Too Many C**ts Driving

[Arizona]

I drive to work twice a day along a stretch of the A38 South of Bristol (60 limit). There is ALWAYS some c**t who wont go within 20mph of the speed limit. Coming home this evening there was some kok who never troubled 40mph, but we were both soon stuck behind someone else doing 36.

 

Is it just this particular road or is this happening more and more often accross the UK?

[Colinjb]

There are loads like that between Kettering and Peterborough, single carriageway national speed limit and they do 40 EVERYWHERE! Through the country, through villages past primary schools, the lot. The sort of doddery feckers who believe they are the safest thing on the road when infact they are just a moving roadblock at best.

 

HATE them.

[saint_stevo]

If your not able to drive to at least the speed limit, you should have your license revoked. Like when there is a speed camera in a 40 and the ***** in front goes through at 32mph. Why? Idiots

[Al de Man]

If your not able to drive to at least the speed limit, you should have your license revoked. Like when there is a speed camera in a 40 and the ***** in front goes through at 32mph. Why? Idiots

 

Maybe they're really not that bothered about the extra five seconds they'll gain as it only means having to wait at the next set of lights for five seconds longer?

[Arizona]

Maybe they're really not that bothered about the extra five seconds they'll gain as it only means having to wait at the next set of lights for five seconds longer?

 

A 10 minute drive at 60mph takes 15 minutes at 40mph. Quite an irritating difference when you have to do it twice a day.

[Johnny Bognor]

There are loads like that between Kettering and Peterborough, single carriageway national speed limit and they do 40 EVERYWHERE!

 

They are the worst, they drive constantly at 40 MPH. For part of a jouney they are 33% under the national speed limit and then when you reach a 30 limit, they carry on a 40, thus doing 33% over the speed limit. WTF is that about?

[adrian lord]

They are the worst, they drive constantly at 40 MPH. For part of a jouney they are 33% under the national speed limit and then when you reach a 30 limit, they carry on a 40, thus doing 33% over the speed limit. WTF is that about?

 

Usually they are aged between 50 and 90 too. Often, whether male or female thay have purple hair it seems too.

[dickyhale]

Sunday Drivers.

[sadoldgit]

It always nice to arrive at your planned destination a little late rather than A & E or the Crematorium though isn't it?

[saint-luco]

being an ex-proffesional driver, who made it his job to stay up to date with the driving laws of this country, i think the problem is, a lot of people dont actually know what the national speed limit is, i bet if you held a poll on here, more than 50% would'nt know it without looking it up

[Arizona]

Stuck behind two of them tonight, line astern on the same road at 11:30pm. They seem to outnumber people like myself who are capable of getting within 10mph of the speed limit.

[John Boy Saint]

Probably the same people who turn their fog lights on at the first whisp of mist then leave them on for the next 2 weeks.

[Arizona]

Probably the same people who turn their fog lights on at the first whisp of mist then leave them on for the next 2 weeks.

 

They are also mongs.

[sadoldgit]

The problems on the roads aren't caused by the slow and cautious, they are caused by the idiots with no patience who think they own the roads and need to pass everything and everyone in their way and the at the speed limits are starting points not limits. The standard of driving on our motorways is appalling and they are death traps. I was chatting to an advance driving instructor recently who said that her job was not to improve people's driving, but to help them stay alive on the roads. Pretty much says it all.

[Michelle]

Simple just overtake them. That's what I do.

 

On a single lane carriageway? What do you do, fly over the top of them?

[Arizona]

The problems on the roads aren't caused by the slow and cautious, they are caused by the idiots with no patience who think they own the roads and need to pass everything and everyone in their way and the at the speed limits are starting points not limits. The standard of driving on our motorways is appalling and they are death traps. I was chatting to an advance driving instructor recently who said that her job was not to improve people's driving, but to help them stay alive on the roads. Pretty much says it all.

 

Continuously driving well below the speed limit is a fail point on the driving test.

 

Yes speeding is just as bad, but slow drivers are a hazzard too.

[Hatch]

I would make having both Maths and English GCSEs or equivalent the basic requirement before even being allowed to learn to drive.

[sadoldgit]

Continuously driving well below the speed limit is a fail point on the driving test.

 

Yes speeding is just as bad, but slow drivers are a hazzard too.

 

They are a hazzard, but less of one. They are only a hazzard to those who think they are on a race track. Speed kills, not lack of it. I work in a police station and see the pictures that are the result of people driving too fast. Not nice.

[John Boy Saint]

They are a hazzard, but less of one. They are only a hazzard to those who think they are on a race track. Speed kills, not lack of it. I work in a police station and see the pictures that are the result of people driving too fast. Not nice.

As my Dad said when I passed my test, "Any idiot can drive fast, its knowing what to do with it when it all starts to go wrong".

 

I drive 40k miles a year (I am no Saint covering those miles) but every single day I see accidents waiting to happen, predominantly involving cars travelling well below the speed limit.

 

Someone above mentioned above about poor Motorway driving, I have a mate who went on a BMW driving course and the instructor told him that on a Motorway he should always drive in the middle lane as it gives greater options for escape should an incident occur...........Unbelievable.

[Ponty]

Hazzard?

 

As in Hazzard County?

 

Or hazard?

[Arizona]

They are a hazzard, but less of one. They are only a hazzard to those who think they are on a race track. Speed kills, not lack of it. I work in a police station and see the pictures that are the result of people driving too fast. Not nice.

 

And those who would like to drive at 60mph in a 60mph zone and don't want to be late for work.

 

Speed doesn't kill. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you. Wreckless driving, which can involve excessive speed, kills. Trying to take a corner too fast could cause a crash, but that could be doing 40mph round a 20mph bend in a 60mph zone.

 

Anyway, this is irrelevant, we're not talking about driving too fast, we're talking about people driving too slow. Often this is because they are old and apparently have no comprehension of the concept of a speed limit.

[stevegrant]

Anyway, this is irrelevant, we're not talking about driving too fast, we're talking about people driving too slow. Often this is because they are old and apparently have no comprehension of the concept of a speed limit.

Or that they're not capable of driving at the speed limit because they are unable to handle the multitude of often-simultaneous tasks required.

[Minty]

Or that they're not capable of driving at the speed limit because they are unable to handle the multitude of often-simultaneous tasks required.

 

Something you're ok at, judging by the expert way I saw you take a phone call by the train station traffic lights at the weekend.

[saint_stevo]

over the xmas period i got in a car with a tasty young piece who prior to setting off drew an L or her left hand and an R on her right hand with eye liner (asking me which was which beforehand)

 

Worrying

[St Landrew]

There is nowadays, a condition amongst drivers, who seem to think that if of them are in line astern, on a busy road, then that is grounds for a traffic jam. And they seem to do their upmost to make it happen. I have now reached a stage in my life where I cannot watch other road users screw up because they are busy taking a call, or texting, or changing the CD, or radio channel. I've decided that I'm not going to spend my journeys sitting in my car waiting for people to sort themselves out anymore, and instead, I'm going to make every journey I can on my bike. Take it as my contribution to having one less car of the road.

[sadoldgit]

The speed limit is just that. For many it is the lowest limit possible and they cause problems because they think it is okay to drive 10 or 20 mph faster. If you drive on a motorway reguarly you will know that probably the majority of drivers drive faster than 70 mph. Just because the limit is 70 mph it doesn't mean that you can't drive at 60 mph, nor if it is a 60 mph limit that people can't drive at 50 mph if that want to, without some idiot tailgating them.

 

What is more of a problem is are the people who think it is perfectly okay to drive in the middle lane of the motorway when the inside lane is free. The middle and outside lanes are for overtaking. Once done so you should move back to the inside lane.

 

The standard of driving on the roads is appalling and it is mainly down to a lack of patience. Who says that any of us has a right to get to our destination faster than the person in front of us? Yes it is a pain when the person in front is driving more slowly and we want to get on with our journey but it is the decsions that are taken then that often result in RTAs.

 

Trust me, it doesn't make you more of a man if you overtake another man because you think he should be driving faster.

 

Recently a guy went past me on a narrow county lane just before a blind bend. If anything had come round the corner it would have been a head on collision. I saw another guy tear round a roundabout with one hand on the wheel whilst talking on a mobile. It is the same kind of mentality. I know what I am doing, everyone else are idiots.

 

As for speed not killing. If you suddenly become stationert when doing 5 mph you probably won't die. Try it at 70 mph and your chances of staying unhurt chnage drastically.

 

Speed kills because forces increase when you hit something. It also means that you have less reaction time when you make a move.

 

It is the people who think that speed is not dangerous who are the dangers on the road in the main.

[Arizona]

Excessive speed can cause an accident, however you cannot just blame speed itself. A wide open, dead straight, 500 mile, empty, 6 lane highway through a desert in Utah... you could easily do 120mph without being dangerous. Similarly an icy, snow covered, inner city road, going past a primary school at rush hour with lots of parked cars... 10mph could be dangerous.

 

Anyway, you're trying to justify people driving more than 20mph below the speed limits by talking about boy racers, speeding, overtaking etc. That's not an excuse. I like to drive pretty much on the speed limit, give or take 5mph, and its perfectly safe. I slow down for bends, parked cars, schools etc.

 

This isn't about some macho show of manliness. It's about being stuck behind an irritatingly slow car. Being held up an extra 5 minutes going too and from work is annoying. However getting to my parents house involves driving down a single-carriageway road for an hour. It's a tedious journey at the best of times, but being stuck behind one of these brain-dead idiots would add half an hour to my journey.

[bungle]

Excessive speed can cause an accident, however you cannot just blame speed itself. A wide open, dead straight, 500 mile, empty, 6 lane highway through a desert in Utah... you could easily do 120mph without being dangerous. Similarly an icy, snow covered, inner city road, going past a primary school at rush hour with lots of parked cars... 10mph could be dangerous.

 

Anyway, you're trying to justify people driving more than 20mph below the speed limits by talking about boy racers, speeding, overtaking etc. That's not an excuse. I like to drive pretty much on the speed limit, give or take 5mph, and its perfectly safe. I slow down for bends, parked cars, schools etc.

 

This isn't about some macho show of manliness. It's about being stuck behind an irritatingly slow car. Being held up an extra 5 minutes going too and from work is annoying. However getting to my parents house involves driving down a single-carriageway road for an hour. It's a tedious journey at the best of times, but being stuck behind one of these brain-dead idiots would add half an hour to my journey.

 

Oh, f*cking, no. Five minutes. F*ck me. Idiocy.

[sadoldgit]

Excessive speed can cause an accident, however you cannot just blame speed itself. A wide open, dead straight, 500 mile, empty, 6 lane highway through a desert in Utah... you could easily do 120mph without being dangerous. Similarly an icy, snow covered, inner city road, going past a primary school at rush hour with lots of parked cars... 10mph could be dangerous.

 

Anyway, you're trying to justify people driving more than 20mph below the speed limits by talking about boy racers, speeding, overtaking etc. That's not an excuse. I like to drive pretty much on the speed limit, give or take 5mph, and its perfectly safe. I slow down for bends, parked cars, schools etc.

 

This isn't about some macho show of manliness. It's about being stuck behind an irritatingly slow car. Being held up an extra 5 minutes going too and from work is annoying. However getting to my parents house involves driving down a single-carriageway road for an hour. It's a tedious journey at the best of times, but being stuck behind one of these brain-dead idiots would add half an hour to my journey.

 

 

Obvioulsy I am talking about the way some people drive on the roads here, which are often overcrowded and dangerous.

 

I also think is is a bit unfair calling someone brain dead jsut because they want to drive at a speed they feel safe with. The roads are there for all to use and I don't think it to much to want to be able to get to A to B without being harrassed by someone who feels they have a right to drive faster.

 

Wouldn't you rather get to your destination a bit later than end up in A & E or perhaps even dead? How would you feel if you caused the death of another person because you were impatient and overtook at the wrong time/place?

 

There are few things worth risking your (or someone elses) life for. I don't thing a car journey is one of them.

[St Landrew]

Britains motorways were obviously designed at a time when they didn't forsee quite as much traffic as runs on them today. It means that rules like no undertaking are not so much allowed, as just about tolerated. By the same token, the second and third lanes have become occasional main driving lanes, rather than merely for overtaking, purely because of the volume of traffic on the road.

 

The little argument that persists about hogging the middle always amuses me. I will hog the middle lane, as people like to say, but only when the occasion allows it. By that I mean on such occasions where I'm not making the slightest difference to other car drivers, or when there are practically no drivers on the motorway; yes, believe it or not, it does happen - say in the early or overnight hours. I find that driving in the middle lane is the safest place to be if there is a sudden emergency, or accident in front of me. By being in the middle of the road, in a car, I increase my chances of escape. Once traffic increases or conditions don't permit me my indulgence, I immediately change to the appropriate lane.

 

You can spot a modern, inexperienced, law abiding driver on the motorway, in their overly zealous need to keep in the left hand lane, whether or not it is safe to be there. Many's the time I have seen people doing around 70 in the left hand lane, and then pulling really hard across into the middle and right hand lanes to overtake, then hard back into the left hand lane. That may well be legal, but it is extremely poor driving, and actually very dangerous, because of the forces they are putting into the vehicle; and it smacks of a poor understanding of driving within he bounds of road safety and the letter of the law.

 

Yes, speed kills. But if everyone does the same speed then nobody dies, so it is an oversimplified phrase. It is the differences in speed, skill, visibility, road, vehicle and driver condition, and weather variability which actually does it. Plus, we encounter differences in attitude. Drivers often do not have sufficient respect for other road users. Inevitably, accidents happen, and it is all very well having a laugh on Youtube [i don't, by the way] watching someone seriously injured, or maybe actually dying, and commenting... what an idiot, or he deserved that, the pr!ck, or some such glib phrase. But turn the tables, and ask what if it happened to you..? Would you wish your peers to condemn you for something that might have been the tiniest error, which you paid for with your life..? Indeed not. Where possible, try giving a little more space, a little more patience, a little more respect, a little quickness to anger, and perhaps a litle more attention to your own driving habits. None of us are perfect.

[sadoldgit]

The people I am talking about StL are the ones who just sit in the middle lane come what may with people having to overtake or undertake to get past them.

 

As for speed. It is not speed itself, it is what happens when you encounter problems at speed.

[Arizona]

Obvioulsy I am talking about the way some people drive on the roads here, which are often overcrowded and dangerous.

 

I also think is is a bit unfair calling someone brain dead jsut because they want to drive at a speed they feel safe with. The roads are there for all to use and I don't think it to much to want to be able to get to A to B without being harrassed by someone who feels they have a right to drive faster.

 

Wouldn't you rather get to your destination a bit later than end up in A & E or perhaps even dead? How would you feel if you caused the death of another person because you were impatient and overtook at the wrong time/place?

 

There are few things worth risking your (or someone elses) life for. I don't thing a car journey is one of them.

 

Again, you are exagerating the idea of driving to the speed limits to make it seem ridiculous.

 

Personally I'd like to drive at 30 in a 30, 40 in a 40, 60 on a 60 and 70-80 on a motorway, weather permitting of course. It's not dangerous at all.

 

I do however worry about people who "do not feel safe" driving about 40mph. IMO if your eyesight, reactions, knowledge and confidence of driving is that bad, you shouldn't be on the road. I saw passing over a mini round-about the other day. Coming the other way was an old woman, who was stopped at the round about giving way to traffic on her LEFT, when there was nobody coming from her right. She blatantly didn't have a clue what was going on.

 

That IMO is a far more dangerous driver than me doing 60mph on an A road.

[St Landrew]

The people I am talking about StL are the ones who just sit in the middle lane come what may with people having to overtake or undertake to get past them.

 

As for speed. It is not speed itself, it is what happens when you encounter problems at speed.

 

Yes, I am aware of those people SOG. But like everything else, it isn't always cut and dried. I find middle lane hoggers to be a bit of a nuisance, but not the evil beasts people seem to view them as. The swervers who suddenly change lanes with little or no indication, forethought or checking, are a far more dangerous proposition, as far as I'm concerned. Yet you hear very little about them, and as far as I can see, haven't even been mentioned on this thread, except by me; twice now. In a sense, it is behaviour or conditions that can't be predicted, which is what really causes accidents. I can predict what a middle lane hogger will do.

 

As for speed on the road, if we're to have a serious, or semi-serious discussion about road safety, then we must qualify the parameters we are talking about.

[sadoldgit]

I agree totally about the people who pull out suddenly and those who drive into the "safe" distance that you leave between you and the car in front. They can't wait for the traffic to pass before they overtake and pull out no matter what is coming behind them.

 

As for parameters, well I guess that the police would say that driving in excess of any speed limit would be "too fast." I know a lot of drivers think tht they can handle speed and therefore the limits don't apply to them but the simple fact is that they cannot. Reaction times come down significantly the faster you go and any manaouvre you make has an affect on the people around you. Just as there is no "safe" amount of cigarettes to smoke or alcholoci drinks to drink, any any given set of circumstances the "safe" level of speed with situation/conditions.

 

I was overtaken on a very steep, very icy hill last week when just trying to steer in a straightline was a nightmare. I was probably doing about 5 mph at the time and felt that was too fast!

[JackFrost]

The problems on the roads aren't caused by the slow and cautious, they are caused by the idiots with no patience who think they own the roads and need to pass everything and everyone in their way and the at the speed limits are starting points not limits. The standard of driving on our motorways is appalling and they are death traps. I was chatting to an advance driving instructor recently who said that her job was not to improve people's driving, but to help them stay alive on the roads. Pretty much says it all.

 

I can't tell u how many times I've got stuck behind people doing 40 in a 60mph zone, the speed limit has gone down to 30 and the person has continued going along at the same speed of 40mph. One of which went straight through a red light and ploughed into the side of a bus right in front of my eyes.

 

Of course there are plenty of mindless idiots who regularly exceed the speed limits but there are also plenty of people driving cars who passed their test decades ago and have very little or no sense of speed, distance or potential danger on today's roads.

 

Of course it is always better to be cautious than aggressive, but some drivers are far too cautious and are anxious about going quicker than 40-45mph on any road, and in some situations being this cautious can be as dangerous as driving too aggressively.

[JackFrost]

Excessive speed can cause an accident, however you cannot just blame speed itself. A wide open, dead straight, 500 mile, empty, 6 lane highway through a desert in Utah... you could easily do 120mph without being dangerous. Similarly an icy, snow covered, inner city road, going past a primary school at rush hour with lots of parked cars... 10mph could be dangerous.

 

Anyway, you're trying to justify people driving more than 20mph below the speed limits by talking about boy racers, speeding, overtaking etc. That's not an excuse. I like to drive pretty much on the speed limit, give or take 5mph, and its perfectly safe. I slow down for bends, parked cars, schools etc.

 

This isn't about some macho show of manliness. It's about being stuck behind an irritatingly slow car. Being held up an extra 5 minutes going too and from work is annoying. However getting to my parents house involves driving down a single-carriageway road for an hour. It's a tedious journey at the best of times, but being stuck behind one of these brain-dead idiots would add half an hour to my journey.

 

Agreed, it's lack of driving talent that is the biggest killer. Speed is safe when controlled in the right circumstances.

[stevegrant]

I was overtaken on a very steep, very icy hill last week when just trying to steer in a straightline was a nightmare. I was probably doing about 5 mph at the time and felt that was too fast!

Why were you out driving in conditions like that? :confused:

 

I wouldn't dream of attempting to drive if I knew the road conditions were actually dangerous. It's all well and good driving in heavy rain or fog, cars have features built into them to deal with them as far as they can (with a bit of driver common sense as well), but thick ice is so unpredictable and dangerous, I'd go as far as to say that it's irresponsible to attempt to drive in those conditions and I wouldn't be surprised if insurance companies took the same view.

[St Landrew]

Why were you out driving in conditions like that? :confused:

 

I wouldn't dream of attempting to drive if I knew the road conditions were actually dangerous. It's all well and good driving in heavy rain or fog, cars have features built into them to deal with them as far as they can (with a bit of driver common sense as well), but thick ice is so unpredictable and dangerous, I'd go as far as to say that it's irresponsible to attempt to drive in those conditions and I wouldn't be surprised if insurance companies took the same view.

 

True Steve. Late, the other night I came away from a friend's house on my VFR. I went round a corner, steering, hardly leaning, and applied some power, and the back end stepped right out.

 

Actually, I enjoyed it at the time, but I was ever so careful after that.

[JackFrost]

True Steve. Late, the other night I came away from a friend's house on my VFR. I went round a corner, steering, hardly leaning, and applied some power, and the back end stepped right out.

 

Actually, I enjoyed it at the time, but I was ever so careful after that.

 

When it's icy it's amazing how slow a speed you can drift.

 

I went round a corner at 7mph near my house and the back end stepped out. 'Powersliding' in slow motion.

[St Landrew]

When it's icy it's amazing how slow a speed you can drift.

 

I went round a corner at 7mph near my house and the back end stepped out. 'Powersliding' in slow motion.

 

 

Yeah, that was it. Were you feet up..? I'm sometimes tempted to put my feet down, but my balance is better feet up. so I don't do it. And there's always putting the feet down at the last moment, to save yourself.