50mph on motorway due to road works

Some of the attitudes within this thread are exactly what is wrong on the roads of the UK these days; far too many people seeing the speed limit as a target and not the limit, aggression against anyone who doesn't drive exactly the same way as you, and the opinion that only you matter on the road.

It's exactly like that joke: "Anyone going faster than me on the roads is a maniac, and anyone going slower than me is a nuisance."

As for your original question, OP, it depends on the circumstances and the positioning of the truck. We can all read the Highway Code and abide by it but if the truck has just pulled out to overtake and you enter the 70 zone, can anyone safely say they would continue at 50mph for the next 5 minutes and however many yards to let the lorry pass you at a snail's pace? It isn't unsafe to accelerate to somewhere near the speed limit as the lorry driver should expect that and act accordingly -- and not beep or gesture because they're unhappy with it.

Shaka_Zulu wrote: »

Did you mention that to your examiner when you failed your test for driving at 30mph in a 40mph zone?

Or

Did you drive at the speed limit where it was safe to do so, like we were all taught by our instructor?

But that's not the sort of speed differential that was being discussed.

It was 45 in a 50.

Now I was taught, depending on the conditions, to keep the needle of the speedometer just below the mark for the speed limit.

So a real world 45 could very easily be what someone thinks is the correct speed to be travelling at, as their speedometer is reading just under 50.

Not everyone knows (or is interested) that speedometers have a potential 10% over-read so takes the readings that the car gives them as accurate.

Strider590 wrote: »

And that's fine, but why do they need to do it in the overtaking lanes?

We've got people on here giving it the "limit not a target" BS, the usual excuse for incompetence.
Well if they want to do 30 in a 40, let them do 30 in a 40, what I don't want them doing is blocking, beeping, flashing lights or waving their camera phones at anyone who dares to overtake them.

Here's the difference, incompetent drivers I can handle, but driving badly to provoke other drivers, that's entirely different.

These people not only want to drive slowly, but they're passively-aggressively enforcing that on everyone else.

Now perhaps it's different in different areas of the country, but around here in Worcestershire and the west-mids it's reaching ****ing epidemic proportions.

I never see such behavior?