An epidemic of insanely slow drivers

[rallycross]

coppice said:

A Juke driver, but embarrassed to admit it then ...

Hats off to you for admitting such a thing!
Makes no difference what car you are in the art of driving remains the same in fact you need higher skills in a slower car in order to anticipate and safely make a quick pass ( easy in a powerful car).

[coppice]

Not me - but I don't often define anybody by the car they drive, and I wouldn't be embarrassed to admit owning virtually any car . I'd have an identity crisis if given the keys to a Bentayga though .

[popeyewhite]

rallycross said:

Hats off to you for admitting such a thing!
Makes no difference what car you are in the art of driving remains the same in fact you need higher skills in a slower car in order to anticipate and safely make a quick pass ( easy in a powerful car).

Almost impossible in a Juke - the gearbox/throttle interface is one of the bluntest and clumsiest I've ever used. Degree of skill would make no difference whatsoever.

[PlywoodPascal]

Pit Pony said:

It's not a new thing.

I remember visiting a friend just outside Nottingham in 1983. We had been to a club in Nottingham and got a taxi back. 5 miles down country lanes. He was driving on fking side lights. Occassionally, he would put his dipped beams on, but turn them back to side lights before the next bend, or if there was a car coming the other way.
Even I at 16 knew this was wrong. Having bought my dad a pair of Halford spotlights for his birthday and witnessed him using them properly on country roads. (It was like daylight in comparison)

For boring reasons I once had to get a black cab from Kings Cross to rural Sussex.
We were ok on the M25 and M23 for a bit, but it was utterly dismal when we got onto countryside a and b roads.

I have also observed many taxicab (rather than taxi/black cab, typically) drivers using the throttle as an on/off device (especially also in china for some reason)... utterly insane. its like they can only do PWM modulate throttle and not vary it.

[Pan Pan Pan]

Unreal said:

Pan Pan Pan said:

M4cruiser said:

Pan Pan Pan said:

If you are not comfortable at speeds above 30mph, get the bus. That may still be going too fast for you, but at least you wont be doing the driving. A driver who is staying within the speed limit is NOT speeding. That term is usually applied to drivers who are exceeding the posted limit.

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Thursday 21st March 09:36

Thank you, I am perfectly comfortable at speeds above 30mph.
I'm not comfortable when you are 2 yards behind me because I'm doing 30mph in a 30 limit.

The rough rule is a cars length gap, for each 10 mph. If a person is travelling at the posted limit, then they are doing all that the law requires, consequently there would be no point in travelling 2 yards behind a vehicle travelling at 30 mph Are you one of those who travels at 20 mph in a 30 limit. or are you one of those who deliberately goes out to obstruct other road users? If you are, you should not really be driving on public roads.

Tailgaters are a far bigger problem than slow drivers.

I won't exceed urban 30mph limits - I'll drive at that indicated speed or fractionally above - and I do that because it's an appropriate speed as much as a legal limit. That doesn't seem to be enough for a legion of van drivers, school runners or Fiesta ST drivers though. It's an every day, every drive occurrence whereas being held up by someone driving below the limit is rare. When it does happen it's usually a learner or someone who appears unfamiliar with the area. I'm not talking about the tailgating that we all do in nose to tail crawls at busy times but when traffic is free flowing. I'd love to hear a justification from a someone who tailgates drivers at the legal limit but I reckon there won't be any on here, which is remarkable since PH is supposed to be so representative and tailgating is endemic.

I've got no time for people that drive significantly below the limit in 60/NSL roads except in those situations where driving to the limit is dangerous. These tend to be country roads where I am seem quite unusual in being concerned about whether tractors/horses/cyclists/walkers/oncoming vehicles might be around that next corner. These are pretty rare situations though. Road captains are dangerous idiots. These are the people that hate merge in turn and will obstruct, inconvenience and provoke other drivers at every opportunity, whether it's enforcing speed or blocking overtakes.

FWIW I don't drive a Jazz but I do spend a fair bit of time driving a Yaris.

One of the reasons tailgaters exist, is because some cannot drive at the posted limits, and they unnecessarily hold up others who legally want to travel at the posted limits.
The main reason for using any vehicle from a skateboard to an SST, is to get from one place, to another quicker than is possible by walking. Otherwise there would be no point in inventing, building, having, and using motorized vehicles.
If the person in front, is doing the posted limit, then they are doing all that can be expected from them, and they should not be tailgated into going faster (Getting done for exceeding a posted limit, if that is what a driver wanted to do, is one thing, but getting done for exceeding a posted limit, because the person behind tailgated you into exceeding the limit is as about as daft as it gets).
If a person is not able to cope with driving at the posted limits, they should perhaps consider whether they are suited to driving any motorized vehicle on public roads at all. Certainly they would fail a driving test, if they did this during the test, which technically means they are fit to be allowed on public roads.
The sad thing is that if everyone stuck to the limits, (Low though they are) good cross country progress can still be made.
The reason some feel the need to speed, is to compensate timewise, for the negative effects on journey times, caused by the dawdlers they meet on the roads

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Monday 25th March 15:08

[The Selfish Gene]

Tesla today (again) doing 30 when the indicated limit was 40.......and leaving massive, and I mean massive gaps to the cars in front.

When they removed the unnecessary restriction and back to 70, Mrs st Tesla managed to achieve 45........... clearly worried about range or whatever, so a swift under take and off I go, seeing them a million miles behind me with dozens of cars all queued up.

[Gericho]

Audi SQ5 on motorway doing 40mph today. That made me chuckle thinking about this thread.

[LunarOne]

Perhaps there's a strand of Walt DNA in my system because I sometimes wish I had a bullhorn so I could shout "Why are you driving so slowly?!!" at these slowcoaches.

[-Lummox-]

LunarOne said:

Perhaps there's a strand of Walt DNA in my system because I sometimes wish I had a bullhorn so I could shout "Why are you driving so slowly?!!" at these slowcoaches.

Trouble is, if you made any loud noises behind one of those road-tortoises, you're more likely to make them slow down more than speed up...

[Hoofy]

The Selfish Gene said:

clearly worried about range

I've heard about this before. Does the speed really affect the range that badly? Surely if it's at a point where you can't do a safe speed on a motorway then that's not right. It can't be legal to not be able to drive appropriately because of something that restricts your ability to drive. I hear the i3 REX will reduce the speed to 30mph when you're in the final 5-10% of your battery. Imagine that happens on the motorway.

[Unreal]

Pan Pan Pan said:

One of the reasons tailgaters exist, is because some cannot drive at the posted limits, and they unnecessarily hold up others who legally want to travel at the posted limits.
The main reason for using any vehicle from a skateboard to an SST, is to get from one place, to another quicker than is possible by walking. Otherwise there would be no point in inventing, building, having, and using motorized vehicles.
If the person in front, is doing the posted limit, then they are doing all that can be expected from them, and they should not be tailgated into going faster (Getting done for exceeding a posted limit, if that is what a driver wanted to do, is one thing, but getting done for exceeding a posted limit, because the person behind tailgated you into exceeding the limit is as about as daft as it gets).
If a person is not able to cope with driving at the posted limits, they should perhaps consider whether they are suited to driving any motorized vehicle on public roads at all. Certainly they would fail a driving test, if they did this during the test, which technically means they are fit to be allowed on public roads.
The sad thing is that if everyone stuck to the limits, (Low though they are) good cross country progress can still be made.
The reason some feel the need to speed, is to compensate timewise, for the negative effects on journey times, caused by the dawdlers they meet on the roads

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Monday 25th March 15:08

I can't say I've noticed a correlation between tailgaters and people driving below the limit.

Tailgating is endemic at almost any speed.

[The Wookie]

Hoofy said:

The Selfish Gene said:

clearly worried about range

I've heard about this before. Does the speed really affect the range that badly? Surely if it's at a point where you can't do a safe speed on a motorway then that's not right. It can't be legal to not be able to drive appropriately because of something that restricts your ability to drive. I hear the i3 REX will reduce the speed to 30mph when you're in the final 5-10% of your battery. Imagine that happens on the motorway.

IME in a Taycan not disproportionately different to what you'd expect in an IC car, you might knock 15-20% off doing 90 vs 70 but you're not annihilating the range like some people make out. Under 50 it makes near as no difference at all in fact it probably starts getting worse.

Perhaps people are scared of using fast chargers and try and drag every last mile out of the range.

[the-norseman]

All kinds of nutters on the M6 and M1 last night,

Driving around MK today, doing 60 and 3 times I've had a car pull out on me with only a few seconds before I reached them, all 3 times they have then dawdled up to 35-40mph and maintained that speed. two were taxi drivers.

[CambsBill]

The Wookie said:

Hoofy said:

The Selfish Gene said:

clearly worried about range

I've heard about this before. Does the speed really affect the range that badly? Surely if it's at a point where you can't do a safe speed on a motorway then that's not right. It can't be legal to not be able to drive appropriately because of something that restricts your ability to drive. I hear the i3 REX will reduce the speed to 30mph when you're in the final 5-10% of your battery. Imagine that happens on the motorway.

IME in a Taycan not disproportionately different to what you'd expect in an IC car, you might knock 15-20% off doing 90 vs 70 but you're not annihilating the range like some people make out. Under 50 it makes near as no difference at all in fact it probably starts getting worse.

Perhaps people are scared of using fast chargers and try and drag every last mile out of the range.

You sure? A few years ago I drove a Leaf round the banked circuit at Millbrook (company car day) and managed to knock 16 miles off the range in just 4 miles. I don't know what the top speed of that version was (sub 100mph I suspect) but I was probably close to it

[Monkeylegend]

I suppose with 41 million vehicles licensed in the UK you are bound to come across a few that are not keeping up with the speed limits.

[M4cruiser]

Pan Pan Pan said:

One of the reasons tailgaters exist, is because some cannot drive at the posted limits, and they unnecessarily hold up others who legally want to travel at the posted limits.

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Monday 25th March 15:08

^ I disagree, because I frequently see a whole line of "tailgaters" in lane 2 or 3 of a motorway, when only car driver number 2 in the queue could be accused of tailgating "because the car in front is going too slowly". All the others behind it can't complain at the one in front of them because they can't go any faster without crashing into the one in front of them.

[M4cruiser]

CambsBill said:

The Wookie said:

Hoofy said:

The Selfish Gene said:

clearly worried about range

I've heard about this before. Does the speed really affect the range that badly? Surely if it's at a point where you can't do a safe speed on a motorway then that's not right. It can't be legal to not be able to drive appropriately because of something that restricts your ability to drive. I hear the i3 REX will reduce the speed to 30mph when you're in the final 5-10% of your battery. Imagine that happens on the motorway.

IME in a Taycan not disproportionately different to what you'd expect in an IC car, you might knock 15-20% off doing 90 vs 70 but you're not annihilating the range like some people make out. Under 50 it makes near as no difference at all in fact it probably starts getting worse.

Perhaps people are scared of using fast chargers and try and drag every last mile out of the range.

You sure? A few years ago I drove a Leaf round the banked circuit at Millbrook (company car day) and managed to knock 16 miles off the range in just 4 miles. I don't know what the top speed of that version was (sub 100mph I suspect) but I was probably close to it

Speed does affect the range quite badly, yes. Just the same as a petrol car, it will take more power to cruise at 70 than 60, (possibly because of more drag from air and tyres) so uses more "fuel". The Leaf (mk1) had a top speed of about 85 I think, but more to the point is that at maximum speed it's using maximum power (80kw) so will deplete a 24 Kwh battery in about 20 minutes (25 miles).

[heebeegeetee]

Unreal said:

Pan Pan Pan said:

One of the reasons tailgaters exist, is because some cannot drive at the posted limits, and they unnecessarily hold up others who legally want to travel at the posted limits.
The main reason for using any vehicle from a skateboard to an SST, is to get from one place, to another quicker than is possible by walking. Otherwise there would be no point in inventing, building, having, and using motorized vehicles.
If the person in front, is doing the posted limit, then they are doing all that can be expected from them, and they should not be tailgated into going faster (Getting done for exceeding a posted limit, if that is what a driver wanted to do, is one thing, but getting done for exceeding a posted limit, because the person behind tailgated you into exceeding the limit is as about as daft as it gets).
If a person is not able to cope with driving at the posted limits, they should perhaps consider whether they are suited to driving any motorized vehicle on public roads at all. Certainly they would fail a driving test, if they did this during the test, which technically means they are fit to be allowed on public roads.
The sad thing is that if everyone stuck to the limits, (Low though they are) good cross country progress can still be made.
The reason some feel the need to speed, is to compensate timewise, for the negative effects on journey times, caused by the dawdlers they meet on the roads

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Monday 25th March 15:08

I can't say I've noticed a correlation between tailgaters and people driving below the limit.

Tailgating is endemic at almost any speed.

Agreed. There isn't one sensible, logical reason for tailgating, it's only carried out by the inept, undoubtedly every bit as inept as people who drive well below the limit. One of the chief reason so many are incompetent at overtaking is that they are too close to the vehicle in front which means they can't see clearly enough to overtake.

I was disappointed in the tailgating on a recent trip to Germany, and the amount of phone use. On the autobahns the tailgating at speed was ridiculous, the tailgating in the rain was ridiculous and the tailgating at speed in the rain and heavy spray was ridiculous, and yes the autobahns frequently came to a halt.

[Yahonza]

Using the A720 as an example. It isn't a drivers road (if you want that get onto the A701) but a busy trunk road with lots of farm traffic, commercial traffic, locals, the occasional racer and everyone else. Plus 20mph speed limit villages, speed traps, etc. So I just go with the flow and if the flow is 40mph then so be it - unless there is a decent opportunity to overtake. If anything, fast traffic is very much the exception - with a Seat estate trying to break the land speed record the last time I was on it (plus their neck). When everyone is doing 55/60 mph then I'm not going to overtake them. Tailgating is just stupid but we probably all do it sometimes...

[bigothunter]

M4cruiser said:

Speed does affect the range quite badly, yes. Just the same as a petrol car, it will take more power to cruise at 70 than 60, (possibly because of more drag from air and tyres) so uses more "fuel". The Leaf (mk1) had a top speed of about 85 I think, but more to the point is that at maximum speed it's using maximum power (80kw) so will deplete a 24 Kwh battery in about 20 minutes (25 miles).

Your power figures are way out. A Leaf needs around 30kW to maintain 85mph.