Slow drivers on country lanes

[MC Bodge]

FiF said:

Anyway suitable entrance to a caravan site made it easy to pull in and let him by

....and thus displaying a degree of awareness and courtesy that is uncommon.


As said earlier, I think that the problem is possibly more about the general reluctance by many to look/plan-ahead and use the available acceleration to overtake, whilst instead driving nose-tail in long columns, preventing others from passing.

[Jasandjules]

plasticpig said:

Towing a caravan is not and excuse. If the farmer in his Defender towing a livestock trailer can reverse to a passing place then the bloke towing his house on wheels should be able to.

You would think that. But where I live people in Micras and whatnot can't reverse. Quite frequently I find myself having to reverse the Passat estate into a gap that they can't get their tiny car into.

[All that jazz]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Devil2575 said:

MuZiZZle said:

All that jazz said:

For all those of you that non-stop complain about trucks being in your way on d/cs and motorways, that chap right there is one of the major causes ^.

Beacuse I'm doing the same speed as the trucks?

How fast should I be driving? sometimes I like to sit in the inside lane and avoid the wacky races

Ignore them, they're just looking for someone to be angry at because they can't always drive as fast as they would like.
It's perfectly possible to keep pace with an HGV in the inside lane and not cause any issues at all.

Absolutely. There's nothing wrong with doing 55 in a 70 or 40 in a 60 if that's what you feel comfortable with. Elderly drivers often drive slower because they realise that their reactions aren't what they were and have adapted their driving accordingly. That's not to be sneered at, but applauded.

Obvious troll is obvious.

[Devil2575]

s p a c e m a n said:

MuZiZZle said:

All that jazz said:

For all those of you that non-stop complain about trucks being in your way on d/cs and motorways, that chap right there is one of the major causes ^.

Beacuse I'm doing the same speed as the trucks?

How fast should I be driving? sometimes I like to sit in the inside lane and avoid the wacky races

Yes, because now rather than having to overtake something that is 5 meters long I now have to overtake something that is 50 meters long as you are sitting behind the truck so I am in the outside lane for 10x as long. Just do 5mph more than all of the lorries, it's not hard to figure out

bks.

The inside lane is generally moving at the speed of the HGVs. One more car makes feck all difference. It only causes a problem if the car is going slower than the wagons.

[Martin_M]

I'm not judging because I find them really annoying too. What I do try and remind myself though is that some drivers can lack confidence on such roads. I rode a motorbike for a while and never felt truly confident, particularly on winding country roads which meant that I ended up travelling a lot slower than I would have liked. I suppose not everyone's out on the road to drive at the absolute limit but yes, annoying all the same.

[s p a c e m a n]

Devil2575 said:

s p a c e m a n said:

MuZiZZle said:

All that jazz said:

For all those of you that non-stop complain about trucks being in your way on d/cs and motorways, that chap right there is one of the major causes ^.

Beacuse I'm doing the same speed as the trucks?

How fast should I be driving? sometimes I like to sit in the inside lane and avoid the wacky races

Yes, because now rather than having to overtake something that is 5 meters long I now have to overtake something that is 50 meters long as you are sitting behind the truck so I am in the outside lane for 10x as long. Just do 5mph more than all of the lorries, it's not hard to figure out

bks.

The inside lane is generally moving at the speed of the HGVs. One more car makes feck all difference. It only causes a problem if the car is going slower than the wagons.

Think about it. Even I a dumbarse lorry driver can figure it out. Yes on a D/C the inside lane is moving at the speed of the HGVs, lane 2 however isn't and morons like to complain about how long HGVs spend in lane 2 elephant racing.

Now if I am attempting to overtake a single lorry I get to within a few meters of it, move out into lane 2 and pull back in as soon as possible. An artic is 5 meters long so I only have to be in lane 2 for the time it takes me to advance 10 meters on lane 1.

If there is a car speed matching the HGV in lane 1 I can't tailgate it like I would another HGV as they get all scared so I have to pull into lane 2 when I am 10ish meters behind the car, I then have to pass the car and cover whatever they have left as a safe gap on the HGV that they are following (20ish meters), I then have to pass the HGV.

So now I have to be in lane 2 for the time that it takes me to advance 50ish meters on lane 1, at about a 2mph speed difference. And there is rarely a single car speed matching the HGVs in lane 1, there's always at least a couple of the morons making a nice little convoy. I overtake more cars than HGVs on the A12 because of this and I cringe every time that I cause a line of traffic behind me whilst doing it.

The bds speed up as well, they'll be bumbling along 50 meters behind the HGV that they're following and as soon as I get into lane 2 beside them they'll speed up until they've halved their stopping distance.

If you are not driving a speed limited vehicle just drive at a couple MPH faster than all of the lorries, it will make no difference to your life and will stop us all wanting to kill you.

[kuro]

There is a lot of mentions of 40mph, I would have been happy to do that speed. The car on the way back was doing 20mph!! Overtaking on Devon lanes is mostly not an option and I dont take risks. I have an mx5 specifically because of the type of roads in this part of the world. I had a choice of the usual suspects but most would not have been anywhere near as usable as the mx5.

[Jasandjules]

Martin_M said:

What I do try and remind myself though is that some drivers can lack confidence on such roads.

If you are not confident enough to do more than 40mph on a straight bit of road then you are not fit to be on the road IMHO.

[Bebee]

leafspring said:

SV8Predator said:

Bebee said:

I'm on a country lane and it's 70, you couldn't do that speed if you tried, not without impact on a hedge or tree.

Tell us about this country lane that has a 70mph speed limit?

Where is it exactly?

NSL on a single track/B road is 60, not 70. 70 is dual carriage way/motorway NSL. There's even a PH T-shirt that says "Life Begins at 60"

Even I try and keep my Series III Land Rover above 45/50 in the right conditions... my point?

If you've just been overtaken by a 40 year old 4x4 with 80hp(on a good day) and only 4 forward gears... you aren't going fast enough

Edited by leafspring on Saturday 20th September 21:47

Sorry, the sign is NSL but I didn't realize it's 60, I'm a total dick!
Will take a re-test and hand in my License and Lotus at the nearest fuzz station first thing in the morrow.

[Martin_M]

Jasandjules said:

Martin_M said:

What I do try and remind myself though is that some drivers can lack confidence on such roads.

If you are not confident enough to do more than 40mph on a straight bit of road then you are not fit to be on the road IMHO.

Indeed, when I posted the above, I was thinking about national speed limit country roads.

[BugLebowski]

OP, the road is not your personal race track so your enjoyment of driving is not a priority. Im sure farmer joe bouncing along at 40 in his landy couldn't give two flying ducks if you were having a good time or not! If these drivers were travelling so slow then how was it not handy to pass them?

[anonymous-user]

We get a lot of slower drivers on the country roads near me beacuse of Alton Towers and I'm not too fussed about slower drivers but two things really piss me off:
-People who hold me up and do 40 down the NSL road then carry on doing 40 through 30 limits-to me it just shows them not giving a fk or not paying attention.
-On a rural road with a clearly defined centre line thats wide enough for two trucks to pass some people seem to feel that because the road is lined with green they have to be over the centreline for clearance? It makes it really dangerous when you come around a corner and someone is over the centreline on a wide road!!

[MuZiZZle]

s p a c e m a n said:

Think about it. Even I a dumbarse lorry driver can figure it out. Yes on a D/C the inside lane is moving at the speed of the HGVs, lane 2 however isn't and morons like to complain about how long HGVs spend in lane 2 elephant racing.

Now if I am attempting to overtake a single lorry I get to within a few meters of it, move out into lane 2 and pull back in as soon as possible. An artic is 5 meters long so I only have to be in lane 2 for the time it takes me to advance 10 meters on lane 1.

If there is a car speed matching the HGV in lane 1 I can't tailgate it like I would another HGV as they get all scared so I have to pull into lane 2 when I am 10ish meters behind the car, I then have to pass the car and cover whatever they have left as a safe gap on the HGV that they are following (20ish meters), I then have to pass the HGV.

So now I have to be in lane 2 for the time that it takes me to advance 50ish meters on lane 1, at about a 2mph speed difference. And there is rarely a single car speed matching the HGVs in lane 1, there's always at least a couple of the morons making a nice little convoy. I overtake more cars than HGVs on the A12 because of this and I cringe every time that I cause a line of traffic behind me whilst doing it.

The bds speed up as well, they'll be bumbling along 50 meters behind the HGV that they're following and as soon as I get into lane 2 beside them they'll speed up until they've halved their stopping distance.

If you are not driving a speed limited vehicle just drive at a couple MPH faster than all of the lorries, it will make no difference to your life and will stop us all wanting to kill you.

If I drive a few MPH faster than the lorries then I'm the one overtaking lorries at a fractionally faster speed though?

My commute is the A1 where it is mostly DC, if a wagon is gaining on me and does go to pass, he's obviously going quicker then the wagon I'm sat behind, so I'll happily click the cruise down as he passes.

I'm not there to be a pain in the arse to truck drivers, sometimes the outside lane is just a ballache, especially when all the derv boys want to show you their amazing torque

[catman]

When you see on this website (that's supposedly for car enthusiasts) that quite a few of us don't have a clue about what the speed limits are on various roads, then maybe a lot of the general public don't either.


Tim

[kuro]

BugLebowski said:

OP, the road is not your personal race track so your enjoyment of driving is not a priority. Im sure farmer joe bouncing along at 40 in his landy couldn't give two flying ducks if you were having a good time or not! If these drivers were travelling so slow then how was it not handy to pass them?

And I dont want to use it as a race track, I Just wanted to make safe and reasonable progress. As for passing, have you ever driven a car in the lanes of Devon?

[340600]

s p a c e m a n said:

If there is a car speed matching the HGV in lane 1 I can't tailgate it like I would another HGV as they get all scared

How noble of you. Do let us know how it works out for you when the next heavy you're tailgating has to emergency stop.

[catman]

Bebee said:

Sorry, the sign is NSL but I didn't realize it's 60, I'm a total dick!
Will take a re-test and hand in my License and Lotus at the nearest fuzz station first thing in the morrow.

I've had discussions with Driving Instructors that didn't know either, so I wouldn't feel too bad.

Tim

[TwigtheWonderkid]

s p a c e m a n said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Devil2575 said:

MuZiZZle said:

All that jazz said:

For all those of you that non-stop complain about trucks being in your way on d/cs and motorways, that chap right there is one of the major causes ^.

Beacuse I'm doing the same speed as the trucks?

How fast should I be driving? sometimes I like to sit in the inside lane and avoid the wacky races

Ignore them, they're just looking for someone to be angry at because they can't always drive as fast as they would like.
It's perfectly possible to keep pace with an HGV in the inside lane and not cause any issues at all.

Absolutely. There's nothing wrong with doing 55 in a 70 or 40 in a 60 if that's what you feel comfortable with. Elderly drivers often drive slower because they realise that their reactions aren't what they were and have adapted their driving accordingly. That's not to be sneered at, but applauded.

But doing an extra 3mph should not really effect your mpg/stopping distance/whatever other excuse you can come up with on a d/c and will make a monumental difference to the time that I have to spend in the outside lane doing 56mph, as I said before.

If someone wants to do 55 on a d/c, why should they do 58 to please you? I agree that 20/30 mph would be ridiculous but 55 in a 70 is just fine if that's where they feel comfortable. I don't have an issue with it, even though it's slower than I would choose to go.

[Patrick Bateman]

They seem to be oblivious to their surroundings. Single carriageway A-road is frustrating enough. I often encounter a Mazda 2 driver on the way to work who'll be doing 45mph whether it's the best day of the year or a downpour. It wouldn't be so bad if he pulled in to let people past but that's just not an option.

[Johnnytheboy]

Martin_M said:

I'm not judging because I find them really annoying too. What I do try and remind myself though is that some drivers can lack confidence on such roads. I rode a motorbike for a while and never felt truly confident, particularly on winding country roads which meant that I ended up travelling a lot slower than I would have liked. I suppose not everyone's out on the road to drive at the absolute limit but yes, annoying all the same.

What annoys me on my single lane commute is that there is a wider alternative, so people that don't feel confident using narrow roads have an alternative.