Driving with Headlights on

alastairq

almillar wrote: »

I love speed!
You're free to do whatever speed you like of course (and the person behind is free to overtake you), but please don't slow down just because the person behind you has their lights on. As you've learned from this thread, more and more cars will have their lights on all the time.
And if you do 30mph on a (free flowing) motorway, you'll get done for dangerous driving, there IS such a thing as too slow.

No you won't.

It may in fact be the speed limit for your category of vehicle.

Or, you may wish, as the driver, to self impose a lower speed limit...due perhaps to the type of tyres fitted? [tyres may well be legal for use on the road, but there are types which have unsuitable characteristics for sustained higher speeds.]
The Army has this issue especially, and has historically self-imposed lower speed limits on certain of its vehicles.

A motorway isn't for high speed. It is to allow permitted vehicles to move more quickly between points without the hassle of conflicting traffic, and other obstacles.
The fact that such lack of conflict permits the safer use of higher speeds is but a by-product.

The problem with a slower vehicle on a British motorway isn't the slow vehicle...it is the incompetence of the thousands of other drivers who simply cannot cope wit that slower vehicle.

So, if the cap fits?

alastairq

interstellaflyer wrote: »

Actually it is wrong, you would certainly fail a driving test as you would be deemed unfit to be on the road, yes the speed limits are not a target, they are a maximum, however you are required to drive at a reasonable speed and 30 mph in say a 50 or 60 mph limit in good conditions, on a half decent A road is not acceptable, it is incredibly selfish and I'm sure with your attitude, should a police officer pull you, I'm sure he will not struggle to find something to charge you with.

It appears you fail to understand what the driving tests really are all about.

For a driving test, the candidate is required to demonstrate they can keep up with the flow of traffic.

This is a measure of competence......only!

Not a blueprint for all future driving.

The reason why you probably find slow vehicles as unacceptable is more likely down to the fact you struggle to cope with their presence.

Learning to effect competent, low-risk overtakes really does mean slower vehicles are no problem.

It isn't the slow vehicle that creates the hold-up...it is the low level of competence displayed by the drivers behind in either not taking each opportunity to overtake...or...if they do not wish to overtake, then not falling back to leave sufficient room for other, faster drivers to pass them and pull back in....in other words,it is the length of queue which creates the problem, and the inability of drivers within that queue to do anything about it.

So..why not blame the drivers behind the slow vehicle next time?

colino

alastairq, I agree with much that you say, but the bit, "It isn't the slow vehicle that creates the hold-up" doesn't only not make sense, but makes a nonsense of the real world semi-rural roads around here. I assure you that one, "lady who lunches" deciding 35mph on a single-carriage 60mph max road is quite sufficient, means a 5 mile conga line behind her. People who drive like that add in the gaiety of, "which line am I going to drive over next, kerbside or middle of the road?" Such self-centred incompetence with no thought for other road users tends not to be deliberate, but is a manifestation of an entirely incompetent driver who is unsafe to overtake.

TradePro

alastairq wrote: »

It isn't the slow vehicle that creates the hold-up

Erm, I think it probably is.

In fact, I think most of what you have just said is garbage.

You're not an I.A.M. t*sser are you?

p.s. I agree with you if the slow vehicle is say a tractor, I am however totally against selfish drivers that should be going quicker

TradePro

alastairq wrote: »

The problem with a slower vehicle on a British motorway isn't the slow vehicle...it is the incompetence of the thousands of other drivers who simply cannot cope wit that slower vehicle.

I'm a big believer in 'common denominators'.

alastairq

........and I'm against drivers bullying others out of the way, one way or another!

If you don't think it isn't in fact the slow vehicle that creates the problem, try analysing what's going on next time you're in a queue behind a tractor?

The problem isn't the slow vehicle.

That slow vehicle is a 'fact of life'.

The cessation of progress amongst the following drivers lies solely with the first or second vehicle behind the slow vehicle.

If they fail/refuse/lack the skill to overtake when opportunity presents itself, then those further back have an increased problem.

IE, the one's further back cannot progress unless the first one or two actually get out of the way.

The end result is someone further back [who probably has a better view ahead anyway] decides to 'take a chance' and overtake everyone.

They then create bitterness amongst the other drivers ...probably for doing something others wished they'd had the balls to do themselves?

And so it goes.

Of course, if the first vehicles behind the slow vehicle do not/ lack the will to, seek the opportunities to overtake, then they themselves should drop back a reasonable distance, to allow others the opportunity to nibble away at the traffic queue.

I rarely if ever have a problem with slow[er] vehicles.

Or speed limits.

I don't drive 'fast' cars.....[I don't need to]....if I cannot overtake for reasons of a lack of performance/or lack the speed differential within the Law...I stay back........I don't drive along glued to the backside of the slow vehicle.

Others may pass...and can use the space I create. Or not..that's up to them.

I spend a lot of my working life getting driven around in quite large vehicles with a definite speed limit to adhere to.

And I sit there observing the queues behind, and see how close behind us the first few vehicles position themselves [tailgating]....I see first hand how the first one or two vehicles really restrict themselves as to what they can do.

It matters not whether the slow vehicle is a tractor,drooling along at 30mph... or one of those I frequent [which don't possess crash bars or any other means of preventing other vehicles from disappearing under our axles] trundling about at 40mph.....or a car.

A vehicle is a vehicle, end-of.

If those following vehicles at the front of the queue happen to be yours, then think on?

TradePro

TradePro wrote: »

p.s. I agree with you if the slow vehicle is say a tractor

You could have saved yourself a whole heap of typing if you had read my post properly...

sharpy2010

Daylight running light? When I was a kid these were called fog lights, and we got into trouble for turning them on during the day!!!

jase1

The OP really does give whining old farts a bad name.

What a surprise, he thinks that driving at 30mph in a 60 area is acceptable, thinks that the EU is a dictatorship out to get him and that foreigners are weird, and won't accept that his aerial got broken in a storm.

And he's managed to troll everyone into a circular argument of 140 posts and counting? Another argument where he's patently in the wrong?

alastairq

TradePro wrote: »

You could have saved yourself a whole heap of typing if you had read my post properly...

I did read your post.....and I read some very restrictive conditions in it.

Why does your acceptable slow vehicle have to be a tractor?

A point I made was, the type or shape of vehicle travelling more slowly than you, really doesn't matter.

It's there!

It has every 'right' to be there!

It is a fact-of-life!

No vehicle should be viewed differently in that respect.

You are implying there are degrees of inconvenience.

It is irrelevant whether that vehicle is a tractor, or a youth in a Morris Minor.

The problem isn't that particular vehicle;..the problem lies with those immediately behind, and their lack of action.