People driving too quickly?

almoststew1990

almoststew1990

almoststew1990

Soldato
Joined
12 May 2011
Posts
6,306
Location
Southampton
This will no doubt turn into a bit of a rant, but around where I live, and in fact generally in most places I go, I always see people 'driving too fast'. I'm talking about around town not on the motorway.

I see people doing 20+ around a supermarket car park, oblivious to the chance of a child / trolley / car / watermelon appearing from behind parked cars, whereas I do about 10mph. And then there are some short stretches of road (I'm talking about 40 metres on small town roads like https://goo.gl/maps/Vid8NmVW1d92) that people seem to insist on gunning it to gett up to 30 and then hitting the brakes hard to stop before the next roundabout whereas I'm quite happy doing 20-25 on these short stretches. I hear the front of their car scraping the speed bumps even and the lovely roary clatter of diesel engines behind me when I turn off the road for my street and the person behind guns it. Then then the people who want to do nearly 40 around town on 'general roads' around town. And it isn't even the German Brigade, it seems to be the crossovers (generalising like a champ here) and they seem to think it is intimidating to be right on your bumper with their slow diesel tractors!

So am I just a slow driver getting old before my time, and it is just me, and everyone 'just drives like that these days, get out the bloody way' or is this just crap driving by the Southampton peasants (and probably elsewhere)? The thing is I like driving quickly at the appropriate time and place, but the crossover possé seem to think it's a good idea to do it in the worst places!!
 
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If I ever get tailgated it's always in a 30 when i'm doing a GPS indicated 30mph.

Apparently it's not cool to obey 30 limits.

These same muppets though soon disappear once into a 60/70 limit, even though I don't really speed in those either, it's just the 30s and sometimes 40s that they do it.
 
Kenai said:
If I ever get tailgated it's always in a 30 when i'm doing a GPS indicated 30mph.

Apparently it's not cool to obey 30 limits.

These same muppets though soon disappear once into a 60/70 limit, even though I don't really speed in those either, it's just the 30s and sometimes 40s that they do it.
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Have the exact same issue. The 40mph everywhere morons. Normally grandma's on the school run where I am.
 
What baffles me is the ones who sit on your tail in 20/30mph zones, trying to force their way ahead, and then refuse to accelerate to any meaningful speed when you hit an NSL - so you leave them miles behind, or you've given way and are now stuck behind them. Average speed, people, average speeeeeeeeed!
 
Lashout_UK said:
What baffles me is the ones who sit on your tail in 20/30mph zones, trying to force their way ahead, and then refuse to accelerate to any meaningful speed when you hit an NSL - so you leave them miles behind, or you've given way and are now stuck behind them. Average speed, people, average speeeeeeeeed!
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This, only I refuse to give way if I'm doing 30 in a 30. Of course these people can't do more than 35 mph anywhere that isn't a dual carriageway or motorway.
 
I sometimes drive too fast for the limits but if I'm driving family/misses etc and someone is tail gaiting me in a 30mph, I indicate and pull over and let them pass. I wish more people would do this. It's a simple way to let someone who's clearly in a hurry get on with their way and avoids anger etc.

Similarly, I'm sometimes driving to the station in the morning to catch a train and I drive behind a muppet doing 20mph in a 30mph when I have a train to catch. All they need to do is pull over and let me pass. It's a busy commuter road and I've witnessed some seriously dangerous overtakes from people clearly trying to get to the station quickly.
 
People often drive too fast in town - even worse after they were sticking to 40mph in a reasonably large single carriage road (60mph) - annoys me no end.

I am a slow driver in town and car parks. I don't see the point.

I also stick to 70 on the motorway generally in lane 1 - and often "undertake" people, not on purpose, just because it seems safer to just stay in lane 1 than go all the way to lane 3 and back again, when there is faster moving traffic coming along anyway.
 
Freefaller said:
People often drive too fast in town - even worse after they were sticking to 40mph in a reasonably large single carriage road (60mph) - annoys me no end.
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I think it pays to adopt defensive driving in town centres. The limit may be 30mph but when there are dozens upon dozens of pedestrians commuting to work, you have to adopt extra precautions. Some drivers (and cyclists I might add) seem oblivious to this and complain when they have accidents.
 
I think this may be in part due to the power and access to power with low down torque Diesel engines matched with autoboxes - people with power which they are very excited to use it appears. I'm always being tailgated and I dint drive a slow car nor do I drive under the limit.
 
I know people like to mention always the so called "40mph" crew.

But the people that speed in 30s almost always speed at all other limits in my experience, unless they are driving something that can't do 90 comfortably. Most cars built in the last decade can do that easy, even crap low end hatchbacks.

People doing 20-25 in a 30 do annoy me though. Again these people aren't likely to suddenly revert their style and speed at higher limits.
 
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I never really speed in 30 zones simply too much going on for it to be safe. But I do get people tailgating me in 20/30 all the time including flashing headlights and crazy overtakes
 
I always do 30 round town, always getting tailgated and tonight one even tried to overtake me where it clearly wasn't possible, nearly stuffed himself head on into a bus.

If the road is empty and I am not in hurry I tend not to exceed 40mph on the open road, if people are gaining on me then I speed up, but 40mph gives way better economy if I am not in a hurry.

It's just inconsiderate if there are people behind me... Only time I drive in the rush hour now is in a bus :D
 
I don't religiously stick to speed limits, I just look at the road conditions, surroundings and hazards. There are some 30mph places I do 20mph and some places it's a 20mph limit and I do 30...

I tend to find the 40 everywhere crowd annoying, and I also find the 20-25 everywhere crowd equally as annoying... but not enough to care, I don't mind someone tailgating for a short period of time, and I just overtake slow people when it's safe..
 
On the flip side though, I really don't get the mentality of people who go nuts after you've overtaken them.

Case in point, driving to work this morning, 6:30am, roads were dead, guy dawdling along at <40 in an NSL (a straight NSL no less), I'm doing 60, so as I catch him up I simply go around, no change in speed, no aggression, just a calm and simple pass that was over in a matter of seconds. No sooner am I back on the correct side of the road do I see him flashing his headlights in the same kind of rhythm you see at a rock concert, and a sudden surge in speed to try and catch me :confused:
 
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