Do you overtake in 40mph zones?

[nonsequitur]

Ron99 said:

Maybe they don't want to overtake.
Not everyone wants to travel at the speed limit all the time.
Not everyone on a particular road will be locals familiar with its layout.
Not everyone has the same opinion as to what speed is appropriate for a particular road - and there are vast differences in driver skill and vehicle capability.
Not everyone wants to thrash it out of corners only to stomp on the brakes for every sharp bend at half-mile intervals.
And no matter how fast someone drives there will nearly always be plenty of people who will want to overtake, so how do I know the speed I need to accelerate up to, in order to ensure I'm travelling fast enough to please you?

Edited by Ron99 on Thursday 16th August 11:12

All good points and relevant. But you won't convince the default speeders / overtakers at all cost on this thread, or website.

[Robvw]

Rich Boy Spanner said:

I'll overtake anywhere if it is safe and legal and other vehicles are very slow. The problem with 40 zones is that with the usual tools who accelerate as you go past you can end up at interesting speeds and there is a reasonable chance there will be speed cameras.
I'm beginning to think the UK population is having a mental breakdown, or a significant proportion of those driving are either on drugs, prescription or otherwise, or drunk.

hahahha so true

[Ron99]

captain_cynic said:

The last one is quite interesting. if a car is not capable of doing the speed limit safely, it is not safe to be used on the road.

The other excuses are rare. Most people are travelling slowly out of selfishness or ignorance and I'm using a subjective measure, that subjective measure is the number on white signs with a red circle around them.



If you'e doing 30 when this sign is displayed without a very good reason, you should be charged.

I don't expect others to break the speed limit, but I do expect them to do it, not whatever speed they feel like doing.

The safety benefit with speed limits are that are meant to get everyone doing approximately the same speed because that is when the fewest collisions occur. Going slower because you want to actually increases the chances of being involved in a collision and increases them more than going faster (see; the Solomon Curve). People choosing to go slower are actually making our roads more dangerous.

However the chances of the 30/40 everywhere crowd realising they're all bad drivers for doing 30/40 everywhere are the same as my chance of dating Eiza Gonzales.

We are regularly reminded, including on official electronic roadside information boards, that limits are not targets.

Also many stretches of road have had their limit reduced from, say, NSL to 50 or even 40 and more roads are likely to get speed reductions as time passes.

Those two points imply a government wanting to slow us all down, not one wanting us to make limits our targets.

But I agree with you that driving too slowly can be at least as dangerous as driving too fast, largely due to the angry mob that builds up behind who get desperate to pass and start attempting unsafe overtakes.