Inconsiderate & slow drivers

The last 3 Monday's I've been stuck behind someone who will only do 40 in NSL and then 25 on 30/40 mph roads.

I assume he knows he's doing it as he'll deliberately put his 66 plate BMW in just the right spot so no one can overtake him safely on country lanes resulting in yesterday him having 12 cars stuck behind him.

It would test most people after being stuck behind him for over 10 miles which covers most of my route home.

10 minutes vs 15 minutes travel time? Is 5 minutes really worth getting worked up over? Really?

Leave 5 mins earlier and you likely will never even see him :D
 
If I had a pound for everytime I saw someone brake to a few mph below the speed limit when they're going through a speed camera I'd be a rich man :p
Given how fast I'm often going - Yes, I brake to a few mph below the limit.
Kinda what you do in order to avoid getting flashed, really.

Now, those who brake whenever the road even slightly deviates from dead-straight... those are annoying... along with the ones who come up behind a *slightly* slower vehicle and keep touching the brake every 10-15 seconds!

I'm talking about people driving around 40 in a 60 limit here not 5 mph below the limit.
Again, have done this myself, more on countryside twisties where there are frequently nasty hazards just round the bend, or on tight corners where I know people run wide (have had to mount the kerb more than once), but especially at night.
Same for in town, given how many iPhone Ninjas think it's hilarious to step out in front of your vehicle, dressed all in black with hood up and earphones in, from behind a parked car or something...

Again, could be many reasons - Perhaps they didn't spot the speed change, or are limping home on a space saver wheel .

Calm down.... relax... put some Classic FM on...

Or if you prefer, just blaze off at high speed, bibbing your horn as you blast past, before slipping off the road, smacking into a tree and firing yourself through the windscreen just like some bloke did a couple of weeks ago outside our house.
 
10 minutes vs 15 minutes travel time? Is 5 minutes really worth getting worked up over? Really?

Leave 5 mins earlier and you likely will never even see him :D

Would you say "don't get worked up and leave 10 minutes earlier" if someone decided to drive at 30mph in an NSL? What about if they were doing 20mph?

The issue is that often people that are doing inappropriately slow speeds are doing it because they haven't got the ability to go higher speeds, whether this be due to their age, eyesight, tiredness, intoxication, they get easily flustered or condition of their car is bad - so you then have to question why should we put up with it? If they don't think they don't have the reactionary ability to go more than 40mph on a clear NSL road, how are they going to fair if something pulls out in front of them or a child runs out? I have said it before, but I can see it in my own dad. He used to drive at appropriate speeds etc, but in the last view years, when i've been in the car with him, he'll slow down to 30mph for some reason on a bend which you can quite clearly take at 60mph. And again, he'll sometimes do 40mph, whilst I'm wondering why he is going this slowly. It's because he's getting older and his reactions aren't as good.

I regularly pull over people who are doing inappropriately slow speeds and 90% of the time they are old, have poor eyesight and are just "not really with it". Would I trust them to take avoiding action in an emergency? Would I hell.

If it is safe to do 60mph, then you should be doing 60mph in an NSL. If it is safe to do 40mph in an 40mph then you should. If you are doing less than that, why? Doing inappropriately low speeds causes people behind to take unnecessary risks, and causes whole trains of cars with people not keeping safe distances - all because one person at the front of the queue wants to do 20mph under the speed limit.
 
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I also find it hilarious when people do just under the limit going through speed camera, like it's going to flash them doing 30 in a 30 zone, but 27 is definitely safe lol.

That's not so bad, on the A69 I've seen many a driver slow down to 40 ish going through the speed cameras even though it's NSL
 
If you come across a road blocker pootling at 50% of the speed limit, the only way to overtake is using shock and awe. Exhaust baffles open, drop a few cogs, ensure you have a run up, ensure 8000 rpm plus at the overtake point, ensure change as you pull back in with full sports burble, pull away at pace so any action they chose is an irrelevance. This is morting law handed down for generations.

Housey understands a 10k rpm screaming flyby and then flames shooting out of my exhaust as I roll off into the sunset is the only way to properly deal with these people.

I had to pull a similar move last night after being stuck behind someone doing a max of 35 on a clear NSL road for about 5 miles after they'd nailed it off a set of light to block me getting past and merging in front of them, if nothing else I woke them up at least.
 
That 5 minutes can make all the difference.

Drove down to Cardiff (bear in mind this is a 200 mile journey on mostly single carriageway roads) a few months back and got stuck behind someone doing 30 in a NSL stretch for a few miles. Turned out that once we finally manged to overtake them, we ended up having a tractor pull out a few cars ahead of us which we were stuck behind for half an hour because it was busy and the morons in front didn't dare overtake without a 500m gap.

Overall that "5 minutes" added on a lot more than just 5 minutes onto an already 4+ hour journey.
 
From experience I've found that you go as slow as the person behind a slow driver who refuses to overtake. Overtaking one car is easy, two is more of a challenge.

I agree with the point that the driving test in the UK is a joke, but I guess that's a side point. You can't prove you're fit to drive on the road for just being on best behavior for 45 minutes or so. It would be better is driving instructors were given broader powers to sign off driving ability. Then for the entire driving experience was modular. They've shown they can drive in the wet/night/traffic/overtake etc over a period of months. OK you've passed you can drive on your own.

Something that stuck with me was a driving lesson back when I was 17. I was on NSL road doing 60mph and someone pulled out in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and afterwards the instructor said that as nothing was coming the other way I should have overtaken them. It was kind of a validation that if done safely, there is nothing wrong with it. It's just a shame that so many abuse it and take risks. Don't get me wrong, I've pulled some stunts in my time that I am not proud of, I'm an incredibly impatient person.

For me it's the attitude of slow drivers. They dawdle along and then when you overtake them they flash lights at you, indicating that you were the one in the wrong and that your safety deserves to be compromised.
 
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Linked Article said:
What about the cyclists breaking the law? If you're going to process people for careless driving by putting cyclists at risk, what about the cyclists who ignore red lights and cause risk with their riding? (Click for answer)

We will deal with all matters of careless/riding/cycling as best we can. It’s vital to remember that the vulnerable road users – those on foot, on cycles, (push and motor) and people riding horses – are at much greater risk of serious injury and death than those in cars. Our priority should always be to protect those most vulnerable.

The classic easy to throw points and fines but nothing that takes effort approach. Love it. Ez money.
 
10 minutes vs 15 minutes travel time? Is 5 minutes really worth getting worked up over? Really?

Leave 5 mins earlier and you likely will never even see him :D

Let's just extrapolate this though. Five mins a journey. 2 journeys a day. That's an extra ten mins per day. 50 mins a week. So for someone who would normally spend just an hour and a half in their car they're now spending nearly two and a half. That's a massive increase in time. Over a year that's two days extra sat in their car.

Are you gonna give them those two days back?
 
Dis86;30479700 said:
Are you gonna give them those two days back?
Am I going to get back the extra time it took to skirt around the 2-day Police road closure necessary after the aforementioned ******'s car crash?

What about all the other delays caused by other people's varying standards of driving?
How about all the impatient ******s who can't wait five more minutes before leaving work and just add to the already congested rush hour traffic?
 
bobbarley;30479698 said:
Hey, hey. It's a 320d, re-mapped to 220bhp, around 400nm torque. It doesn't lack for power :)

See, bloody diesel drivers gone all torque on us again. It's all they have. BURN HIMMMMM :p
 
ttaskmaster;30479791 said:
Am I going to get back the extra time it took to skirt around the 2-day Police road closure necessary after the aforementioned ******'s car crash?

What about all the other delays caused by other people's varying standards of driving?
How about all the impatient ******s who can't wait five more minutes before leaving work and just add to the already congested rush hour traffic?

If everybody left 5 minutes later the congestion would be as bad no?
 
ttaskmaster;30479404 said:
just blaze off at high speed, bibbing your horn as you blast past, before slipping off the road, smacking into a tree and firing yourself through the windscreen

^^ What 40mph drivers think when someone dares to go more than 40mph.
 
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