How to drive slowly?

Five_Star

Five_Star

Five_Star

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Do you simply get into the habit of going fast? Although the North East has many problems, busy roads is not one of them (especially so at unsociable work hours) so going quicker than you otherwise should isn’t too hard.

Sure it’s good to “make progress” when the road ahead is clear or get up to speed quickly on a motorway slip road, but I find that more often than not I’m thrashing it everywhere I go.

I’m sure with more self-control I could simply sit at 50 on a clear dual carriageway, but like any addiction, and I’m sure acceleration and speed could be called that, I find doing this nearly impossible.

Sure if it’s busy and I need to travel at rush hour I’ll flow with the traffic because there is nowhere else to go, but when it clears up, I usually end up reflecting badly on my last journey.

If you’ve learnt to drive slowly, how did you do it?
 
I value my licence.

I like to give it beans when I have a nice clear road ahead, but not all the time. Motorways, towns I always stick to the speed limit as it's not worth it (both in terms of getting to where I want to go but you never know who isn't paying attention in town).

Don't get me wrong I love having a reasonably powerful car and giving it some stick, but I choose my moments, and do it for short blasts.
 
I drive my routes regularly enough to know that camera vans are a frequent appearance, thus I stick to the limit during the day. The same roads are some of my favourites at night though
 
Freefaller said:
I value my licence.

I like to give it beans when I have a nice clear road ahead, but not all the time. Motorways, towns I always stick to the speed limit as it's not worth it (both in terms of getting to where I want to go but you never know who isn't paying attention in town).

Don't get me wrong I love having a reasonably powerful car and giving it some stick, but I choose my moments, and do it for short blasts.
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This pretty much applies to me too.
 
I trundle into work along the M8 with the cruise set to about 68 most mornings, just quick enough that you're still passing things and not causing much of a delay if needing to move to the outside lane for a few seconds. Then every now and then I'll drive it in like it's been stolen. It helps that when travelling home at peak times on the same route you get to see what kind of unmarked cars get used regularly

Coming home I have zero choice in the matter most days, it'll be moving but only just.
 
In England, I tend to drive fast only on roads when I know I'm highly unlikely to get caught. Where I live now, flat out pretty much everywhere that isn't in town, although since my MR2 was stolen, I don't tend to go that fast on the twisty bits anymore - just isn't as enjoyable in a massive saloon with air suspension :p
 
unmarked cars in east Sussex are 63 plates 1 series , a couple of 5, and a 2012 A5 with no tinted windows or anything thats gives it away...
 
I live up in Tyne and Wear and know the roads pretty well here so tend to go quicker on those, if I'm somewhere new then keep it on the limit. Saying that the stretch of A1 here is becoming a living nightmare, no choice by crawl.
 
I cross the A66 weekly from the lakes to Teesside, i try to keep to the limits but find this route very frustrating. On the dual carriageway bits it's fine, i'll start off sticking to 70 with good intentions, the road is usually clear, with no HGV's in sight!, then the road will go to single carriageway for 4 or 5 miles, and more often than not, at the very point the road goes to single carriageway NSL, i'll get stuck behind an HGV doing 40/50mph for 5 miles, then the road will go to dual carriageway again, i overtake said HGV, and the dual carriageway will be clear again, with no HGV's to overtake. But at this point i'll be frustrated as i've been stuck for ages behind a truck and i'll up my speed to 78 indicated until the road narrows to single NSL again and guess what?, yep, another slow HGV just after the road narrows, and i'm stuck behind it doing 45/50 again, AAAARGH!

The above is no exaggeration and happens without fail every single time i cross the Yorkshire dales, and 4 times i've alomst been caught speeding by camera vans and i sohuld learn my lesson that there are nearly always camera vans along this route. How i haven't had a ticket i don't know!
 
I drive a lot of miles and over the years I've had too many close calls with camera vans so that's taught me quite a good lesson. Like everyone. Will floor it a bit when conditions allow but for the most part I stick to 70-75 on motorways these days.
 
Do a trackday, that cured me of driving too fast on the roads. Once you've experienced how quickly you can really take corners and how hard you can really brake nothing on the road will feel fun again afterwards so you can be happy trundling along at the posted speed limits!

I never really speed on motorways or dual carriageways, i do between 65 and 70 for the mega mpgz as it seems to take a massive hit in economy going from 70 to 80, plus i never found i got anywhere usefully quicker going 80 than 70 in the end.
 
I went through a (fuel economy) phase of trying to drive at about 65-70 on the motorway portion of my commute (about 13 miles of which is motorway), but those sort of speeds are really hard work on a busy but free-flowing motorway - constantly having to move between outside and middle lane, getting boxed in etc. It's much easier to drive at about 80.

Off the motorway, I tend to stick with speed limits. I've been driving super-boring cars for a couple of years now, and my journeys are rarely on interesting roads, so not much to gain by going faster.
 
I just don't see the need for speed (haaaahhh) these days, motorways I'll cruise happily at 70, towns and posted limits I'll stick to (although I'm rather against the blanket 20mph limit in Bristol now) and out in the country I'll make progress if I feel like it but equally I'll happily just plod along at a sensible place.
 
For me, the time to drive fast is in the early hours when roads are quiet and the numptys are in bed.

In the daytime, even on apparently quiet roads, the numptys are around every corner waiting to do something stupid, when you least expect it!
 
I tend to use cruise control on motorways or dual carriageways. Around town it's easier to keep the speed limit because of the stop start nature of the driving and all the hazards. Back when I was 17 and a little bit reckless I constantly found that when I used to drive hard around town, I'd often pull away from people till they disappeared from my mirror then arrive at a red light and they just caught me back up anyway, so it's not even worth it most of the time in that sort of area.
 
Freefaller said:
I value my licence.

I like to give it beans when I have a nice clear road ahead, but not all the time. Motorways, towns I always stick to the speed limit as it's not worth it (both in terms of getting to where I want to go but you never know who isn't paying attention in town).

Don't get me wrong I love having a reasonably powerful car and giving it some stick, but I choose my moments, and do it for short blasts.
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I'm with FF on this one, makes complete sense.

You might be capable of going at higher speeds but others might not expect you to be doing them causing them to pull out in front of you or worse.

neoboy said:
I live up in Tyne and Wear and know the roads pretty well here so tend to go quicker on those, if I'm somewhere new then keep it on the limit. Saying that the stretch of A1 here is becoming a living nightmare, no choice by crawl.
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Aye :(
Sections of Teasm Valley and gateshead have no gone : 70>50>40>30

And don'even get me started about the new roundabout lights theyve installed at team valley, my good god.

I sat at a red light for 3mins, for it to go green and the next one go red at the same time, getting maybe a quarter of the way round every 3 minutes.

Oh yeah this was around 11.30, roads were dead :(

They NEED to either change the timing on them or change the to part time lights.
 
I Drive at around 60 mph on my commute, 5am dual carriage way so could quite easily Hoon it if I wanted.

I use to speed everywhere, but since I forced myself to drive slower driving at ~90 feels like warp speed
 
What Freefaller said, basically. I wouldn't have a 3.0 petrol BMW if I was never going to take advantage of it.

However wafting around with the power on tap is a pleasant experience.
 
I sympathise with you OP. I don't go crazy all the time, but I'm generally making 'swift' progress. I seem to get really frustrated unless I'm travelling at pace. Maybe I'll grow out of it at some point....
 
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