Road Speed Limits

[Kirk]

Was going to say that around my area they seem pretty good, then realised FB is around my area.
Last night on the M11 round Cambridge I was doing a steady 60-65, and no-one was racing off into the distance, I actually slowed down from the speed when on the slip road.

The A505 is much the same and owing to the traffic on the A14 you would be lucky to do 50 never mind 70.

When going down the A1 I find that if I am at 70 no-one is really waiting for me to get out of the way, usually I can be at 65 and doing much the same speed as the majority. The A10 either side of Cambridge the same.

Not sure of the A14 North of Cambridge, they may run faster up there, really never on it.

Will find that at 65mph heading to Cambridge and into it via the A505+M11+A1303 I still overtake a few, and I am happy to stick the cruise control on at 60-65.

People used to race along the A120 but when fuel went up the speed dropped, usually on the A120 there are not that many doing 70 plus these days. When fuel went up the heavy footed found how to be light footed.

Will say that a cruise control and a display giving your present rate use of fuel in mpg doesn't half make you drive better. Seeing 50-55mpg is nice, seeing 26mpg makes you adjust.

[Potstubsdustbins]

How to make a better driver.

My son does most of the driving in the company van and it has to be said was not the most patient of drivers until the middle of last year.

At that time I bought a brand new van, the last one having given up the ghost after 10 years of hard graft.

On the first run out I happen to ask how he liked the new all singing all dancing van. "Great" was his reply. "So the good news is you like the new truck" I said "Do you want the bad news?" "What's that?" he asked "The next time you need a new truck, you'll be .................buying it!!"

It now gets a full inside outside valet every month, the speed limits are observed, we no longer bump up kerbs 'alloy wheels' don't you know, and definitely no tail gating. In fact its now a pleasure to ride with him. Funny how a threat to your personal finances can affect you attitude.

Potty

[Veggielot]

The simple fact is that they know they probably get caught. They were talking about making the roads round my house all 20 mph. They were asked what they were going to do to enforce it and they admitted they were going to do nothing. There reasons was that enough people will stick to the limit to slow everyone else down.

[Bill HH]

In Russia it seems nearly every car has an onboard dash cam, the product of which are on thousands of you tube clips, after viewing a few of these one comes to the conclusion the our driving habits are bordering on saintly. They drive at amazing speeds in risky situations, many of them are drunk, traffic lights are ignored and after crashes many of them dont even stop.

[Mikey]

Even before I did our company's defensive driving course (the NHS does some strange things!) I was aware of the 2 second rule (only a fool breaks the two second rule) and was most interested to hear the instructor suggest double that in wet conditions PLUS he suggested you should always drive "on the brakes of the guy behind" i.e. the closer they get the bigger the gap to the vehicle in front is what you should leave. Gives a whole new meaning to the old bumper sticker "the closer you get the slower I go".

The whole point is to avoid being in someone else's accident.

I always leave a decent gap to the vehicle in front, but not to reduce accidents. Being too close to the car in front makes mine dirty, so I like a decent gap.

[Alison]

I always leave a decent gap to the vehicle in front, but not to reduce accidents. Being too close to the car in front makes mine dirty, so I like a decent gap.

Although I always find that if you leave a sensible gap then before you know it then there'll be at least two idiots squeezed into that space


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[Patchninja]

In this part of France, there are now so many speed cameras that people drive a lot more carefully and they have reduced deaths on the roads a lot. Between here and where my son lives in Rennes - about 100 kms, you could easily lose your license if you weren't careful with the speed limits.
I also agree about leaving a good distance from the car in front but also agree that there's usually a twit that will fill it!

[Mikey]

It all depends where I find, if you are on the motorway and near junctions then people will try and squeeze into the tiniest of gaps, I'm more aware here and tend to leave a bigger gap to stop them attempting to cut me up.

On A roads, I use my mirrors a lot more, if I have a tailgater then I will generally indicate to let them past if there is an opportunity to do so and ease off the accelerator to give them the opportunity to get away.

Crazily my father taught me to drive and had some very unusual techniques. He used to read a broadsheet alongside me, teach me to eat and drink while driving and at roundabouts always ask me to leave by the right not the left, so that I had to think when approaching. Had mobiles been around at the time I'm sure he would have asked me to send a text or make a call!!!

While his tactics might seem shocking, most accidents in young drivers happen for two reasons, speed and a lack of concentration. I think he was trying to train the latter out of me....

[FB.]

Was going to say that around my area they seem pretty good, then realised FB is around my area.
Last night on the M11 round Cambridge I was doing a steady 60-65, and no-one was racing off into the distance, I actually slowed down from the speed when on the slip road.

The A505 is much the same and owing to the traffic on the A14 you would be lucky to do 50 never mind 70.

When going down the A1 I find that if I am at 70 no-one is really waiting for me to get out of the way, usually I can be at 65 and doing much the same speed as the majority. The A10 either side of Cambridge the same.

Not sure of the A14 North of Cambridge, they may run faster up there, really never on it.

Will find that at 65mph heading to Cambridge and into it via the A505+M11+A1303 I still overtake a few, and I am happy to stick the cruise control on at 60-65.

People used to race along the A120 but when fuel went up the speed dropped, usually on the A120 there are not that many doing 70 plus these days. When fuel went up the heavy footed found how to be light footed.

Will say that a cruise control and a display giving your present rate use of fuel in mpg doesn't half make you drive better. Seeing 50-55mpg is nice, seeing 26mpg makes you adjust.

We travel outside of the busy times whenever we can.

[FB.]

Although I always find that if you leave a sensible gap then before you know it then there'll be at least two idiots squeezed into that space

That's the other problem; if you drive with a safe stopping distance you get cut up.
But if you don't drive with a safe stopping distance it might not be long before losing your no claims bonus or worse!

[mrswadders]

just to add to this thread, I was witness to what can only be called a complete act of idiocy this morning. I had to drive through a flood this morning, imagine long queue of cars gently working their way through the water, I then get to go through, I drive a honda CRV - so a big,tall car, taking it nice and steady then lo and behold ''nutter'' in a ford focus coming the other way hit the flood at such a speed a great wave of water went right over the top of my car, b****y idiot, shame his engine didn't cut out slap bang in the middle! Why do numpties think they can drive through floods at 90mph

[FB.]

Another thing that's been noticeably increasing in recent years is the number of cars driving towards me with their driver's side wheels unnecessarily slightly over the middle line, causing me to have to move tight in to the kerb to avoid losing wing mirrors!

Actually, a couple of years ago my wife was driving us in the New Forest and we did lose the driver's side wing mirror to a car who did that but didn't stop (although there was a loud "crunch" and the other car did stop briefly a short distance down the road before zooming off).

Tragically, a friend of mine was 39 weeks pregnant and had this happen on a rural road, except the collision was much faster and the offending car was much further across the middle line so it was effectively a head-on collision on the driver's side of both cars. She lost the baby.

[mrswadders]

oh that is just awful, how sad and so unessasary poor lady must have been beside herself. Some people are just ignorant p****s on the roads, I just wonder who taught some of them to drive

[FB.]

oh that is just awful, how sad and so unessasary poor lady must have been beside herself. Some people are just ignorant p****s on the roads, I just wonder who taught some of them to drive

They received a huge sum of compensation money; a substantial six-figure payout from the other driver's insurance company.
I don't know what happened to the other driver, apart from him being dragged through the courts for both the driving offence and compensation. However, I recall being told that the other driver was male, and early 20s - the usual suspect group for overconfidence.

Just after I left secondary school (about 25 years ago) someone who had been in my class and lived just a few doors away got his licence - then lost it to drink driving within a few months.

[Kleftiwallah]

Am I the only driver to attempt to use his indicators correctly? And I drive a white van. . . .Cheers, Tony.