People that drive 50 on motorways - why?

[Pete317]

Mave said:

Pete317 said:

Mave said:

Pete317 said:

I do hope you're not trying to suggest that a few people driving fast in L3 is anything like as disruptive to traffic flow as is forcing lorries into L2 by driving at 50 in L1

In certain circumstances, yes.

What would those certain circumstances be?

If the car in L3 is tailgating the car in front and braking, causing phantom traffic jams.

That's presupposing that there's another car behind that one, which is - by definition - also too fast and too close otherwise it wouldn't need to brake, and another one behind that, and another one behind that ...
And, even if that did happen, it would - by definition - only affect L3 traffic, unless the fast traffic from L3 then goes into L2 and holds up the slower traffic in L2.

Far more likely that the phantom jams are caused by a long line of L2 traffic travelling a tad too closely at 60-70mph, who then encounter a lorry coming over from L1. Then the car behind the lorry has to slow, and in doing so closes up the gap behind them, and then the car behind has to brake a bit harder, closing up the gap behind them even more, causing the car behind to brake harder still ...

It's not rocket science

ETA: if the traffic is really heavy then it doesn't even need something like a lorry changing lanes to trigger a jam - all that needs to happen is for someone to decide that they're a bit too close to the car in front and slack off a bit, causing the gap behind to close up, causing the driver behind to slack off even more, and so on.

Edited by Pete317 on Monday 4th July 22:45

[Mave]

Digby said:

Mave said:

Digby said:

Mave said:

What, even if the issues suggested are questionable? Guilty without trial?

Which of mine were?

That "dawdlers" are causing you to be slowed down to 40mph, and subsequently causing prangs.

You agree with everything else, then! That's all I needed to know. I said early on it was mostly a selfish act.

And yes, 40 mph is a daily occurrence at slip roads when people make no attempt to match the speed of traffic. Do you think this is ok?

Not necessarily, I haven't gone back through 17 pages to check which statements were yours ;-)

Re the 40, it was in the context of the traffic being slowed "for no apparent reason"; which doesn't sound like a car joining the motorway which would have been fairly apparent.

Anyway, got to go, I'll be doing significantly more than 50mph on the motorway tomorrow but I won't be glaring at people who are, unless they keep changing speed, or are going slower than other vehicles in L1 :-)

[Digby]

And I'll be in lane 2... again