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Post by rodge on Aug 30, 2023 17:10:50 GMT
Drove behind a fair amount of slow drivers today. By that, I mean drivers who had an empty road in front of them, it was dry and they were plodding along under the speed limit by 10 or 20 mph. These weren’t urban roads with kids nearby but roads with 40 and 50mph limits on them, but not roads that you could overtake on.
Am I wrong for thinking they should drive faster?
Am I an impatient git for expecting them to drive faster?
Not sure why they were all out today. One guy felt the need to keep braking in the multi-storey as we left it, and indicating for every turn.
Maybe I should just drive a really slow car and take my time too.
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Post by chipbutty on Aug 30, 2023 20:09:46 GMT
No and no
They are a complete PITA, especially on main A roads where people have to cover not insignificant distances stuck behind said muppets (and the speed limits have already been reduced).
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2023 23:05:51 GMT
It may sound odd but I take it you are talking about moderns. I tended to drive to the cars ability and that pissed off a lot of folk out there. I have been told that if my car cannot do 80mph everywhere it should go nowhere.
Difficult to say I pay my tax, blah blah blah as Bess has no road tax applicable for a long while but Shirley, we all have rights (Sorry, I had to change wot I rote, we all have tights). What can be done apart from raise the lower speed limits? Education might work but you have a backlog to deal with.
My ex FIL, was a monster for others dawdling about but if he was in no hurry he would do the same. Attention span might be responsiblke I suppose but again how do we legislate for that?
In essence I agree 100%.
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Post by Ben on Aug 31, 2023 11:34:31 GMT
Road hogging is an offence, is it not?
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Post by Stuntman on Aug 31, 2023 12:48:46 GMT
No and no They are a complete PITA, especially on main A roads where people have to cover not insignificant distances stuck behind said muppets (and the speed limits have already been reduced). I agree too. Drivers who dawdle for no good reason often annoy me. They often react badly (or worse, dangerously) to being overtaken safely as well. I try not to let it bother me these days but it's annoying when you just want to make progress towards your destination.
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Post by Tim on Aug 31, 2023 14:30:50 GMT
There appears to be an increasing number of these drivers who go along at relatively significant amounts below the speed limit. I'm often surprised at how many of them appear to be 20 something males.
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Post by johnc on Aug 31, 2023 15:06:53 GMT
There appears to be an increasing number of these drivers who go along at relatively significant amounts below the speed limit. I'm often surprised at how many of them appear to be 20 something males. The woke generation!
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Post by Alex on Aug 31, 2023 17:07:00 GMT
I think what I find most annoying is those people who do 40mph along an entire cross country route holding you up in the NSL sections and then buggering off into the distance as you slow to 30 in villages. Annoyingly they often then sneak onto a roundabout just before a line of cars comes from your right so on the next bit of road you're still being held up but now you're 10 cars back in a queue behind them!! 🤬
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Post by racingteatray on Aug 31, 2023 19:33:25 GMT
I guess we are not talking about somebody trundling along in an Austin Seven, where slowness is acceptable.
It’s more the people who go wilfully slowly despite being able to go faster. I think they should pull over and let others past. On the rare occasion that for whatever reason I am driving slowly and there is somebody behind me who wishes to pass, I will usually indicate left at a suitable place for overtaking and they usually take the hint and nip past. That just seems good road manners.
But in general I cannot abide slowness in any walk of life (other than in people who through, say, illness, genuinely can’t help it). I am not a slow person and it is perhaps a personal failing of mine that I find people who do things slowly absolutely maddening. Dithering likewise - it brings out my Mr Hyde in five seconds flat.
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Post by woofwoof on Aug 31, 2023 21:30:37 GMT
The ones who annoy me the most are those that drive too slowly in the higher limit areas and then speed away from me in the 20 and 30mph areas.
I'd burn their licences at the side of the road.
I have been guilty of dawdling in my MX5 in the past but only on empty roads. Back when my then GF lived a nice drive away I'd often just cruise home at a slow speed with the top down just enjoying the moment and the sights and sounds around me. Holding up traffic for no apparent reason is bad behaviour.
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Post by chipbutty on Sept 1, 2023 8:18:20 GMT
These very same bellends can often be found dithering at junctions, dawdling off traffic lights and sitting in lane 2 whilst another kindred spirit takes 3 miles to pass them in the outside lane.
Traffic congestion could be reduced significantly if team space cadet drove attentively and did not treat the throttle pedal like an electrode wired to their genitals.
Case in point: A few years ago I was sat in a queue of traffic on the A46 to cross the roundabout to join the M40 - I worked out that the traffic light phasing would allow 10 cars through safely, but at each phase only 6 or 7 cars made through because people in the queue were picking their nose, scratching their arse, pissing about with the stereo (delete as appropriate) rather than paying attention.
The queue of traffic was approx 30 cars deep and I wondered if people didn’t dawdle, would I even be sat in this queue ?
As regards speed limits - vehicle speedometers generally under read and prosecution guidelines allow 10% + 2mph over the posted limit. Therefore if you are stuck behind a vehicle and you are travelling at an indicated 45 mph in a 60 limit:
- You need to be doing 68 mph to get your collar felt - If you are stuck at 45 mph indicated, your actual speed is likely to be between 41 and 42 mph (dependant on the car) - So even leaving a margin for error (indicated 66mph, actual speed 61 - 62 mph) - that’s a big chunk of forward progress being left on the table.
I would like to know if the police ever consider how many big A road accidents are down to a risky overtake of a sanctimonious rolling road block. I am not justifying in any way the behaviour of the overtaker, but human nature being as it is - this will happen.
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Post by Tim on Sept 1, 2023 8:36:15 GMT
These very same bellends can often be found dithering at junctions, dawdling off traffic lights and sitting in lane 2 whilst another kindred spirit takes 3 miles to pass them in the outside lane. Traffic congestion could be reduced significantly if team space cadet drove attentively and did not treat the throttle pedal like an electrode wired to their genitals. Case in point: A few years ago I was sat in a queue of traffic on the A46 to cross the roundabout to join the M40 - I worked out that the traffic light phasing would allow 10 cars through safely, but at each phase only 6 or 7 cars made through because people in the queue were picking their nose, scratching their arse, pissing about with the stereo (delete as appropriate) rather than paying attention. The queue of traffic was approx 30 cars deep and I wondered if people didn’t dawdle, would I even be sat in this queue ? As regards speed limits - vehicle speedometers generally under read and prosecution guidelines allow 10% + 2mph over the posted limit. Therefore if you are stuck behind a vehicle and you are travelling at an indicated 45 mph in a 60 limit: - You need to be doing 68 mph to get your collar felt - If you are stuck at 45 mph indicated, your actual speed is likely to be between 41 and 42 mph (dependant on the car) - So even leaving a margin for error (indicated 66mph, actual speed 61 - 62 mph) - that’s a big chunk of forward progress being left on the table. I would like to know if the police ever consider how many big A road accidents are down to a risky overtake of a sanctimonious rolling road block. I am not justifying in any way the behaviour of the overtaker, but human nature being as it is - this will happen. Stop showing off with your 3 lane roads. Up here they're often stuck in lane 2 of 2 presumably because they did an overtake a while back and their satnav hasn't told them to move back to the left lane. Furthermore the main reason for folk dithering away from traffic lights - getting 7 through instead of 10 - isn't likely to be nose picking, etc but that there's usually something incredibly fascinating about their right knee, i.e. their mobile phone. You're right about the desperate overtakes but these are so often carried out by people driving a 2019 Kia Sportage who are more usually seen being part of the problem but on this one occasion they need to be somewhere in a hurry and have decided to carry out their first A road overtake for a number of years and are therefore utterly shit at it!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2023 10:06:14 GMT
I have to admit that some overtakes took a bit longer in Bess but I'm talking about three or more lane roads. The number of times a RR or similar would show no patience and put full illumination on while being too close for me to see anything else bogglers my mind at least. Sometimes my response has been less than perfect but, I'm human too. HGV and even some car and van drivers seemed to dislike Bess overtaking them which helps nobody either.
I turned helping with other vehicles overtaking into a kind of game but maybe I am just odd.
Despite education programs and awareness being raised on the news etc here and there, you cannot metriculate for stupid or blind ignorant, even with dashcams etc. The entitled folk will go on doing whatever the heck they want and sod everyone else. We will all find out (Those still driving in motor veicles), when road trains become the governed norm. If you will not join they will just price you off the road. What a cheerful thread..........
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Post by Blarno on Sept 1, 2023 17:42:32 GMT
When I was learning to drive, I was told to get up to the limit as quickly and as safely as possible.
I've literally just followed a Corsa along the A39 out of Bude, who wouldn't exceed 45mph anywhere. There was a farm bailer in front of it that was doing at least 50, so he wasn't to blame. The bailer turned off to let people past and the Corsa just sat there. There were no safe places to overtake for miles until an overtaking lane opened up, and myself and several other increasingly annoyed road users flew past. As I glanced over, the driver was oblivious, staring straight ahead.
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Post by Roadrunner on Sept 1, 2023 19:18:06 GMT
When I was learning to drive, I was told to get up to the limit as quickly and as safely as possible. I've literally just followed a Corsa along the A39 out of Bude, who wouldn't exceed 45mph anywhere. There was a farm bailer in front of it that was doing at least 50, so he wasn't to blame. The bailer turned off to let people past and the Corsa just sat there. There were no safe places to overtake for miles until an overtaking lane opened up, and myself and several other increasingly annoyed road users flew past. As I glanced over, the driver was oblivious, staring straight ahead. Very much like the two Vauxhalls I passed a couple of hours ago on the A272. Nobody's getting in the way of my enjoyment of that road.
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Post by Blarno on Sept 2, 2023 18:11:42 GMT
I'd like to add to this - people who are incapable of maintaining a fixed speed on the motorway. Most cars I see on the motorway nowadays are significantly newer than mine, so I would expect them to have cruise control. So why is it that nobody appears to use it? I just had the same Skoda something or other engage in a game of overtaking tennis with me on the M5. I had my cruise set at 81 (75 actual) and was in the middle lane cruising past the trucks, caravans and slow coaches. Skoda gonk comes hurtling along in the outside past me. I pull out behind it as I'm approaching someone in my lane. Cue Skoda fuckwit standing on the brakes and diving back into the middle lane, I re engage cruise and continue back across to the inside lane. Minutes later, the Skoda is back in the outside lane just edging past me (middle lane is empty and Skoda has an irate XC90 up his chuff)
This continued right up until we joined the M6 and I managed to lose them in the 60 limit confusion that always happens at Jct8.
Arsewits everywhere, especially those that don't seem to grasp how the average speed limits work.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 3, 2023 9:11:39 GMT
Very clearly a relation of a similar nitwit in some sort of 13-plate Kia or Hyundai on the A14 yesterday evening, who was similarly driving as if they were trying to test the acceleration and braking.
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Post by PG on Sept 3, 2023 17:28:11 GMT
The standard of driving of way too many people is generally awful.
Leaving aside the 40mph squad, the other ones that get me are those who cannot, or refuse to, reverse. I'm on a country lane, I'm towing a livestock trailer and yet they look at me as if I should be the one to reverse. Of even without the trailer, it's 20 yards back to the nearest passing place behind then and 200 yards behind me, but again, they won't reverse. Or of they do try and reverse they just seem to veer off wildly into the hedge, boncing off each side of the road in turn. It is so painful and hilarious at the same time.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 4, 2023 8:46:02 GMT
The standard of driving of way too many people is generally awful. Leaving aside the 40mph squad, the other ones that get me are those who cannot, or refuse to, reverse. I'm on a country lane, I'm towing a livestock trailer and yet they look at me as if I should be the one to reverse. Of even without the trailer, it's 20 yards back to the nearest passing place behind then and 200 yards behind me, but again, they won't reverse. Or of they do try and reverse they just seem to veer off wildly into the hedge, boncing off each side of the road in turn. It is so painful and hilarious at the same time. Such instances always prompt my mother to recall a long-deceased family friend who lived up in the wilds of Dartmoor near her grandparents. Apparently, upon meeting oncoming traffic on the narrow lanes that hadn’t already recognised the car and taken avoiding action, this woman would simply wind down the window and grandly declare “I am Lady Waller. I do not reverse!”, and then sit there until the other road user relented and made way.
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Post by PetrolEd on Sept 4, 2023 9:09:59 GMT
The standard of driving of way too many people is generally awful. Leaving aside the 40mph squad, the other ones that get me are those who cannot, or refuse to, reverse. I'm on a country lane, I'm towing a livestock trailer and yet they look at me as if I should be the one to reverse. Of even without the trailer, it's 20 yards back to the nearest passing place behind then and 200 yards behind me, but again, they won't reverse. Or of they do try and reverse they just seem to veer off wildly into the hedge, boncing off each side of the road in turn. It is so painful and hilarious at the same time. Such instances always prompt my mother to recall a long-deceased family friend who lived up in the wilds of Dartmoor near her grandparents. Apparently, upon meeting oncoming traffic on the narrow lanes that hadn’t already recognised the car and taken avoiding action, this woman would simply wind down the window and grandly declare “I am Lady Waller. I do not reverse!”, and then sit there until the other road user relented and made way. You've opened up a new hate. People who have no ability to reverse. If I'm on a single track road and come across another road user I will 9 times out of 10 reverse back as the pain of watching someone else bounce of either bank whilst doing 2 mph zigzagging in reverse is just too painful for my eyes. As to the original point, people can drive at whatever speed they like. Its usually the inability of other road users to overtake, again that's their choice but don't be surprised when someone tries to overtake a queue of cars. Typically you have a trail of ten cars nose to tail, each up the other ones tailpipe and leave no space for you to duck in and out of the queue by overtaking lets say 2 car at a time. Standards of driving is quite frankly appalling. I blame how easy modern cars are to drive. People get in and turn their brains off and are surrounded by too much of their own comfort and therefore only a small percentage of their brain is now taken up by a actually driving. You overtake and suddenly you've woken folk up from their slumber.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Sept 4, 2023 12:16:31 GMT
The standard of driving of way too many people is generally awful. Leaving aside the 40mph squad, the other ones that get me are those who cannot, or refuse to, reverse. I'm on a country lane, I'm towing a livestock trailer and yet they look at me as if I should be the one to reverse. Of even without the trailer, it's 20 yards back to the nearest passing place behind then and 200 yards behind me, but again, they won't reverse. Or of they do try and reverse they just seem to veer off wildly into the hedge, boncing off each side of the road in turn. It is so painful and hilarious at the same time. Such instances always prompt my mother to recall a long-deceased family friend who lived up in the wilds of Dartmoor near her grandparents. Apparently, upon meeting oncoming traffic on the narrow lanes that hadn’t already recognised the car and taken avoiding action, this woman would simply wind down the window and grandly declare “I am Lady Waller. I do not reverse!”, and then sit there until the other road user relented and made way. That’s brilliant, I’m going to try that. 3 days until the Welsh 20 mph limit comes into force. That’ll be fun because there will still be some declaring “It’s only the limit, not a target!”
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Post by chipbutty on Sept 4, 2023 13:10:29 GMT
Newcastle and back this weekend - and the lane hogging peeenarses were out in full force.
The most bizarre being the 3 car convoy on the A1M - brand new RS6, followed by a Elgrand, followed by a VW Tiago, all nose to tail in the outside lane at 70 mph (everyone undertook them).
On my previous list, I forgot to add people who do not accelerate down slip roads and who clearly think joining a busy motorway at 43 mph is in some way both sensible and acceptable.
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Post by Boxer6 on Sept 4, 2023 18:10:36 GMT
The standard of driving round here is nothing to write home about I must admit, but I'm heading for Southport on Friday, then from there to Bradford on Monday - not looking forward to that bit, especially the M62 which has been exclusively shit to drive on at any time I've ever had the displeasure.
Ah well, needs must.
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Post by PG on Sept 4, 2023 21:35:50 GMT
3 days until the Welsh 20 mph limit comes into force. That’ll be fun because there will still be some declaring “It’s only the limit, not a target!” I panicked last week as I was in Wales and suddenly though "oh f%%% is the 20 mph limit in force yet..." as I was doing 30 in a 30. Are they actually going to change every sign? Or have they found some wheeze to get round that?
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 4, 2023 22:01:52 GMT
We Londoners are long used to the 20mph nonsense. I don’t object to it on residential side streets but I cannot see why we need to bumble down, for example, the Embankment at 20 mph as all the cyclists and infernal e-scooters whizz past faster.
And oddly it’s easier to observe the 20mph speed limit in my Macan, being an automatic, than it is in my wife’s Fiat, which is a manual and curiously difficult to keep below 20mph.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2023 22:14:29 GMT
It seems to me that the limit is not so much to limit speed per se, rather to bug drivers out of their cars and onto the buses/trains etc. We all know that these systems can get everyone where they need to on time. They just have to get there on someone else's time.
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Post by Boxer6 on Sept 5, 2023 6:31:44 GMT
It seems to me that the limit is not so much to limit speed per se, rather to bug drivers out of their cars and onto the buses/trains etc. We all know that these systems can get everyone where they need to on time. They just have to get there on someone else's time. Really? Not in Glasgow they can't, and I suspect it isn't much better elsewhere!
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 5, 2023 9:30:34 GMT
They are all designed by people who live in places where public transport exists.
There is no bus serving my mother’s not particularly small village at all. As and when she can no longer drive, she’ll need to move to either a village with a daily bus service or a town with a high street she can totter to.
At this point, the anti-car brigade usually say “oh but you can get your weekly shop delivered to your home”. Yes, but you can’t get life delivered to your home. And it’s well-documented that loss of the ability to get around and being stuck at home alone is a killer for old people living alone.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2023 12:11:26 GMT
It seems to me that the limit is not so much to limit speed per se, rather to bug drivers out of their cars and onto the buses/trains etc. We all know that these systems can get everyone where they need to on time. They just have to get there on someone else's time. Really? Not in Glasgow they can't, and I suspect it isn't much better elsewhere! Pardon me, sarcasm at the idiots who tell us these syatems can and will cope.
As Racing say's, designed by idiots who do not have to really rely on them,
Considering the reduction in simple things like postal deliveries the actual life lines are where old folk get contaxct with life.
Sorry badly put but I think you know what I mean. Posties were usually the best way of keeping touch with the older member of our communities.
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Post by chipbutty on Sept 5, 2023 17:18:50 GMT
I think you are both being too generous attributing the legislative nonsense to ignorant idiocy.
Whilst it's true that London dwellers have better public transport options - I think they know full well that cars are the only viable options in many use cases, they just don't care.
I've seen a think tank report that identifies making driving more unpleasant and expensive is a recommended and viable strategy to reduce car usage. All of the unpleasant factions jump on this and sane voices are simply not present in the group think circle jerk (because climate change, inequality, blah, blah, blah).
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