Why is everyone driving so SLOWLY?

Boils my blood, the other week a line of 20+ cars had the pleasure of flowing a new Corsa down a NSL country road, it was pitch black but dry, the Corsa was doing 30mph and slowing down to 15 – 20mph for every corner…

The motorways have been a nightmare too, a little bit of rain and dark night’s means people are driving around 50mph and causing huge tailbacks.

Another thing which is really grating on me; motorway matrix signs, most people see incapable of reading the message without slowing down, meaning they cause huge delays!

Idiots, total idiots!!!!!!!!!!
 
Noticed this a lot since I moved up here, I regularly get stuck behind people on my way to work who are doing 45-50 when the speed limit is 60 (and it's perfectly safe to do so), and then end up going through the 30-limit villages at closer to 40.

Totally baffling. Fortunately I now have a car with enough power that I can get past them effortlessly but it was a real pain when I still had my Astra.
 
I find this over winter, my mpg goes down because of so much more traffic driving slower, I regularly pass a Peugot 206 coming out of work down a country road because he's doing 35-40mph down a steep hill that rises at the bottom then pootles at 40 on the flat, when I do pass him he then decides he's going to sit in my boot for the last 2 miles of country roads... because I passed him (I'm not doing 60-65)
 
ci_newman said:
Roads are just busier, there's not much more to it than that.
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I'll go with this. 5 years ago, I could get a smooth run on pretty much most days without hitting a line of cars.

Now I hit a line of cars that delays me 10-15 minutes no matter which way I go.

Population increases/cheaper cars/better finance deals all accumulates to making the roads much more lively.
 
BigDannyO said:
That sounds a little bit like "it won't get you there any quicker".

I disagree that it would achieve little. If my goal objective was to save as much time as possible I would be down the road a couple of minutes sooner than I otherwise would have. However, I'm on my way to work, so getting there earlier is not my target ;)
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If the road is really as congested as the OP implies then it probably wont. IME driving along similar roads under similar conditions I have observed "Press On" drivers making multiple overtakes in the face of oncoming traffic only to find that, a couple of miles later at the lights/road works, There they are, 4 or 5 vehicles ahead!

Overtaking is only really advantageous on a relatively clear road with the occasional slow driver. Not on congested ones where weight of traffic makes most people travel at about the same speed close together.

I tend to leave fairly large gaps ahead of me on congested roads so people can overtake if they wish, but they still cannot really go any faster than the car in front which I am pacing, or the car ahead of that! So in return for taking a modest risk and using a lot more fuel they actually achieve very little.

Personally I tend to stick to 1800RPM on long journeys (I tend to use the rev counter rather than the speedo, Just over 50 on the landcruiser) at which I can achieve high 30's in terms of MPG (Amazingly!)

Driving like this I find on long journeys that I tend to arrive at almost exactly the time predicted by the sat nav at the beginning of the journey(Literally +- a minute or two). Driving like a Hoon I find it hard to shave more than 10% off that at a considerable cost in extra fuel and stress. It is the amount of time you spend queuing to get through lights, roadworks and to pass cyclists that has the greatest effect on journey times rather than the brief moments one can do 80, it would have course be very different if the roads were clear and you could cruise at 80 for most of the journey but only rarely can one do this in practice.
 
I've noticed this in the last couple of weeks really, M54 I've been passing an awful lot of cars, and I'm only doing 65-70 myself.
 
Increase in vehicles on the road is the likely reason:

http://cars.uk.msn.com/features/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=154749722

"According to Department of Transport stats, road traffic levels increased by 25% in the 15 years to 2009. That increase came on the back of a nine million growth in the number of cars in the UK over the same period, one which took the total number of registered cars past 31 million in 2009."

And from 2009-2010:

http://www.rac.co.uk/advice/motoring-news/record-34m-vehicles-on-uk-s-roads/

"From December 2009 and December 2010, the total number of licensed vehicles in the UK rose by 0.5%, or 162,000."

However, it seems in the last few years, numbers on the road have decreased ever so slightly but of course are still up over the last decade.
 
ci_newman said:
Roads are just busier, there's not much more to it than that.
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This. According to statistical data from the DfT vehicle traffic is up 1.2% versus 10 years ago, but with a more notable (almost 20%) rise in the number of LGVs, which (I believe) should obey a lower speed limit than cars, which could well be why traffic on A roads seems to move more slowly than it used to.

Full report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa.../quarterly-road-traffic-estimates-q3-2013.pdf
 
Havana_UK said:
This. According to statistical data from the DfT vehicle traffic is up 1.2% versus 10 years ago, but with a more notable (almost 20%) rise in the number of LGVs, which (I believe) should obey a lower speed limit than cars, which could well be why traffic on A roads seems to move more slowly than it used to.

Full report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa.../quarterly-road-traffic-estimates-q3-2013.pdf
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Yeah I can agree to that. A lot of car tailbacks are caused by lorries. Theres a nightmare spot on my route, there its a lane for going ^ and a lane for going >, but a lorry wanting to go > will have to take up both lanes and sit there indicating for ages, causing a massive backup.
 
acemastr said:
I find this over winter, my mpg goes down because of so much more traffic driving slower
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erm your MPG goes down because in winter conditions your car takes longer to warm up, you use more energy using devices (rear demister etc)

Unless they are driving really really slow or your using the wrong gear you should see better MPG not worse.
 
I do a 20 mile commute across country (its mainly a single carriageway A road) with some bits of 30 and 40.

One day I overtook a few cars and got to work for a collegue who was a few cars behind me initially to arrive like 30 seconds later. Its rarely worth it to overtake, the road isn;t massively busy but during commuter time there are plenty of side roads for vehicles to join from. Add in lorries, trailers, people who do 45 whatever the limit etc and chances of doing close to speed limit for most of the journey is low anyway.

Personally if they aren't doing less than 50 I rarely bother overtaking unless the road seems quiet. On my normal commute thats really only Friday afternoons spring-autumn, I leave early on a Friday so am a little in front of the normal rush hour traffic
 
My commute up the A1/A1(M) every morning seems to have 2 types of drivers, one that sits poodling at 55mph while the other lane is moving at 80mph. The problems begin when trucks start overtaking these poodlers causing tailbacks. The annoying thing for me is I drive in between these speeds and I have to keep stopping ans starting my cruise control to overtake which reduces my mpg.

MW
 
I think it's lack of paying attention. My GF's best mate does it, she constantly accelerates, then backs off, then accelerates again and will happily sit at 35 in a 60 as she is too busy yakking rather than driving. On the motorway? Straight into the middle lane where she sits because "it's safer" :rolleyes:

Her mum is guilty of it too, I was in the car with her a few months ago and she was trundling along at 40 in 4th gear in a bang straight 60 then started complaining when 3 cars overtook her "driving far too fast". :rolleyes:

I'm lucky as although my GF aint perfect at driving and has a few lazy habits ( I'm considering altering the ignition wiring so she can't start the car without her seatbelt on :D ) she's actually a decent driver, bad drivers frustrate the hell out of me!
 
Between August and December I did get an increasing amount of problem drivers on the route I was traveling. It seemed to always be a woman or an old person too, occasionally there would be a posh looking motor with a "gentleman" driving also being a nuisance, like the wind drag might sheer off the paint work.
 
5 years ago I could drive to work in 12 minutes but today it would take 20 minutes + another 15 walk to get from the same car park to where I work.
I now cycle it in 17 minutes.
 
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