Fear of acceleration
Discussion
After driving during the day this week (I usually work nights) Iv noticed this a lot more. I drive hgv’s, pretty much the slowest accelerating vehicle on the motorways and yet I find I’m out accelerating many people.
The good old Birmingham toll today, it took my part loaded wagon roughly 40 seconds to reach it’s dizzying top speed of 53mph leaving the toll booths. But I was zapping past people who must be barely resting their foot on the loud pedal, I mean glacial speed gain. And I’m not flooring it just use the ‘resume’ and let the wagon gain its speed.
And they carried on getting smaller and smaller in the mirrors so they must be taking literally minutes to get back up to speed.
Same on slip roads, I hit the resume and find I’m having to cancel it and get on the brakes as people crawl down the slip and try to join at 30mph, hard enough in a car never mind a wagon.
Do people not realise how much quicker their car will accelerate? Trying to save fuel? Been taught to get into top gear by 5mph? Just in a day dream?
People can drive however they like rarely does it effect me, I don’t expect them to be doing full bore launches at every set off, but when I’m in my car I want to be gone and up to speed as quickly and comfortably as possible.
The good old Birmingham toll today, it took my part loaded wagon roughly 40 seconds to reach it’s dizzying top speed of 53mph leaving the toll booths. But I was zapping past people who must be barely resting their foot on the loud pedal, I mean glacial speed gain. And I’m not flooring it just use the ‘resume’ and let the wagon gain its speed.
And they carried on getting smaller and smaller in the mirrors so they must be taking literally minutes to get back up to speed.
Same on slip roads, I hit the resume and find I’m having to cancel it and get on the brakes as people crawl down the slip and try to join at 30mph, hard enough in a car never mind a wagon.
Do people not realise how much quicker their car will accelerate? Trying to save fuel? Been taught to get into top gear by 5mph? Just in a day dream?
People can drive however they like rarely does it effect me, I don’t expect them to be doing full bore launches at every set off, but when I’m in my car I want to be gone and up to speed as quickly and comfortably as possible.
ts.David87 said:
I think it’s people trying to save fuel now it’s so damn expensive. I drove 100 miles on the motorway the other day - with Autopilot set to 75mph I was only overtaken a handful of times. Folk are definitely going slower.
Depends where you are. On the A9 from Perth to Inverness the dual carriageway sections there was camper vans doing 80-90 to get past the other campers and caravans. Never seen the speeds so high by non cars on that section of road. Cars were still doing the usual 80-90 as you are desperate to get passed and not be stuck at 45 mph in a 60 once it goes back to single lanes.My guess is everyone wanted to get away for the weekend as the road was just mental busy. Lines backed out of petrol stations of campers and caravans all weekend.
I too have noticed a lowering of general driving speeds. A lot of my commute is NSL and the number of people pootling along at 50mph is on the rise. Cue the inevitable tailbacks caused by lorries overtaking slow moving traffic.
It's even worse when trying to join fast moving traffic from a slip road. In what world it is acceptable to join an NSL road at 30mph with closing speeds of 40mph+, I don't know.
As TX says, though, it does provide plenty of opportunity to blast past which is fun.
It's even worse when trying to join fast moving traffic from a slip road. In what world it is acceptable to join an NSL road at 30mph with closing speeds of 40mph+, I don't know.
As TX says, though, it does provide plenty of opportunity to blast past which is fun.
I've noticed people travelling slower generally too.
I've worked in broadly the same place for the last 15 years, so my commute has been the same.
Not that many years ago, the average speed on the dual carriage was about 80 I'd estimate. Today, travelling at that speed would see you pass all but maybe 1 car in a 30minute journey.
I've worked in broadly the same place for the last 15 years, so my commute has been the same.
Not that many years ago, the average speed on the dual carriage was about 80 I'd estimate. Today, travelling at that speed would see you pass all but maybe 1 car in a 30minute journey.
Most commercial drivers are burning someone else's fuel and drive like it's not going to affect their personal finances in any way. Post-COVID working from home is a luxury mostly afforded to those of us lucky enough to have a so-called "white collar" job. Poorer people in lower paid jobs mostly all got ordered back on site or practically need to be somewhere like a factory or a hospital to perform their job, and they have no choice but to commute. Stratospheric fuel prices affect the poorest hardest, so speaking purely for myself I'm finding it much easier to have sympathy and patience with people driving slower nowadays than perhaps I did 3 years ago before I really thought too hard about the positions some people are trapped in.
People have always drove like sloths.
Ive daily driven a diesel citroen cactus for the past few years and rarely get beaten off the line/down a slip road by anything. It's not even like I'm launching it either - most people just either aren't paying attention to the lights changing or are scared to poke the throttle past 10%.
I only ever break the speed limit on motorways but find myself as the fastest on the road down a NSL A or B road but going through a built up area at 30mph I'll get dangerously overtaken. Go figure.
Ive daily driven a diesel citroen cactus for the past few years and rarely get beaten off the line/down a slip road by anything. It's not even like I'm launching it either - most people just either aren't paying attention to the lights changing or are scared to poke the throttle past 10%.
I only ever break the speed limit on motorways but find myself as the fastest on the road down a NSL A or B road but going through a built up area at 30mph I'll get dangerously overtaken. Go figure.
It's definitely a thing.
I would appreciate if these people would just get out of the way, though. Be as slow as you want, but let faster drivers pass.
I find this often with the Tyne Tunnel. Northbound there's a 30 limit, and two lanes. I'm absolutely fine about sticking to the tunnel limit. It's old, it has curves and narrow lanes.
The speed limit comes up to 50 soon after the tunnel exit, and people have absolutely no desire to accelerate up to the limit, but will sit in L2 for miles doing 35-40mph.
I would appreciate if these people would just get out of the way, though. Be as slow as you want, but let faster drivers pass.
I find this often with the Tyne Tunnel. Northbound there's a 30 limit, and two lanes. I'm absolutely fine about sticking to the tunnel limit. It's old, it has curves and narrow lanes.
The speed limit comes up to 50 soon after the tunnel exit, and people have absolutely no desire to accelerate up to the limit, but will sit in L2 for miles doing 35-40mph.
I think I’m one of those people you’re talking about.
I used to drive Transits, Ducato’s etc and had to pay for my own fuel so economy was always on my mind. I’d quite happily shortshift from a standstill and that has migrated over to my cars as well.
If I’m potentially holding up following traffic then I’ll get a move on but for example coming off a roundabout onto a dual carriageway I’m quite happy to let someone blast past me in a car or van.
What I wouldn’t do is hold up an HGV and force him to struggle past me only for me to pass him 2 minutes later.
Glenn63 said:
The good old Birmingham toll today, it took my part loaded wagon roughly 40 seconds to reach it’s dizzying top speed of 53mph leaving the toll booths. But I was zapping past people who must be barely resting their foot on the loud pedal, I mean glacial speed gain. And I’m not flooring it just use the ‘resume’ and let the wagon gain its speed.
And they carried on getting smaller and smaller in the mirrors so they must be taking literally minutes to get back up to speed.
I have also noticed people driving slower.
On a recent run down the M5 from Birmingham to Taunton, with the cruise set at 75 I overtook noticeably more times than I was overtaken. Not so long ago, you would have been one of the slowest on the road at that speed.
I was driving 10-15 mph slower than I used to, solely because I wanted to save fuel. I assume most others were doing the same.
The days of the mass 85+ mph lane 3 cruise are no longer with us, it seems.
On a recent run down the M5 from Birmingham to Taunton, with the cruise set at 75 I overtook noticeably more times than I was overtaken. Not so long ago, you would have been one of the slowest on the road at that speed.
I was driving 10-15 mph slower than I used to, solely because I wanted to save fuel. I assume most others were doing the same.
The days of the mass 85+ mph lane 3 cruise are no longer with us, it seems.
I’ve noticed that in the last couple of Renaults my wife has had the ‘Eco’ button just seems to massively cut throttle input. Turning it off while accelerating feels like you’ve changed down a gear.
I guess the move to tiny engines and long gears/final drives in the name of efficiency doesn’t help either.
I guess the move to tiny engines and long gears/final drives in the name of efficiency doesn’t help either.
Slow said:
Depends where you are. On the A9 from Perth to Inverness the dual carriageway sections there was camper vans doing 80-90 to get past the other campers and caravans. Never seen the speeds so high by non cars on that section of road. Cars were still doing the usual 80-90 as you are desperate to get passed and not be stuck at 45 mph in a 60 once it goes back to single lanes.
My guess is everyone wanted to get away for the weekend as the road was just mental busy. Lines backed out of petrol stations of campers and caravans all weekend.
Typical A9!My guess is everyone wanted to get away for the weekend as the road was just mental busy. Lines backed out of petrol stations of campers and caravans all weekend.
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