filter lanes etc could result in a fine or points if it is felt your standard of driving fell below that required. There have been successful prosecutions of undertakers who have done nothing but stayed in their lane and passed traffic in lane 2 on the left.