Speeding: big or clever?

[c00ky83]

I get fed up of people overtaking me when I'm doing (roughly) the limit.  Are they big or clever?

[jridgeback]

Why do you care if people overtake you - as long as they are not cutting you up or driving dangerously I do not see what the problem is. 70mph is just too slow on motorways - you can safely travel at 90mph. What I do get fed up with is people whop sit in the middle lane, despite the fact they are going slowly - just becouse they refuse to go in the inside lane.

[brassmonkey]

Of course they are big and clever,  they'll get to their destination quicker while you are still wasting your life driving your car.  Fast drivers have more fulfilling lives - FACT.

Have you considered that you might be too old for driving? ;o)

[twiglet4frog]

agree with j ridge, although ILLEGAL and therefore wrong to do it, driving at approx 80 or 85mph is safe enough provided it isnt reckless, There are more crashes in city centres at a 30Mph limit than there are on Motorways, the only difference is that motorway speeds can more often kill when one occurs than at 30mph where it is a reduced risk.

I am a little lost about this middle lane thing a lot of people go on about, i dont see any problem people being in the middle lane being awkward cos there is an outside lane to overtake them so do that, or do what i do and stay in the right hand fast lane overtaking all the slower cars and only pull into the middle when someone faster or more dangerous is behind u to allow them on.

What hacks me off more is when u are on a dual carriageway and there is a lorry slipstreaming another lorry (therefore, with the air from the front lorry pushing the air out of the way for the second one gives the second lorry a 5-10mph speed advantage) then pulls out to overtake causing everyone doing 70+ mph to be forced to about 55 - 65mph while he tries to overtake but realises that without the slipstream effect any longer he has suddenly lost about 5mph and then struggles to overtake once alongside and this proceeds with the two lorries side by side slowing everyone down and causing frustration for anything from half a mile to 3 miles!!!

[sddsddean]

They should only be doing 90kph (56mph) twiglet. All trucks over 7.5T have a speed limiter fitted (unless of course someone has disabled it!). The problem is, as these are set by loads of different workshops, they can be slightly different, so you creep up on the truck in front (slipstreaming at 44tonne is negligble). This is obviously more apparent on uphills if one truck is loaded and the other empty. Personally, if I am being 'slowly' overtaken like this, I knock off the cruise control and drop my speed by about 3 or 4mph, which usually lets the other truck pass in about 20 secs. Unfortunately, not many people do this.

[Skids]

They are both big and clever.
Middle lane hoggers are the biggest thorn in any motorway driver's side. Its not so bad on a quiet motorway where you can over take as and when you feel like it. They become a hazard when there is lots of faster moving traffic all trying to overtake in the outside lane when they should be able to over take in both the middle and outside lanes.

[Impret-Sir]

What a relief! I felt sure this question would trigger another wave of "speeding is evil and speeders should be publicly flogged" type answers, as so often occurs on this site. Full marks for having a sense of humour people! Now, inside lane hoggers........dont get me started!!, lol!

[crgb14]

Lets all face it, if you're doing 60/70/80/ dare i say 90 mph and you crash then basically you're a gonner.

Who here has survived a motorway crash??? yep, just as i suspected.

And just because its illegal doesn't make it wrong. Speeding is a choice that most people make and there's nothing more annoying than those who choose to trundle along. We're all too busy these days to be satisfied with the limit anyway.

[jake-the-peg]

Quite a lot of people survive motorway crashes. My sister for one, somebody had a front tire blow out swerved in front of her she was doing about 70 at the time. She was fine but the car was a mess.

That's the point about speeding - You may be able to control a car doing 80 or 90 or dare I say 100 - can you control it if something goes wrong? A puncture, road debris an accident in front of you.

If you can't how many people will you take with you when you crash? 

[crgb14]

Yeah but I would also say that more often than not, it isn't the driver's fault.

Your sister,for instance,was part of an unfortunate incident but it wasn't her fault.

Imagine, you're there tootling down the M6 at 90 then next thing you know some idiot decides its a good idea to pull into the fast lane then whollop. You've just overtaken them yet your car is still trailing 100 yards behind. Blood and guts all over the place. Now whose fault is that - yours because you're speeding or the other driver because they can't just distances?

[c00ky83]

OK then - I guess they are big and clever...  For the record, I'm early 20s and been driving 4 years so I hope I'm not too old, brassmonkey!  That said, at my age I can't afford any points - if I got 3, then I'd only be 3 from a ban so then it'd be limit all the way and that'd be no fun.  I agree with the motorway points, but still see no reason why someone should fly past at 50 in a 30 zone.

[jake-the-peg]

Fault doesn't come into it when blood and guts are involved.

So you're doing 90 and you don't survive the idiot, you're doing 70 and maybe you do.

Want to be dead or right?

[ccollins108]

Full marks to BrassMonkey, amongst others. Don't worry about collecting speeding tickets, I can tell you how to get out of those (as long as its a rear-facing camera you've been snapped by), just drive a bit faster.... I drive home along A-roads with very limited opportunity to overtake. The roads easily merit 50mph most or all of the way, and I hate being stuck behind someone who insists on driving at around 40 (the limit is either 40 or 60 all the way home), while I'm wasting my life and tearing my fingernails out one by painful one.... so don't be a righteous idiot who takes pleasure in holding people up, just because you're driving at the limit....