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driving slow : your views ?
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This is true, they are told to take them into account, as there is information contained in them. However, when I've done the Bike Safe course, provided by the police (the Met in my case), their instructions regarding speed limits were "Stick to 30s and 40s, beyond that, don't go silly, and remember, just because it's safe doesn't mean it's legal, and if you get a ticket, it's completely your fault".
What followed, each time I did it, was a day learning to make good and safe progress, which meant rising at least up to the speed limits, and doing it safely through learning to improve observation.
Bike Safe, and don't stick to speed limits if they're in excess of 40mph. Guess that's why bikes are safer than cars, because even advanced motorists are told to take them into account, and they're superior to the rest of us simple drivers as well. We're only taught not to exceed limits when we're taught to drive.0 -
Say you drive 50 in a 60 zone, what if by failing to make progress a large wagon pulls out and now brings your speed down to 20? If you'd been going just a bit faster, and saved those 55 seconds, you would have avoided that wagon. I've been there plenty of times. Now that might be an extreme case for some of you but another thing I've seen is that by driving unnecessarily slowly, you invite other drivers to pull out of their junction. This then slows the traffic down once again (using more fuel in the process) as they slowly accelerate up to speed. Now, say one of those drivers also now decides to go at 30 instead of the 50 you were happy to travel at. You decide not to overtake too. This linear formula you are using has fallen apart.
There you go again with your "failing to make progress". If I'm moving at 50 I most certainly am making progress.
Your hypothetical lorry / car has no business pulling out of a side road and slowing traffic on the road that it is joining. If this does happen, the fault for slowing other traffic down lies entirely with the vehicle that failed to give way, and not the vehicle already on that road that just happened to be closest to the junction at the time, regardless of its speed.
It's easy to say "what if". What if further up the road there is a much slower moving vehicle, say a tractor. A faster driver may catch up to the tractor before it exits the road and be held up, while a slower driver may arrive just as the tractor leaves the carriageway and is thus not slowed at all. End result, the gap between the faster driver (ahead) and slower driver (behind) is reduced.No, of course you don't have to compensate for an inaccurate speedo, but we're saying if you do 25 in a 40, then you might be doing just 22 or 23. There's a big difference between doing say 37mph in a 40, and doing 22mph in a 40 mate.
I've already stated that in a 40 limit I'd be doing a speedometer-40. Personally, even I think 25 in a 40 is way too slow.
And I'm not your mate.Not necessarily. A dual carriageway doesn't have to have 2+ lanes on each carriageway. You can have dual carriageways with a single lane in each direction. You can have single carriageway roads with multiple lanes in each direction.
Of course it doesn't. At the time of posting I was thinking of a 2/3-lane motorway. My apologies.I'm not a driving test examiner.
You seemed pretty confident of an examiner's reaction to my driving when you posted this:"Failure to make adequate progress" is certainly how the examiner would put it when telling you why you had not passed your driving test, yes.As long as it is to the right of you.:)
I followed some numpty about three weeks ago, who was doing 60 in the outside lane of the motorway. I was just pootling along behind him...
Indeed. Don't interpret the fact that I may drive slightly slower than most mean that I'm automatically a lane-hog. I'm more often the overtaken than the overtaker and therefore more often in the leftmost lane.
I do find it interesting that you use the typical anti-slow word "pootling" to refer to travelling at 60 though. Where's the threshold between "driving" and "pootling"? Or does it depend upon context?0 -
Well, we could start with my brother having failed his first test for precisely that reason...
And we could continue with the fact that I've been driving for 15 years and not once have I been pulled over by the police for bad/dangerous/inconsiderate/careless/reckless driving, or failing to make progress, adequate or otherwise.
Cue "you should be almost there then" jokes!0 -
I was thinking more along the lines of "And I'd like seventy-hundred similar offences not to be taken into consideration"...
Now that's not very sporting of them, is it? Just think how much earlier the roads could have been moving a few mph faster, if only they'd nabbed me on my first offence!0 -
Well, we could start with my brother having failed his first test for precisely that reason...
If he'd been speeding, he'd have been fine then?
Maybe you should give him a few lessons for next time?No, it really isn't. A considerate and aware driver may very well have been travelling in excess of the speed limit before catching up with Weyoun.0 -
There are far too many impatient people around.
It doesn't matter what the speed limit is - there are folks who want to go faster - and even if you are driving to the appropriate limit there are those who will appear from behind, who will consider you a slow-coach who is impeding their 'right' to break the law.
I have just returned from a month in South-East Europe - in the last 5 days I have driven over 2600 miles and passed through 8 countries before catching a ferry back to the UK.
I didn't exceed any speed limits - but guess where I found the most impatient drivers - the M25, the M40, and the M6, here in the UK.
There are folks who break the speed limits in every country - but when they come up behind someone who is overtaking at around the legal speed they slow down and wait for you to return to the near-side lane, and then they carry on their way - no problem for anyone.
Even in Germany where there are many sections of the Autobahn with no limit at all - there are those who travel at warp speed factor 4 - who appear out of nowhere - but they too do not show impatience or aggression - they let you finish your manoeuvre and then they whoosh past and disappear as fast as they caught up with you. But beware delaying your return to the near-side - then the horns will start - not many centre-lane hoggers in Germany.
But on the M40 on Tuesday evening I was overtaking in lane three a series of slower moving cars and vans in lane two, who were themselves overtaking trucks and caravans in lane one.
I was trying to maintain a steady 70mph - no cruise control - and I was very alert to the density of traffic.
When lane two was clear I moved left into it and when necessary I pulled back into lane three to overtake some more vehicles which I estimate were doing somewhere around 65 to 68mph.
What do I get several times but some joker obviously exceeding the 70 limit by a fair amount, comes hard up behind - horn blaring and lights flashing.
One car in particular had several passengers making rude gestures as they passed when I pulled back into lane two.
Now if this is how someone who is driving right on the 70 limit is treated then heaven help the OP - or anyone else who gets in the way of the impatient fools.
I expect that in their intolerant opinion I was driving too slow and not making adequate progress.
I noticed that many of the speedy people cross several lanes to disappear up a slip road off to the left - I don't think many travel more than one or two junctions in their rush to get home after work.
I do Aberdeen to Dover and back at least 4 times a year and this impatience has got much worse in recent years - I think next time I am in the London area around 'home time' I'll stop for a nap and a cup of coffee in a services.
Although even 'Welcome Break' don't welcome folks for more than 2 hours without charging them for it.
End of rant - pause for the come-back.0 -
.............I'll stop for a nap and a cup of coffee in a services.
Although even 'Welcome Break' don't welcome folks for more than 2 hours without charging them for it.
End of rant - pause for the come-back.
Isn't your cup of coffee cold by then, or what else can you find to do in a motorway cafe for two hours? Maybe that's why they want to move you on to a layby on a side road somewhere else?0 -
Well, "nap" in the edit won't fool the wife!0
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