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?

I disagree

Heres also a Google answer to your point that slow drivers inadvertently cause the accidents
and another by charity Brake

‘ Rural road accidents are primarily caused by
excessive or inappropriate speed for the conditions, leading to loss of control, particularly on bends. Other major factors include narrow lanes, poor visibility (blind bends/summits), and unexpected hazards like wildlife or slow-moving agricultural machinery. While slow drivers can create frustration leading to risky overtaking, the high speeds of other vehicles are a more significant factor’

Speed is the issue then

This from brake.org.uk

‘ Speed is often a major factor in rural road crashes. A study of single-carriageway rural roads estimated that a 10% increase in average speed results in a 30% increase in fatal and serious crashes.
The most common crash types on rural roads are collisions at intersections, head-on collisions and running off the road.
…..

Most rural roads in the UK have a 60mph limit. However, due to their use by vulnerable road users and the design and condition of many country roads, 60mph (or anywhere near it) is rarely a safe speed to travel.
Rural roads frequently have debris such as mud and leaves on the road surface, meaning that in wet and icy conditions stopping distances are much greater. These factors mean that if a driver is going too fast they won't be able to react in time to people or hazards to prevent a crash. They also mean that if a driver is going too fast they may lose control and end up in the path of an oncoming vehicle or running off the road.

In a Brake and Direct Line survey, —more than six in 10 (68%) of drivers said they feel it is acceptable to drive above the speed limit on rural roads.
-Nearly half (48%) of drivers said that they had driven faster than the speed limit on a single-carriageway rural road in the past year.

The advice for driving on rural roads
be prepared for delays
leave early, give yourself plenty of time
60mph is rarely an appropriate speed limit unless it’s a long straight road in good condition

Agree slow drivers should pull over if it’s safe to do so and especially on long straight roads

I had this earlier in the week. I mean, there are many repeater discs reminding you that this stretch is a 20/30/50 zone, so... do the actual speed limit, not just whatever you think is suitable!

The most irritating one, though, was someone who drove 10mph below the speed limit. Everywhere. Even I, as wary as I am of overtaking, put my foot down that day.

Driving to road conditions on a NSL road may include doing 40mph.. or 50... or 60... or 30... or 20 on some very blind, narrow lanes. It's not flat rate driving, it's responding to visibility, space, weather, road surfaces, hazards...

The 40mph club aren't driving to road conditions, they are ignoring them and driving on autopilot. That is dangerous.

I came close-ish to being caught out on a dual carriageway last night. There was a truck and a car ahead. I was doing 70mph. I was going to have to pass the truck (and car) soon, but the car turned out to be going much slower than the truck. I was closing the gap much quicker than I would have anticipated. Fortunately the road was quiet and I only needed one faster vehicle to pass me and still had plenty of space to pass safely, but it was less margin than I reasonably planned. In my rear view after the gap between the truck and car opened surprisingly quickly, and the car couldn't have been doing more than 45mph which is unreasonably slow for clear, dry, mild night with free-flowing traffic.

Being excessively slow for the road conditions runs the risk of creating a hazard to other road users by not behaving in a way that is easily anticipated and distorts other drivers' predictions of timing and appropriate spacing. Slow traffic reduces the required stopping distance gap, bunches vehicles up and reduces visibility. It makes the traffic behind more reactive and less proactive.