To feel like the only person who doesn't speed

[Thatuglywasp]

Most people around me, colleagues, friends etc. Even some relatives will do 25-30 in a 20, over 35 in 30s and so on. They just learn where the cameras are, and most days I get tailgated on 20 mph streets, I just let them pass where I can as I can't be bothered with someone right behind me.

I don't go over the limit, don't have cruise control or anything as it's an older car but if i accidentally creep up to 1/2mph over I go right back down. I just think that it only takes someone running out into the road, a child or someone and if you're doing 25 and hit them, there's not going to be an excuse for that.

I agree 20 can feel very slow, but I just think it could take 1 time, and i don't think it's wise to just rely on where cameras are.

I don’t speed and don’t care if people pass me. I never have been a speeder but reckon am one of the unluckiest drivers, several times I have not noticed a speed limit change and gotten tickets. I was in a terrible high-speed accident as a teenager — I was not actually speeding but it was on the motorway. If I had been, I definitely wouldn’t have survived. It is not worth it in my mind.

I don't speed. I've seen the consequences first hand.

Peoples nonchalance towards speed limits scares me. The competing on social media to show how 'cool' they are by raging against any impediments to hurtling through our towns however they please. Knobs the lot of them.

Modern cars and their safety features have created this unreal bubble for drivers who zip along with no care or thought for the real world outside.

Why we need super sized and powerful cars to dominate residential areas is just nuts and dehumanising.

Roll on self-driving cars. A lot of humans haven't the intelligence or empathy to drive properly.

Driving is a privilege not a right.

I hate it when you pull out of a junction with reasonable space and the car behind speeds up to then apply breaks as though you caused that! It happened yesterday I turned in to a junction and i quickly reached the speed limit (40) and then a car is up my backside flashing. I’m doing the speed limit I’m not going to go any faster!

Yep sooo many people speeding - the kids now know to shout ‘they must have diarrhoea!’

Almost always Audi drivers, academic research needs to go into the psyche of Audi drivers I swear… But yes, I was going 30 on a 30 road and an Audi was up my arse then actually started beeping at me to speed up before overtaking me and almost crashing into a cyclist on the other side. They’re always in such a rush.

Same, same. The number of people tailgating and acting irate when you’re actually adhering to the speed limit is shocking. They all have thr same excuse: “But I’m an experienced driver!”

The thing is it’s not only about collisions. There’s just been a huge study (big sample, control group, multi-year) showing that low emissions zones (like the 20mph limit) have had a measurable improvement on children’s’ lungs in London. That translates to fewer cases of respiratory illness, lower hospitalisations for asthma, etc. But apparently dominating the road is just way more important to some than not endlessly pumping increasing amounts of taxpayers’ money into asthma pumps on the NHS.

Speeding is literally pointless. No matter how fast you drive, you're still going to be sitting at the next red light with everyone else. You might be fifty feet in front of the one's you overtook like an idiot, but you aren't getting to your destination any quicker.

Having been the victim of someone who was speeding and missed a give way sign who then t-boned me at 60mph, it makes me so angry seeing people speeding and driving carelessly. People just don't think even for a second about the damage they could do to someone else

The same with people using their phones when they're driving. Makes me so angry

The degree to which speedos overread is quite variable actually. In my usual car ar home I realised I'm actually doing 30mph when the speedo reads 33, and on motorways it reads a fraction under 80 when I'm actually going at 70. No wonder some people used to be really eager to overtake me!

On holiday over the summer I had a hire car with a much more accurate speedo. When it read 130 kmh – the local motorway speed limit – the GPS on my phone said I was doing a steady 129. Pretty much dead on. Everyone else seemed to be dawdling along.

The hire car was a BMW. I wonder how big a factor speedometer accuracy is in giving BMW drivers their reputation for impatient driving?

On residential roads I think the OP is largely correct. However on motorways, middle lane hoggers tend not to, indeed often are 60-65mph where someone could be overtaking within the speed limit.

In general what is needed is for the courts to stop being soft on motoring crimes (call them that not minimise them by saying offences), the end to the hardship defence, and the option for lifetime bans for some crimes.

Tbf depends where you're driving. My commute is along country roads, not a single traffic light along the way, you'd definitely get there faster if you speed, which is probably why 99% of the cars I saw when I drove at a busier time were speeding (now I go at 5am and just see a couple of cars coming the other way)

You might be sitting at the red light but the other person will be on their way, having gone through when it was on green.
The 20mph limit is ridiculous. We might as well get people to walk in front of the car with a red flag, like they did in Victorian times.

There is no consequence

I agree, it feels like you are driving Fred Flintstone’s car driving at 20.
Generally I think we are too focused on limits being set in “10’s”.
If say, those main roads currently with a 20 limit had a 25 limit, traffic flow would be better/easier.
Having spent time in the countryside over the summer, with narrow single lane but two way traffic, no pavements or lights carry a 60 or 70 limit, alongside a sheer drop into a ditch, you have to wonder about the lack of real logical thinking from those setting limits.
In London the 20 limit is crippling traffic & frankly mskes life a misery for many. Yet electric powered bikes with their faces covered are free to exceed that limit by some way with no consequences.
Interesting about the previous comments regarding Audi drivers. I read somewhere that this brand forms the highest percentage of lease vehicle drivers, which perhsps explains why they all seem less concerned about damaging their car maybe?
We need to review speed limits for all roads & also make motorway driving something that is taught properly, not learned following a driving licence being issued.
School streets systems almost negate the 20 limit in cities, but how do we make people drive sensibly, according to their surroundings…?

One part of my commute is 30kph which is about 18mph. Feels very slow after the 80kph on the road before that one!

In general what is needed is for the courts to stop being soft on motoring crimes (call them that not minimise them by saying offences).
Who decides what is a sensible speed, and thereby makes it a crime if you exceed it? If speed was a real problem then they would tackle it. At the moment all they do is just issue fines, which are a nice little revenue-earner for them
Speed isn't a problem; it's the failure to stop / the manner of stopping that is the problem. Racing cars do about 200mph and are fine ... unless they crash. It's the stopping that is the problem, not the speed of driving.
Why haven't stopping distances in the Highway Code been updated since the 1960s? Modern brakes now are so much better than 1960s brakes. It is indicative of how shambolic and politicised the system is.

Do I speed? Yeah sometimes, unintentionally. I drive to the road conditions a lot rather than driving along with my eyes fixed to my speedo, so occasionally my speed might creep over the limit eg 45/46 on a 40. I then adjust accordingly.

But I live fairly rurally and many roads are “faster” than urban roads. Just because a road has a 60 limit doesn’t mean I’ll drive at 60. I do adhere to the 20 limits in the towns and near schools.

I do drive over 70 on the motorways sometimes. I think some speed limits set historically are daft and based on old cars without modern features we have now. It’s interesting that in countries with no motorway limit they’re not having non stop high speed crashes.

Whether the speed limit is reasonable or not does not excuse breaking it.

I agree with the person about 25mph speed limits in some cases, I also think that 20mph limits should have road designs to slow you down, and in some cases the speed limit only be low in one direction.

I had to do a speed awareness course and the thing that stuck with me was a film of a car on a racetrack showing stopping distances. A car which can stop at 30 miles per hour and avoid hitting a child ploughed into the barrier at 31 mph. I always tried not to speed before but now make sure I don’t! My original offence was 46 mph on a 40 mph limit as I was entering road works on a motorway.

A car which can stop at 30 miles per hour and avoid hitting a child ploughed into the barrier at 31 mph.
AI tells me that the stopping distance at 30mph is 75 feet. At 31mph it's 79ft.
A whole 4 feet of difference means that you plough (emotive word) into a barrier, eh?

I just flick my mirror down so I can’t see them!! Let them get irate and they can go round you if they want to.

Because it's never a consistent higher speed (due to roundabouts, traffic, road works etc) I'm not really gaining much time.

20mph v creeping over 30mph can be the difference between killing a child, person, cat, dog, hedgehog or not.

Eh? I quoted the person who had been on the speed awareness course where they compared 30mph and 31mph.
Why have you randomly mentioned 20mph?

Doesn’t matter if you think it’s too slow - it’s been decided it’s a 20mph limit so you’re breaking the law.