Safe Speed Forums

It's something I've noticed for a while - on quiet motorways I'm happy to drive at a much lower speed than on busier ones.

Tonight for example, I've driven from Leeds to Manchester on a virtually empty M62. I could have easily topped 100mph most of the way fairly safely but felt perfectly content staying at 65 for most of the way - accelerating only to 70/75 as I overtook anything on the inside lane.

However, during rush hour I frequently drive the M65/M66/M60 and always seem to head for the outside lane at ~85mph even though it's probably not quite as safe under these conditions as 100mph would be on an empty motorway.

Anyone else find the same? Is this some subliminal psychological factor? Am I just trying to get past the stream of 69mph rush-hour middle-lane-morons. Or is it something about travelling back from work and being 'work-stressed' whereas tonight was much more relaxed with it being a weekend?

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Why can't we just use Common Sense?

I think you are probably just weird

(Seriously though if you think your rush hour speeds are stressed related - stop doing it, please!)

I think that. The sooner you get home the sooner you can forget about work and get on with the rest of your dull and boring life.
Or that's waht I feel anyway.

If not driving from work or to get somewhere on time then why rush? The journey is part of the enjoyment.
Driving back from work: "I don't want to be doing this so let's get it over with as soon as possible". Grr.

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Andrew.

I expect you're subconsciously managing the mirror load / threat from behind. At higher speeds, less traffic is catching up and you're freer to change lane and manage your space in the traffic.

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Paul Smith
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The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Yes, I find this as well. I usually sit at about 55-60mph. A lot of times I'm coming home very late at night so I sit in the flow of HGVs and relax to the car stereo.

When I'm on the way in to work in the morning or at evening time, I usually drive faster, but that's probably because the flow of traffic is more aggressive, L1 is full of HGVs and Caravans, L2 is usually clogged up with 60mph middle lane hoggers, so the only way to make reasonable progress is to generally sit at 70mph in the outside lane with a V(diff) of about 5-8mph max.

If I did this I'd fall asleep through lack of stimulation

I do 85-90 whether I'm chilled, stressed, at work, off work, whatever.

I only go slower if conditions demand it.

That is quite significant in my mind. In most motorway traffic conditions I find things easier if I'm travelling somewhat faster than the majority of other vehicles. It's wise not to take it to extremes though and risk catching the eye of a lurking plod.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

Yes I find the same. In heavier motorway traffic if I want to make progress without incurring the tailgating wrath of some moron in a Vectra, its necessary to speed up so the differential between my speed and theirs is less.

I find the exact opposite.

Coming home after work, I join the A404 with the coolant still cold, so I don't take it above 65/70mph. When I join the M4, it is usually so busy that it would stress me out to stay in the outside just to go 5 or 10mph faster occasionally, with the inside lane catching up at times. What I do is I just stick with the slowest moving traffic but more importantly, the traffc that is more predictable, no matter what the speed. It makes it easy to keep sfae distance, and generally pay attention to the general traffic.

As soon as I hit the A329M, I just nail it as there is hardly any traffic there and I see no point in tootling around an empty dual carriageway...

Same here. I'm just as bad when I'm dragged into seemingly pointless (non-technical) meetings, yet others stay alert and concentrate throughout. I guess different people handle lack of stimulation in different ways.

Yeah I know where your coming from on that. 65 is a very difficult speed to drive at on a busy motorway, its a bit too fast for the inside lane, but is frequently too slow for L2 and L3. So either you accept the pace of L1 or maintain a higher speed in L2/3, pulling into L1 only when there is a sufficent gap to avoid immediately pulling back out again.

However on a quiet motorway your never holding anyone up so are free to choose any speed(within reason) you like.

This morning on the M1, with much lighter traffic that is normal for a Monday morning, I found myself tootling along at about 75, often able to use Lane 1. I think I too drive faster if there is more traffic. Part of this is often being in L3, where it is best to perform your overtaking quickly and avoid holding the traffic up. You want to avoid forcing the driver behind, steaming up at 90, to brake, so you speed up to 90 as well.

That may be because you are typically under more time pressure (say commuting or driving to appointments) when the motorway is busy. When it's quiet, you are more likely to be doing leisure travel.

When on holiday and just exploring the neighbourhood I'm often happy to waft around at a leisurely pace that might annoy harassed locals...

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I am driving to Leeds tonight and I know the roads will be empty. As I will be in no hurry 70mph will be fine!

Posting from Leeds.

Tried to stick to 70 on the way across - generally managed to do so apart from once or twice when I needed to overtake traffic.

Doing 70 posed some interesting problems - the level of skill required was substantially lesser then doing 85/90 and I quickly found my attention wandering to other things. I was distracted by the CD player / passing landmarks / any half decent girl in another car etc. At one point I even found myself reading which was just crazy.

The other problem with doing 70 is you are constantly having to look in the mirror to avoid getting in the way of someone who is going faster. No longer are you just concentrating on where you are going but also what is going on behind you.

The good thing about all this...I used very little fuel, far less then I usually do on this journey. Normally a trip to Leeds and back takes half a tank but at 70 it will use nowhere near this amount.

In conclusion I actually found it more difficult at 70 then at 80/90.

Possibly a mix of both. I usually find I'm very chilled out off duty - always have been. Job does occasionally require some rather - (as the recent Milton case called it) "eye-watering speeds" .. but this is all per approved procedure and not "testing out the vehicle"

But yes .. . I think stress ... regurgitating some "tiff" or workload pressure in minds .. feeling hungry for the evening meal and too short an evening after work... all pay some part in this "urgency to get home" Morning rush .. you want to be on time for work - so another pressure if you like and everyone is working the same hours too.


Another part of the equation is "flight". You perceive the other blokes are "too close your your comfort" and speed up to get out of their way... Seen this so often and used to get the "he was tailgating" too often for mere coincidence. Chap was not tailgating.. on some occasions it was me tailing at monitoring the speed from three seconds when I used to work the M1 and M6 some time back. But I did recognise it was their perception and usually let off the "around tolerance threshold blatter" with a discretionary "watch yer speed in future .. sir [/i] in the usual voice tones of pure acid


However, such skills are those quirky gut feels which comes with that intangible expererience call for us.. and you can only understand this is when you do the job. We learn these skills like all learn to do anything else .. by experiencing traffic more or less 24/7.

Me .. I just relax into the drive and enjoy it.... nice and steady and chilled with Classic FM or a fave CD and if in a jam - tis amusing just watching the antics of guys changing lanes and finding the one they moved into just sits still after all that trouble and their original one moves forwards

Or if on the bike - filtering or even jamming through

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