To think driving constantly at 40mph is dangerous?

[Beetlejuice3]

This has been something I’ve noticed on a good few occasions and interested if it’s quite a widespread thing.

I live out in the country so to visit the nearest city or relatives it’s usually a drive that includes mostly 60mph country roads with a few villages to pass through at 30mph.
There seems to be some (a fair amount) of drivers that only travel at 40mph no matter what? On the national speed limit roads they cause a lot of people to overtake (often 2 cars at a time I saw today), however going through the 30mph villages you can’t keep up with them! I would say I’m not the most confident driver and I don’t speed but I do travel at or around the speed limit unless there’s a reason not to. This travelling at 40 no matter what seems more dangerous to me, like I say, impatient drivers were overtaking 2 cars on corners etc. Not to mention travelling through villages with schools and pedestrians 10mph over the limit.

Is this a thing? Has anyone come across the 40mph club?

Yes we have this a lot where I live.

40 in a 30 not acceptable.

40 in a 60 is a bit of a pain BUT as pp have said, if someone allows themself to get so frustrated that they do a dangerous overtaking move - that's on them, not the slower driver.

If you are travelling any distance on single carriageway country roads you need to accept (without getting the rage) that there are many reasons why you may not be able to achieve the speed limit - poor road condition, tractors, horseboxes, escaped sheep etc etc.

True, but it's also possible to fail your driving test for failing to make progress.

If there is no reason to sit at 40 on a NSL road other than someone dawdling, then people should speed up or pull over to let others pass.

We have a dual carriageway with several 40mph sections and then a longer 70mph stretch. It always baffles me when people go flying past me at 50ish only to still be doing 50ish on the 70 section. People are absolutely nuts sometimes.

@Beetlejuice3 You are correct in that observation. I see it all the time. People don’t slow down much for the 30 and barely speed up for the 60. It’s annoying and poor driving.

No way am I driving 60mph on a winding country lane. I’m going 40mph thanks.

Yes there are some that drive from the local big town to our village doing 40mph all the way. The speed limits vary from 30 to 60. This also contains a subgroup who never indicate and turn right from the left hand lane at roundabouts.

The 60mph parts are on a long straight A road.

Absolutely. They're always in small cars too which would take a real bang if they hit another car in a 30 zone.

There are several NSL roads near where I live. One one of them most people travel about 55mph, it’s generally got good visibility, wide road with markings in good condition but quite a bit of traffic. Another section with more bends and junctions people travel around 45mph.
Then another road, narrow country lane with no white line, I travel 40-50mph depending on which section of the road and the weather etc. The road has a very uneven surface on the outer section and in my small car it feels very unsafe driving at higher speeds - I don’t want to damage or lose control of my car. For some reason this is the one road where it’s more likely people will overtake or tailgate.

I agree with you that travelling at 40mph wherever you go is a sign of a bad driver, but I don’t think driving below 60mph on a country road is poor driving.

There's a lot of people only picking half the habit here. Do those here doing 40 in a 60 also do 40 in a 30mph residential area? I would hope not. It is absolutely a sign of an oblivious and unsafe driver who it's safest to stay well back from.

I drive one of these roads every day to work. It is perfectly possible to drive safely at 60 for about 90% of the journey usually. There are two main issues - one is that the town I work in has the hospital for the area and so I’m often behind what I assume must be elderly people driving themselves or their spouses to/from hospital appointments, always in a very small car, always not wanting to go faster that 40, and it it’s raining they slow down even more. They get a massive parade behind them as there’s not many places to overtake safely. And there’s always someone impatient who zooms past about 5 cars on a blind bend too.

The other problem is holiday makers in summer who freak out because there are hedges on each side of the road and act like they’re on a narrow lane when it’s an A road with ample space for all. Braking at every single bend and yes! Slowing to almost a standstill to turn left. Also braking when someone is on the other side of the road to them. How they cope with life I don’t know.

We also get a lot of tractors etc but they don’t annoy me really as that’s just country life.

Yes it’s a thing where I live in a semi rural area. Yesterday morning it was perfect conditions and someone in outside lane on dual carriage way (70) doing 40 as they needed right hand lane further down as only right lane goes on at roundabout. Everyone was undertaking as they didn’t want to be stuck behind them doing 40 on single carriageway (60) ahead. Was a nice modern car which presumably display speed limits on dash plus lots of clear road signs. Zero reason not to be driving to speed limit it was light traffic, decent road surface and absolutely perfect weather conditions.
There’s another section I drive regularly which is 30 to a 50 (clear signs when changing to 50) and lots do 40 throughout.

This isn’t the case at all
Many windy, narrow, and rural country roads in the UK have a 60mph speed limit
That’s the national speed limit for single carriageways.

Its not necessarily safe though due to hazards like sharp bends, blind corners, narrow lanes, pedestrians, horse riders and the occasional sheep or duck popping up out of nowhere.

I drive rurally and it would be dangerous to do these speeds

You would be mad to attempt to drive at 60 around most of the narrow lanes where I live.

Lower speed limits protect pedestrians, cyclists, and riders, as 60% of road fatalities occur on rural roads

Meanwhile
anyone going over the speed limit is obviously wrong

Some drivers doing 40 constantly do not register that someone is about to cross the road, horse riders being overtaken at 40. Drivers should actually look, see and react to conditions. I've seen lots of people driving up to a junction and not take in the situation around them at all.

Yip you trot along at 40 on a road where 50 to 60 is comfortable - maybes the odd bend to slow down for - and then lose them on the town - clearly they shouldn’t be driving

Some people are generally scared of driving above a certain speed for various reasons. I know some people react slower to incidents and therefore feel safer at a lower speed. Fatal accidents happens more at higher speed. Equally those people are dependent on driving especially if there is no public transport.

Oh it’s definitely a thing.

Although I’d take them over the drive everywhere at 25-30mph brigade which seems to be up and coming around here.

So poor and stupid? Get them off the roads

Yeah, that's definitely what I mean. Some people...
I drive a small hatchback because I do a lot of town/city driving. It was more expensive than a Vauxhall Frontera or a Citroen C3 SUV.
Under confident drivers often buy smaller cars even if driving lots of faster roads to work because they feel more comfortable driving a 1.0 or 1.2ltr and it's easier to park.

My point was that if they rear ended someone in a residential area they would come off worse. But sure, make it about money and intelligence. Is that what you think yourself?

I have found small cars a nightmare to park, i.e. turning space needed larger for size of car. We have a medium sized one and it's very easy to park, plus have driven larger cars and found them easier to park and steer than a small car.

Not if you have to park in a 1970s multistorey every day like I do! The spaces are tiny.

You can also fit them into a smaller gap when reverse parking.

As someone who lives very rurally and in a high accident area, the fatalities and serious injuries tend to come from head on collisions (and motorbikes). And head-on's tend to come about because of frustration at slow drivers. People shouldn't get frustrated, but when it's several hours drive on national speed limit roads to your nearest city and you might be stuck behind a person most of the way, you can see how it happens. I don't think anyone minds slow drivers if they were aware of their surroundings. But slow drivers who don't pullover to allow faster cars to pass, or who don't hold their speed on straights to allow overtaking, or who speed up as you overtake are poor drivers. And the fact they often continue at 40 through villages when they should be doing 30 (and sometimes overtake someone doing 30!) makes them very poor drivers.

Rural too
and 60mph is too dangerous for most roads. Bar the straight and clear ones