Super Slow Drivers - The Worst Drivers?

[matt_mr2t]

I've noticed, almost every single time I'm out for the last few months, that the roads are full of people who drive pathetically slower than the speed limit.

I'm not saying every one should speed and break the limit, I'll patiently sit behind (with a safe gap) any one driving within a couple of MPH of the speed limit.

But why is it so many people think it's perfectly ok to do 32-35mph in a 50 or NSL single lane B road? With no one in front of them, no way of overtaking and absolutely no reason on earth to be going so slowly?

I don't believe in tailgating but I swear, if this keeps happening I am going to sit on their arses until they speed the hell up.

I guess it's a draw back of not owning a car thats fast enough to pass people easily that I'm now suffering by being constantly stuck behind slow people

Sorry, needed to rant, but feel free to share experiences. Speed alone isnt always enough to overtake safely.

[ryan]

I've noticed, almost every single time I'm out for the last few months, that the roads are full of people who drive pathetically slower than the speed limit.

I'm not saying every one should speed and break the limit, I'll patiently sit behind (with a safe gap) any one driving within a couple of MPH of the speed limit.

But why is it so many people think it's perfectly ok to do 32-35mph in a 50 or NSL single lane B road? With no one in front of them, no way of overtaking and absolutely no reason on earth to be going so slowly?

I don't believe in tailgating but I swear, if this keeps happening I am going to sit on their arses until they speed the hell up.

I guess it's a draw back of not owning a car thats fast enough to pass people easily that I'm now suffering by being constantly stuck behind slow people

Sorry, needed to rant, but feel free to share experiences. Speed alone isnt always enough to overtake safely.

Its usually as Kia/Daewoo/Cheverolet/Hyundai or any other piece of Korean rubbish driven buy an old person.

I dont like to stereotype you see

[blue2]

I've noticed, almost every single time I'm out for the last few months, that the roads are full of people who drive pathetically slower than the speed limit.

I'm not saying every one should speed and break the limit, I'll patiently sit behind (with a safe gap) any one driving within a couple of MPH of the speed limit.

But why is it so many people think it's perfectly ok to do 32-35mph in a 50 or NSL single lane B road? With no one in front of them, no way of overtaking and absolutely no reason on earth to be going so slowly?

I don't believe in tailgating but I swear, if this keeps happening I am going to sit on their arses until they speed the hell up.

I guess it's a draw back of not owning a car thats fast enough to pass people easily that I'm now suffering by being constantly stuck behind slow people

Sorry, needed to rant, but feel free to share experiences. Speed alone isnt always enough to overtake safely.

Its usually as Kia/Daewoo/Cheverolet/Hyundai or any other piece of Korean rubbish driven buy an old person.

I dont like to stereotype you see

LOL Spot on!!

[GBTurbo]

Went for a spin on the a32 yesterday, soon as I get on it I get stuck behind some fools doing about 35-40mph. It was a sunny day with good visibility, no excuse not to be doing at least 50ish, needless to say I used some boost pretty quickly

[matt_mr2t]

It's all different cars. Yesterday it was a 307cc. It was scorching hot and sunny yet he/she had the roof up and they were doing 32-35 all the way in this 50 zone. Some times on the a13, a dual and in places, triple carriageway people do 50 or less on the inside lane. Problem is, in order to get in in time for my exit i end up stuck behind them for ages. Worse though is the people who seem to think it's perfectly acceptable to crawl at 67mph in the OUTSIDE lane holding everyone up. I want a programmable LED that shows other drivers of my anger with them!

[Si_Crewe]

It's all different cars. Yesterday it was a 307cc. It was scorching hot and sunny yet he/she had the roof up and they were doing 32-35 all the way in this 50 zone.

I recall Jeremy Clarkson once saying that people should only be able to apply for driving licenses between the ages of, say, 17 and 21.
If you haven't got a driving license by then you're obviously not interested in driving and, as a result, you shouldn't be allowed the privilige of driving on the roads.

People who drive convertibles with the roof up on sunny days are another sign of the same thing IMO.
I know it's a bit harsh and judgemental but, genuinely, I reckon that owning a convertible and then not bothering to use it demonstrates the same lack of involvement with the whole act of driving.

With that in mind, it shouldn't be a surprise that people who aren't really interested in driving don't actually do it very well.

[JohnnyC]

With that in mind, it shouldn't be a surprise that people who aren't really interested in driving don't actually do it very well.

That is completely true.


Not sure I agree with your age range though, I was 25 when I started.

But that was purely down to finances.
When I was around 22 I got a lift to the bus stop from my Porsche driving boss. He suggested I should take driving lessons and get a car - I was, at the time, earning £5200 gross per year - I had to bite my lip

[Si_Crewe]

Not sure I agree with your age range though, I was 25 when I started.

Uhuh,

It's more the sentiment that I agree with rather than the actual proposal.

As a litmus test, I bet if somebody invented a teleporter, 75% of road users would probably use that to beam their kids to school or beam themselves to Asda or whatever.

Those are people who have little or no interest in the actual activity of driving a vehicle and those are the people we're talking about.

[matt_mr2t]

I dont drive because I want to, I just enjoy driving whe I need to. That was the case when had nicer cars than I have now too. Although you could put that down to the price of bloody petrol more than anything

Driving is an essential part of life. Some peoplemay get by perfectly OK with no need to drive for half their life, then something could change requiring them to drive.

So I have to disagree and say that driving is not and never really has been an activity for recreational purposes and thus it's a little ignorant to think people who dont enjoy the act shouldnt really be driving at all.

But that doesn't mean they have an excuse for driving like "special" people.

It's almost impossible to enforce min speed limits unfortunately, but I do think people who are scared of motorways or faster roads should be encouraged not to use them. You know fully well that some one who crawls along at 35mph all the way through a 50 mph zone will 100% carry that same speed once the road changes to 30mph. So they go from 15mph below to 5mph above the speed limit!

[excalibur1814]

People who drive convertibles with the roof up on sunny days are another sign of the same thing IMO.
I know it's a bit harsh and judgemental but, genuinely, I reckon that owning a convertible and then not bothering to use it demonstrates the same lack of involvement with the whole act of driving.

I own a Mk3 and love driving it, but on my way to the shops to grab some bread, I'm hardly likely to put the roof down and then back up for a ten minute drive. Long drives I will, quick drives... pointless.

In an ideal world I could leave the hood down all the time but a: Someone would steal something, B: a pigeon with bum problems would poo all over the car

[tonigmr2]

Actually I get more annoyed with the '40 in everything' brigade. You're in a NSL, 40. You get to a village where it's a 30. They still go 40. They are the people that need their driving licence revoked - absolutely no consideration of the outside conditions at all.

[matt_mr2t]

Actually I get more annoyed with the '40 in everything' brigade. You're in a NSL, 40. You get to a village where it's a 30. They still go 40. They are the people that need their driving licence revoked - absolutely no consideration of the outside conditions at all.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they NEVER EVER brake a roundabouts. They just Plod up to it below the speed limt, drive straight onto it then come off above the subsequent speed limit

[Si_Crewe]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they NEVER EVER brake a roundabouts. They just Plod up to it below the speed limt, drive straight onto it then come off above the subsequent speed limit

If I ever saw somebody do that around here I'd give them a f**king medal.

Around here the roads seem to be full of people who trundle up to roundabouts, brake, stop, put the handbrake on, look right, look left, look right again, check their mirror and then release the handbrake and trundle on to the roundabout... all regardless of whether there's another car anywhere within 5 miles or not.

Seriously, what's up with applying a little situational awareness BEFORE arriving at the roundabout in order to decide whether it's neccesary to stop or not?


I agree with Tonigmr2 about the speed some people drive at though.
I've been stuck behind some old duffer on a country road doing 40mph, unable to overtake and then, when we pass through a village, he carries right on going at 40-odd mph whereas I feel compelled to slow down to a more sensible speed and, thus, I fall behind the old duffer until we leave the village.

There's one stretch of road where this is particularly annoying because the only potential overtaking places are straight bits of road either side of the villages.

I imagine the old duffer is sat in his Honda, looking in his mirror and thinking "Why's that guy keep on speeding up and then slowing down again?"

[RyanRs]

matt, i feel your pain entirely! I drive artic lorries for a living on nights and people that drive well below the speed limit make my job bloody dangerous!

for instance, i was travelling at 56mph and weighing 43tonne, approaching a car on a two lane motorway, its pitch black and even tho i could tell i was moving faster than this car infront, i couldnt tell how much by, anyway when i got about 2 lorrys length behind it i realised that the car was only going about 40mph! so i threw on the right indicator with intent to move out asap, but just as i did, a car behind me that had been doing around 75-80mph had caught up and pulled out to overtake me at the same time!! this left me nowhere to go but the hard shoulder, else i would have litterally been stuck in the car infront! im so lucky there was a hard shoulder there and im also lucky i didnt shift the load ,poss causing the truck to tip over!

i get stuck behind idiots that drive too slow all the time and i think they are just as dangerous as thoes who speed. There should be a minimum speed limit for cars and it should be atleast 5mph faster than whatever the lorry speed limit is on that given road. If the car driver is not confident at 70 then DONT GO ON NATIONAL SPEED LIMIT ROADS!

whenever you see a truck that cannot do more than 45-50, ie a crane or heavy load, there plastered up in hazard lights!!

[toxo]

Actually I get more annoyed with the '40 in everything' brigade. You're in a NSL, 40. You get to a village where it's a 30. They still go 40. They are the people that need their driving licence revoked - absolutely no consideration of the outside conditions at all.

This. You just described my Grandad to a 'T' and the whole family is trying to convince him to stop driving...

Yesterdays offender was a Kia on a lovely bit of the A422 doing 35MPH. I had my window open and I think they might have actually heard me shouting "SURELY YOU JEST!" after about 5 minutes they slowed down to 30!

[matt_mr2t]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they NEVER EVER brake a roundabouts. They just Plod up to it below the speed limt, drive straight onto it then come off above the subsequent speed limit

If I ever saw somebody do that around here I'd give them a f**king medal.

Around here the roads seem to be full of people who trundle up to roundabouts, brake, stop, put the handbrake on, look right, look left, look right again, check their mirror and then release the handbrake and trundle on to the roundabout... all regardless of whether there's another car anywhere within 5 miles or not.

Seriously, what's up with applying a little situational awareness BEFORE arriving at the roundabout in order to decide whether it's neccesary to stop or not?


I agree with Tonigmr2 about the speed some people drive at though.
I've been stuck behind some old duffer on a country road doing 40mph, unable to overtake and then, when we pass through a village, he carries right on going at 40-odd mph whereas I feel compelled to slow down to a more sensible speed and, thus, I fall behind the old duffer until we leave the village.

There's one stretch of road where this is particularly annoying because the only potential overtaking places are straight bits of road either side of the villages.

I imagine the old duffer is sat in his Honda, looking in his mirror and thinking "Why's that guy keep on speeding up and then slowing down again?"

This is the opposite, they pull straight onto round abouts when there is oncoming traffic making them brake when it's their right of way.

I've had them pull out on me, my cars a xxxx heap, so I just carry on driving straight at them to scare them. If I hit them it'll be their fault.

[RyanRs]

i filmed a woman doing from my cab window doing 35 on a 60 road with her MIRRORS FOLDED IN! i might put it on youtube.

i tell ye, when you have 450miles to drive every night, it sure gets tempting to ram these people off the road!

[matt_mr2t]

i filmed a woman doing from my cab window doing 35 on a 60 road with her MIRRORS FOLDED IN! i might put it on youtube.

i tell ye, when you have 450miles to drive every night, it sure gets tempting to ram these people off the road!

I do on average, 4k miles a year. If I drove as regularly as you do I would either kill lots of people, or myself, or both.

I saw a bit in the paper recently about a book on driving etiquete thats available. One of the tips was not to get angry by bad driving and confrontational. But instead to pull over, relax, take deep breaths and count to 10.

Err, how about you advise people to drive better than no one is likely to get so angry in the first place

As for your experience, I would have been temted to just hit one of the cars. IMO, you have to give lorry drivers maximum respect and room at all times. You also need to look a few steps ahead. I would have seen you catching the car in front up and guessed you may pull out. I also try not to over take lorries unless there's plenty of space, and ideally an empty lane between us. I appreciate it's hard for you guys to see cars at ground level at the height you are sitting.

[jimGTS]

have the same, whenever i go visit the parents, who live in a village, has a nice clear open stretch of B road for a mile before the village, open, no blind corners, nothing.

yet many drive at 30-35, maybe even 40, which is still to slow.
yet they get into the village and MAINTAIN that 35-40mph! if anything they speed up in the village where its 30!

amazing!

[matt_mr2t]

I'm sure it's country road fear mentality. The moment they go on a country road they go into slow/safe mode.

The road in question, which now gets me stuck behind a slow person every single time, has a combination of 50mph signs scattered freely for the entire length of the road, with SLOW signs on the ground.

I can assure you, even the least capable cars can maintain a comfortable 50mph the entire length without ever needing to brake.

Yet every single time I use it, and it's the main road out of my town so I use it every time I drive pretty much, some idiot is doing 32-35mph and STILL they brake at every kink in the road.

I caught a repeat of Top Gear at the weekend, with that Sabine Schmidt trying to coax a 10m lap of the ring out of Clarkson in the Jag diesel. She summed it up beautifully. "That's not a bend, why are you braking"