Safe Speed Forums

So then guys, here is your friendly inexperienced driver again asking for advice and stuff from some of you more knowledgeable chaps.

So the motorway and dual carriageway, why is it that people seem to be allowed to ride at at excessive speed in the right hand lane? Why is it we have to put up with alpha individuals that hold there own on in the 'fast' lane? Do the police over look the speed limit if it doesn't say reach 80 mph? It just seems to be the code that you can go fast in the right hand land.

Been on the motorway a few times now and quite enjoy cruising along, moving lanes and stuff. Only got in the far right on the motorway once so far though, these so called powerful peeps just won't take any prisoners

What are you calling excessive speed?

ok, perhaps and over exaggeration, lets say 75-85 mph something like that. Basically a speed that comfortably passes myself at 70

That is about the flow in lane 3. I have to endure a specs enforced Dc to get out of town. Nightmare. In the Sprinter yesterday and you can't tell if anyone is in the blind spot because everyone is going at the same speed. At least if the right lane is going 5,10,15, 20 mph faster than the lane to the left, no body can lurk where they can be seen in the mirrors for more than a second or 2.

80-85 always seems quite an efficient speed to travel at on DC/motorways. The same rules apply about leaving enough space and watching the mirrors, but it is a good compromise between covering ground and being kept alert. The thought police will take a dim view mind, but the otherside of the channel it is the norm. So I am told.

Firstly -

No critism intended , remember how you feel - although on my first motorway session ,it was unusual for trucke to get out of L1 ,but in this day and age - perhaps a big green "P" sign in the rear and stick to L1/L2 ( actually we should IDEALLY all be in the most left lane possible) , till you gain experiance of the problems that occur at higher speeds ( and the inconsideration of the outside lane "owners club" members.)-things like having to look further ahead ,anticipate well in advance .Don't forget that you have a blind spot in the mirrors if a car is almost next to you in the outer(and inner) lane - so on overtake -mirror/signal( at least four ,more if possible flashes) ,mirror ,then over the right ( and I also do over the left if moving left--saved my bacon a few times ) shoulder ,then mover over at a mild angle .( the over shoulder is also usefull on DC) .

For the meantime ,try to gain experience at lower speeds ,in inner lanes - as you gain experience ,you will notice that at a set speed you will see more hazards ( things you missed earlier) -or you get the instimct that someone is about to do something silly without warning .( E.G -you're follOWing a car ( it's in L1) ,you're in L2,( for some reason or other ) and notice it's closing up on car in front of it ,also in L1 --time to start looking for escape route( as in is L3 free ) or slow down in advance - )

Good old saying in Latin ,applies equally well to gaining experience on the road -"FESTINA LENTI" .Also in english = learn to walk brefore running .
One other thing whilst playing about in L1/L2 - don't forget that HGV are limited to 56 , but also that given advance notice -they usually are very helpfull gents ,but they also respect you not getting in their way .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

When my speedo is reading 75MPH, I am, according to my satnav, only doing 70MPH or slightly less anyway. When you think that perople are passing you at 75ish, you may not be doing a true 70MPH and they may only be doing 70 ish themselves.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

It can be intimidating being in the outside lane and doing 70 - especially at busy times. I don't usually have a problem with the speed of the "alpha-beings", but I have noticed that they often tend to tailgate a slower driver - especially if THEY feel that the slower driver has been in the outside lane for too long after overtaking a car in Lane 2. What is it about the speed that bothers you? Is it the fact that you can't get out into Lane 3 because the stuff coming up behind is going too fast, or is it that they tailgate you, or is it just the difference in speed between you and them as they pass you when you're in Lane 2?

Hello everyone (botach no need for the welcome, you've given me some good advice before on few things I think, which I'm thankful for)

I'm a little dubious about the sat nav thing is is it proven that it reads a true speed?

Hey adam, yes I can see the point your making about the lurking, like you say at least if the traffic is moving faster the safer gaps open up quicker for you to move into if needed for example. I have a
40 DC to work and I have no need for lane 2 but never is anyone doing 40, as far as I know, but they certainly exceed my speed. but as graball has pointed out i may not be doing 40 myself.

But regards to speed Mole I'm not afraid, I'm quite confident now, I've been driving a year and bit now but it took me a while before I ventured out of my local 30 mile comfort zone and started to tackle what's out there on the big road, this is why I refer to myself a inexperienced driver. what does scare me about speed is getting caught over the limit and losing my license when I try so hard to be safe and follow the limit. not that I'm looking to ever tot up any I hope! I'm very pro speed limit, i believe that it is there for a reason especially 30 and I'm not looking try and be sneaky, speeding around trying to beat speed traps.

On my first motorway journey I was surprised at how confident I was out there. Having had plenty of DC rides this helped me a lot. I had said to myself stay in lane 1 and you'll be safe, but something in me just moved with the traffic, into lane 2 back to 1 and stuff, my mirror observations were right up there, and always checking my blind spot, i was quite impressed with myself. I always thought of the motorway as this big scary arterial vein that I wouldn't be able to do.

Something i do find very annoying is when drivers behind immediately overtaking you when they can clearly see you need to over take the vehicle in front so you don't have to break, it happened to me so many times on my last journey.

I want to do more Mway driving but it's an expensive pass time when your not really going anywhere in particular though, bloody fuel prices.

On the sat nav speed reading, I have calibrated a combine harvester speedo, the installed GPS yield mapping. You'd think that if GPS was so good that they would agree. They didn't. The calibrated speed was right

Confidence is good, but be aware that pride come before a fall> Been there, done that, got several T-shirts When you think "ah, I can handle this* now, back off a bit and have a think

* "this" doesn't have to be driving, it applies in most areas of life. Does for me anyway

Picture the scene, Feb 1991 and I had passed my test the day before. Now I need to go to day release (college, not prison ) under my own steam. My own steam was generated by a D.reg Skoda 120 LSE . To our less learned viewers, said motor had it's engine in the back, making the front end very light in any cross wind that made more than a light rustling of leaves. Driving down the on slip @J4 on the M54 was a memorable moment that morning. Joining the M6 a few months later at 10a was even more exciting

Ahh yeah, don't get me wrong I'm not going to award myself a fully qualified motorway driving certificate or anything just yet. Went up to the m4 today and the cross winds made it a bit bumpy, also further down were some very narrow lanes due to roads works, i had experienced the 2 lanes on the m3 but not anything as tight as these almost mirror to mirror size lanes, that's how it felt anyway

skodas don't have that stigma attached to them like they used to do they? My journeys on the Mway have been in a volvo v40, i'm 24 nearly 25 and i have a volvo lol i love her though. Bought off my dad for 500, it was an offer I couldn't refuse. Wasnt to keen on big roads in my tin can of a Ka that i previously had , something that held me back I think.

In my experience, generally better than a car speedo. On pretty much every car I've ever put a sat-nav into (and any sat-nav at that!) has had the sat-nav reading a couple of MPH less than the speedo. You CAn sool sat-navs - particularly on tight bends or roundabouts, but when you're heading in a reasonably straight line on the motorway, they're pretty good. Most of them have some sort of "velocity averaging" software which only updates itself every second, or few seconds, so for that reason, constant speed in a straight line is the best time to check. Remember that most camera partnerships won't dish out points until you reach 10% + 2MPH, so if you use your speedo rather than the sat nav and you've not done aything to the car to make the speedo inaccurate (like silly wheels & tyres), you're highly unlikely to be prosecuted.


I'm not sure about this. If you look at it from their point of view. I guess one of them might equally be heard saying "...something I do find very annoying is when drivers "expect" me to let them out to overtake a slower vehicle when I have right of way"! Now I don't want to take either side, in particular here, but I think it probably needs compromise on both sides. I think that technically, the person changing lanes is in a situation where they have to "give way" to someone already in the lane they want to move into. On the other hand, if people DON'T let the driver in the lane to their left out, the obvious answer is for that driver to then stay in the outside lane longer than they need to - because once there, THEY have "right of way". That, of course, can lead to frustration if you want to stick to the limit and they don't. It all goes downhill from there...

When I first started using motorways, I was quite surprised at just how far one has to look ahead and plan. Obviously, in the extreme case, if you only start looking for a space in the outside lane to pull into when you're a couple of car-lengths behind the truck in Lane 2, you're more than likely going to have someone in Lane 3 wanting the same space as you! At the other extreme, if you can see the trucks on the horizon and get into Lane 3 a mile before you need to, and then sit at 70, that's likely to cause extreme frustration (and thus, danger) too. It's finding the happy medium that's the trick! I don't mean to sound "preachy" here. I have to admit that I'm very lucky in that most of my motorway driving takes place in the far North of England and Southern Scotland where the traffic is much lighter and motorways can still be usd as they were designed (i.e. most traffic in Lanes 1 & 2 with Lane 3 as the overtaking lane). That's a luxury that we no longer have on most of the motorway network, most of the time!

Also, being prepared to adjust your speed slightly to match (or at least get closer to) the cars in the outside lane can help considerably. Now, of course, I'm NOT inciting you to break the speed limit - you have every right not to, but I'm sure you can see that the smaller the speed differential, the easier it is to slot into gaps. If I'm pootling along in no particular hurry, trying to conserve fuel (I agree it's darned expensive!) and want to overtake something, I do generally accelerate whilst using the outside lane, transiently, and then settle down again to whatever I was doing when I'm back in Lane 2. I acknowledge that I put my licence at a very small risk whilst doing so, but it's just the most efficient, safe and courteous way of doing it (in my view)! It's a sad state of affairs when you risk getting a few points for those reasons but welcome to motoring in 21st century UK! Our local Scamera partnership advises motorists to be "safe speed ambassadors" (or at least it used to)! By this they mean "rolling roadblocks". They (mistakenly, in my view) believe that encouraging motorists to become "limit limpets" will make things safer. Now where I live, we have lots of winding, hilly single carriageway A roads that provide few overtaking opportunities, and I've seen the lunatic overtaking manoeuvres born out of sheer frustration that result from this. Are the lunatic overtakers right to do so? Of course not! But I remain to be convinced that the encoragement of the "limit limpet" in any way makes things safer!

Now I put this down to a similar effect to the closing gap (i.e. people speeding up when they see a window of opportunity closing).

Vehicle driver travelling in L2 sees slower vehicle driver in L1 coming up on slower still vehicle driver in L1, so L2 driver speeds up so slower vehicle driver doesn't get time to pull out in front of them and slow them down/make them have to pull into L3.

Called lack of courtesy - common thing on todays roads,caused by lack of trafposs .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on