Slow Drivers - That's it, I believe the world has gone mad.

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Slow Drivers - That's it, I believe the world has gone mad.

68 posts & 38 voices | Started 10 months ago by samuri | Latest reply from TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR

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samuri - Member

http://www.confused.com/press/releases/slowly-driving-us-car-azy

Nearly half of UK drivers attempt unsafe overtaking to pass slow moving vehicles
So they'll be the unsafe ones then? Not the slow drivers, the feckwits trying to fly past them.

143 accidents a year caused directly by slow drivers*
Really? Driving slowly actually causes accidents? Prove it. Prove to me that slower drivers (as opposed to accidents that happen at slow speeds), cause these 143 accidents. Or is it actually the idiots trying to get past them that cause the accidents?

UK motorists call for the introduction of a slow speed camera to penalise leisurely drivers

Give me a gun please and identify these UK motorists. It's amazing that they can operate a car in the first place since they're so stupid and selfish but hey, it's not like they're real people with feelings.

Posted 10 months ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

Define slow.

Posted 10 months ago #
mrmo - Member

i can see where they are coming from, but yes it is the overtakers responsibility at the end of the day,

I got stuck behind a car doing 60 in the 50 zones and 50 in the 60 zones, so when i got to a safe place to overtake they speed up to 70 as i was overtaking!

What is needed is traffic police, not cameras. Catch stupid driving be it fast or slow.

Posted 10 months ago #
wrightyson - Member

Slow as in doing 28 in a 30. No that's me, doing 35 in a 40, somewhat irritating but the arses who speed up to 55 on a nsl road and then slam on at the slightest hint of a corner or crest are the dangers. They're the ones that infuriate most drivers because they just seem inept when it comes to keeping a decent pace on the roads. Oh and I'm a van and car driver fwiw!!

Posted 10 months ago #
deadlydarcy - Member

Think!

Posted 10 months ago #
samuri - Member

confused.com is of course tied into insurance companies. So rather than admit that half of their customers are complete bellends who can't drive and then do something about it, they target the safe drivers on the roads who cause no accidents.

Oh no, hang on, 143 accidents a year. Lets say these accidents are actually directly a result of slow drivers. 143 accidents.

wow. Yep, if we remove these 143 accidents from the roads, that'll be no accidents on the roads at all will it? Or will there still be lots of accidents caused by people who drive too fast?

Hang on, google is the key..... Hmm, can't actually find just how many road traffic accidents there are year. I can find how many severeties occur on the road in 2002. 340,000, but obviously that's not accidents, that's actual injuries.

Hang on, why the focus on these 143 accidents then? (Again, assuming they happened directly because the drivers were going slowly). 143 sounds an awful lot less than 340,000 caused (presumably) by people who don't drive too slowly.

Posted 10 months ago #
wrightyson - Member

How many accidents are caused by speed?? I would still suggest a lot are caused by errors of judgement and concentration, ie turning right at junctions and rear end shunts at roundabouts give ways etc!

Posted 10 months ago #
user-removed - Member

Due to a puncture, I had to drive near on 100 miles on a space-saver tyre on the way back from the Wicker Man Festival last Sunday. So that's a long way at 48 mph on 60mph roads.

It was actually a very refreshing experience - occasionally, I'd pull over and let folk past. I understand how frustrating it is to be stuck behind some twit doing 20 round all the corners, then speeding up to 70 on the straights (thus rendering a safe overtake impossible), but 50 is a decent enough speed on a NSL road...

My parents live on the Isle of Skye, and maybe four times a year I drive up there from NE England. Invariably, I'll get stuck behind a hire car doing exactly the above (stupidly slow in the corners, crazy acceleration in a bid to appease the locals on the straights) on narrow roads, and yes, I'll admit it, I'll overtake on blind corners (no headlights ahead and I know the road) and it reduces the overtakees to a skidding, shite-smelling standstill.

Ex white van man here too.

Posted 10 months ago #
wrightyson - Member

My van is silver

Posted 10 months ago #
user-removed - Member

Oh! I got away with typing, "shite"! Perhaps the hyphen made it OK...

*Tries to imagine a silver van, but in my head, it looks like it's been sprayed with tins of Halfords paint*

Posted 10 months ago #
Capt. Kronos - Member

How about 20mph in a NSL and breaking for corners/if another vehicle comes ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROAD towards them? Yet they won't pull into any parking places or make any attempt to let faster moving traffic past?

I am working, have jobs waiting... and spend so much time being frustrated by such driving in the Lakes. I actually want to get the jobs done and get home at a reasonable time to the family! I don't mind slow drivers taking in the scenery, but they could at least have the decency to allow others to progress surely. The frustration that gets caused by this CAN lead to some slightly suspect overtakes at times.

So yes, slow drivers do cause accidents.

I am also "enjoying" this year: People who get confused when they see a speed camera on a NSL road and slow down to 40 just to be on the safe side. People who cut corners when driving slowly to prevent overtaking where there is a clear view of the road (especially annoying when on the motorbike). People who cut blind corners as they think they are driving fast and nearly collect me (car or bike) - seeing a LOT of this these days... invariably they aren't going as quick as they think, could make the corner correctly and are just sodding INCOMPETENT. Oh... and people who see a short section of dual carriageway come up, and slowly overtake the vehicle in front utilising the full length so that no one else can get past... then sit about 2mph faster than the overtaken vehicle - USE THE ACCELERATOR MUPPET!

Sorry... been having a bad few weeks on the road. Gets worse now the schools are out as well

Posted 10 months ago #
The Flying Ox - Member

all of the above

Heh. And I've been told by folk on here that it's antisocial to have a modified car that will despatch with ease even the spriteliest of slow drivers. At least I'm not stuck behind the goons for long enough to get annoyed by them.

*dons flame suit*

Posted 10 months ago #
ernie_lynch - Member

I see "slow drivers" no different to someone parking in a dangerous or inappropriate manner. Yes it's the responsibility of the driver to pass a badly parked car, but it is foolish to pretend that a badly parked car can't in anyway be responsible for an accident.

Everyone has the right to expect to be able to drive at the maximum allowed speed limit, and therefore estimate their journey times on that basis, unavoidable traffic jams aside. It is therefore understandably frustrating to be stuck for miles behind someone doing 27mph in a 40mph, for example.

In my experience excessively slow driver are invariably also bad drivers, they are the ones least likely in indicate and most likely to be in the wrong lane. The bottom line is that they drive slowly because they are crap drivers.

My tolerance level only goes up for elderly drivers, they have slower reactions to younger drivers and therefore it makes sense for them to drive slower, plus I accept that often walking or taking public transport is more problematic for them.

But middle-aged middle-class daft females driving Micras, should all be rounded up and shot, IMO.

Posted 10 months ago #
JRTG - Member

In The Scottish highlands they are very wise and actually put up road signs saying; frustration causes accidents, allow overtaking

Posted 10 months ago #
FunkyDunc - Member

Just back from a weeks holiday in Dumfries & Galloway. It was so.refreshing. Not one speed camera, and everyone averaging 70mph on the A75. Then of course came the weekends and the 45mph driver. You could see people getting frustrated and making silly overtaking moves (which included lorries)

Posted 10 months ago #
wrightyson - Member

I loved our holiday in that part of Scotland last year. There was one camera van on the main road from Dumfries out west which we saw several times but that was it! I truly loved having a road going rally car up and around that west coast!!!!!!!!

Posted 10 months ago #
gusamc - Member

as a rural Scot, as a teenager my dad taught me to let people pass (blip LH indicator, slow, drift left) if they were in a hurry, partly due to consideration, partly as keeping a twaat stuck up your bum doesn't really appear that clever, and partly as you might be in a hurry one day and they might return the favour. In my youth it was pretty common and worked well.

It appears now to be a langauge only spoken in limited parts of Scotland and mainly by lorry drivers, I've tried it in England a few times and you end up stopped on the verge with 3 cars up your erse.. people seem to have forgotten(or never learned) overtaking but are happy to sit 25ft behind you at 50mph.............

great point about accelerating on the straights with a per corner emergency stop.

Driving slow is like driving quick - it can be done safely by appropriately skilled drivers, and given that most people are better than 'average' drivers it's strange that so few people seem able to manage it.

Posted 10 months ago #
johnners - Member

Everyone has the right to expect to be able to drive at the maximum allowed speed limit

Unbelievable.

Posted 10 months ago #
Flaperon - Member

People who join motorways at 30-40 mph.

Not sure what's worse: being stuck behind them as they amble nervously up the slip road, or trapped in lane one knowing that they consider the flashing indicator to mean "right of way" and will swerve out in front of you.

Posted 10 months ago #
PeterPoddy - Member

143 accidents a year caused directly by slow drivers*
Really? Driving slowly actually causes accidents? Prove it. Prove to me that slower drivers (as opposed to accidents that happen at slow speeds), cause these 143 accidents. Or is it actually the idiots trying to get past them that cause the accidents?

Well said. The same applies to high speed too.

Posted 10 months ago #
Dibbs - Member

My commute by car includes 5 miles of A road, over the past few years the local council has gradually increased the length of the double white line sections and decreased the speed limit to 50mph so that now there is only one 1/4 mile section where overtaking is allowed. It only takes one old biffer doing 35/40mph to create a tailback of 30 or 40 cars. Its even more frustrating if I take the motorbike as places where there used to be loads of room to overtake are now illegal.

Posted 10 months ago #
downgrade - Member

Commercial website issues provocative press release = just another internet troll

Posted 10 months ago #
wrightyson - Member

FI Law currently doing some advance driver training. He's 65 and drives a micra. He drives too fast for his abilities, I've never been in a car with anyone who brakes so violently. However his driving has definately improved since he's been taking the lessons.

Posted 10 months ago #
mintimperial - Member

What samuri said: this is a load of marketing bollocks. 143 accidents is 0.005% of half of **** all. Slow drivers are annoying, I agree entirely, but they're not a serious problem based on those numbers. We should be concentrating on getting rid of the really dangerous drivers who kill and maim people, and on sentencing convicted murderers in cars properly. Not much money in banging on about that for insurance hawkers, though.

Posted 10 months ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

what gets me is where you have a gorgeously winding road which is NSL or 60mph limited, and some muppet is driving round it at 44-45mph and slowing for the corners

It is like being blocked out on a lovely piece of singletrack.

Posted 10 months ago #
RichPenny - Member

Happy to say that slow drivers don't annoy me in the slightest

Posted 10 months ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

people that join motorways and dual carriage ways via a slip road at stupidly slow speeds are also candidates for having to take a driving test again to make sure they are competent drivers.

Posted 10 months ago #
WorldClassAccident - Member

The ones that puzzle me are the people bimbling along at 20-30% below the speed limit who shout abuse and give you all the hand signals when you over take then on the first bit of safe straight road.

You haven't endangered them. You haven't broken the law. You haven't driven dangerously but apparently your mother only met your father once and isn't sure which of the eight blokes he was.

Posted 10 months ago #
timber - Member

People just need to learn how to overtake.
I regularly drive a tractor with 10 ton of timber off the back an an A-road with good sight lines and pulling over would equate to around a dozen gear shifts. As far as I am aware, anything can overtake a tractor doing 25mph, I know because the GF used to have a 1.0l 3cyl corsa and that could. So all it takes is one or two mincers to make the overtake longer and a que starts to appear.

If I know stuff behind me would struggle to overtake, I'll pull over, but not for a car.

Equally, if I catch you up in the Land Rover with a loaded trailer, you really should be going quicker.

Rant over, let the flaming of 'tractor driver not pulling in' begin

Posted 10 months ago #
TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR - Member

Slow drivers irk me and there should at least be some attempt to keep in line with the speed limit where safe to do so.

HGV drivers will actually fail their test if they go too slow and aren't seen to be making suitable progress - this even includes pulling in behind slower vehicles too soon in advance of a motorway junction - so I was told anyway, so apologies if mis-informed.

Also what a lot of people don't realise is that 60mph on their speedo is generally about 55mph in reality - GPS it and see.

With regards to overtaking, I will always do it, but when safe to do so - fortunately my truck has suitable power to make this easier. in 23 years of driving I've had no accidents and 3 points (for accelerating a little too early leaving a 30mph zone).

Motorways exhibit some of the worst examples - when an HGV is having to pull into lane 2 to overtake some fart in a Micra, this isn't doing anyone any favours and entering the motorway at inappropriate speeds has been mentioned earlier - never encountered a slip road where I can't get up to the speed of the vehicles in lane 1 yet, although I've seen plenty of idiots actually stop at the end of a slip.

Don't even get me started on middle lane drivers........

Posted 10 months ago #
parkesie - Member

Why get so frustrated if i get stuck behind a slow driver/tractor upside down caravan what ever i either just slow down and enjoy the scenery with them or maybe pull over and a spot of lunch. Id rather arrive late than upside down on fire.

Posted 10 months ago #
TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR - Member

That's great if you have all the time in the world parkesie - sometimes people actually need to get to a destination on time and the tractor should pull over when it has a reasonable amount of traffic behind it. Invariably they dont.

I'm a caravan tower and take care to consider anyone stuck behind me.

Posted 10 months ago #
buzz-lightyear - Member

How many accidents are caused by speed?? I would still suggest a lot are caused by errors of judgement and concentration

This; although the error in judgement may be approaching a hazard too fast.

It's inappropriate to drive too fast, and also inappropriate to drive too slowly. Differences in speed causes problems. If you have/want to drive slower than everyone else, then you have to create passing opportunities, otherwise you are making yourself a hazard to others IMO.

I find judging the speed of oncoming cars quite difficult and have to have a good stare before either passing, or moving back in. The worst thing is that you have to learn passing by trial and error, and the penalty for error is high.

Posted 10 months ago #
v8ninety - Member

What really irks me is when people in cars perfectly capable of travelling at 60+ mph drive on a two lane motorway at 50 mph, forcing wagons to overtake at 56mph rather than keep backing off their speed limiter. When the road is busy it can cause miles of slow moving traffic, just ne aide some got hasn't got the understanding/consideration to drive 6 mph faster. Also wagon drivers overtaking each other for miles and miles because one motor is limited to 55.7mph, and the other to 56.1...

Posted 10 months ago #
mrmo - Member

the motorway thing, no one is actually taught how to use a motorway, you pass a test that shows you know how to drive round town and reverse round a corner, and that is about it.

Posted 10 months ago #

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