Snow and Retardedly slow driving (doing my head in)

I had one of these slow driving choads this morning on the way in. One of the roads was awful (my fault for taking a quiet country road really!) and the few people on it were quite rightly doing 10-15mph, sometimes less, which I had no problem with, had to do that to make safe passage...the woman in the citroen c4 though doing 20mph on perfectly dry, clear, NSL roads made me somewhat annoyed.
 
unless you survey the whole stretch of road how do you know there is no ice, would you rather your 30min journey took 40 or that you crashed on the way?

if lots of people are driving slow you gotta wonder why.... maybe they know something you dont..?
 
NathanE said:
As it happens I've seen the same stuff this week. Perfectly clear NSL roads that I would be happy doing about 50 on in the conditions. Not even any slush in sight. And yet I'm stuck behind somebody doing 25.

I think people here are getting a bit too hung up on the OP's age/experience thing.
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Or perhaps most people with a brain just drive slow in the snow, of course if you want to go for it and hit a bit of black ice you cant see till your on it, feel free, just do it away from me :)
 
DiamondMark said:
Or perhaps most people with a brain just drive slow in the snow, of course if you want to go for it and hit a bit of black ice you cant see till your on it, feel free, just do it away from me :)
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That's the thing. There wasn't any snow. Suffolk has got off pretty lightly so far.

Seems to be the same situation as the OP. Nobody can understand that some parts of the country haven't had it anywhere near as bad as the majority (if the media is to be believed!)

PS: I drove the same route (opposite direction) at 6AM in the morning when I was very much acting as a pathfinder and very much on guard. On the commute home it was child's play as it was rush hour and I knew that a set of 4 wheels were traversing this piece of road probably on average no more than 30 seconds apart.
 
Had a good one last night. I'm following another car (who was driving retardedly slowly for the most part), who slows down on approach to one job-off downhill with a rather sharp bend half way down (slow IS the key at this point).

I suddenly see headlights FLYING up behind me (going far too fast for the conditions, you could only really see <10 meters), sees me, locks up, has to use the other side of the road (on a blind summit, with a blind bend after), only to be faced with a lorry coming UP the hill.

Needless to say that didn't end well.
 
i had some idiot today, on a road obviously covered in sheet ice, whilst we were attempting a tight right hander, travveling too fast and too close, nearly go into the back of me and then go sliding into the curb whilst i rounded the bend
 
NathanE said:
Nobody can understand that some parts of the country haven't had it anywhere near as bad as the majority (if the media is to be believed!)
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I think OP's subject line "Snow and Retardedly slow driving" was his error in judgment in this case ! Most people will inevitably relate what he wrote to their own experience that very morning, and for 90% of the country (that's a made up figure btw, but Im sure a large majority) there would have been conditions which necessitated driving slowly in order to be safe.

I'll say what I said above, again though. Im sure every person here who has posted has probably wondered at some point in the last 36 hours why a person is driving as slow as they are, even given the conditions. But I think it's important to remember that not everyone's driving abilities are the same, not everyone's car reacts the same in these conditions, and not everyone can judge the conditions correctly (whether that be to drive faster, or in some cases slower because they cant judge the bad conditions correctly).

You may get some guy driving faster because he has snow tyres on - does that mean everyone else should speed up to keep pace with him ? An extreme example, but as a driver you have to drive within your own comfort zone (and yes, in some cases maybe people should just stay at home because they obviously arent able to cope with even the mildest of conditions).
 
Internet rants over snow are always the same - half the threads are about people driving too slow, the other half about driving too fast. Sometimes the same people are ranting about both.

Did puzzle me why someone pulled out on me last night, making be brake hard, then continued on her way at 10mph. I can only assume she could see I was experienced and could handle hard braking in the conditions.
 
Well I have to admit I was doing 20 home last night after getting stuck for an hour half way up a hill getting out of Lincoln and shortly after doing a nice 90 degree sideways slide nearly through lights even at 5mph. I didn't care if anyone caught up with me, I just wanted to get home lol
 
it's all about observing the road conditions ahead, unfortunately there are drivers that like to drive 30mph in a 60 limit, when the conditions are perfectly fine, like i had this morning there was a tail of cars behind them, frustrating as it is there's nothing you can do about it. Like other people have said people drive to the speed they feel comfortable with. nowadays if someone is right up my arse i keep pressing my brake they eventually back off. problem with today's society is that everyone is in a rush to get somewhere for example "im rushing to get home so i can be 2 mins earlier" cmon 2 mins wont make a difference. the only time i rush is if im late for work, but apart from that slow drivers really dont bother me that much, gives me more time to sit in my warm car.
 
You would be ****ed off if you were driving behind me, i'm leaving a three car gap in front of me at the moment and predicting whats happening a couple of cars ahead and adjusting speed accordingly and if anyone has a problem with it then thats their problem. I hope this helps in some way :)
 
Telescopi said:
Internet rants over snow are always the same - half the threads are about people driving too slow, the other half about driving too fast. Sometimes the same people are ranting about both.

Did puzzle me why someone pulled out on me last night, making be brake hard, then continued on her way at 10mph. I can only assume she could see I was experienced and could handle hard braking in the conditions.
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agreed.. im not sure what its like everywhere else but driving slow up hear means 2 or 3 hours stuck in traffic, thats why people aren't happy about people driving 30mph on motorways..

im not asking people to start speeding, only to drive faster than 30 on a wet road, anyone who thinks a wet road is black ice needs to stop home..

you obviously need to read the road when its like this..seriously who is though ? 30mph on wet reads, 30mph on snow and 30mph on black ice..

do people really think its better to be safe than sorry when you're on a wet motorway, can see a mile ahead of you but because there is snow on the fields, drive 30mph? cant these people tell the difference between water and ice ? yeah just chill, what would normally take 5 minutes driving turning into 2 hrs really makes people relaxed..

all im saying is, 70 on a wet motorway isnt dangerous, 30mph on snow and ice is fast enough
 
Surprised this morning in the light snow that people weren't driving slower than a snail hitching a ride on another snail :p People kept their distance, and traffic moved at a normal pace - Everything went better than expected!

Today is a freak chance day though, no doubt when it rains people will return to their usual retarded slowness!
 
I've encountered a few 'micro climates' round where I work, where the road is fine at one point, then there are a few corners or straights that remain in shadow in the mornings and have ice/slush as a result.

I'd just err on the side of caution, go slow and plan as far ahead as I can, roads round here seem to change a lot in the space of an hour.
 
The thing is, there are some people who will drive slowly because they are cautious over the conditions, and when it snows they may well be driving at 25 mph in a NSL (like i was last night), but are also likely to drive at, near or even above the limit in fine conditions, and I can understand them.

There are others who feel their skill come straight from Castle Greyskull and they can drive like their hair is on fire, whatever the conditions. They will impatiently tailgate the slower drivers and overtake wherever possible, often throwing the retard in the slowmobile a scornful glare as they pass. These drivers are often the ones you see dangling from trees or hedgerows around the next bend. However, as I was young once and I can still be supremely arrogant or impatient at times, I can understand these guys too.

Then there are those who drive at a set speed everywhere, whatever the conditions, usually at 40mph. These tend to be (but not exclusively) old duffers who presumably believe that they are only safe when proceeding at exactly 40mph. Either they do not trust their vehicle (usually an old fiesta or micra...) or they do not trust themselves. These are the ones I do not understand.

If I was scared that I would suddenly, for no explicable reason, lose control and veer off the road in a fireball of death and destruction once I hit 41mph OR if I was scared that, should my speed drop below 40mph, my car would explode like something out of a Keanu Reeves film, I would walk. Or catch the bus. Or find someone else to drive me, with eyesight and reactions that I could trust and who owned a car that hadn't been boobytrapped by international terrorists.

When I'm old and grey(er), I'll have hopefully had all the adventure my life needs and I prey I won't find myself thinking "Oh good God... I need to nip to Tesco... better fire up the fiesta and get ready for another white knuckle ride along the highways of hell!"
 
snows bad around here in Newcastle, the central motorway last night was treacherous to say the least, thick ice and erratic drivers really make you focus.
had a few people pull out on me, makes me wonder what is important enough to scrap there car over.

personally id rather have people drive slow than at a pace they feel uneasy at as that could cause more problems. as long as everyone drives with common sense.
 
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I'd rather have people drive at a pace they are comfortable with. That's the thing with ice / black ice, you can't really see it. While you may think the road is perfectly clear, there's a likelihood it's not.
 
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