Safe Speed Forums

Fascinating! I got a boring reliable car for the daily grind a few months ago and decided to find out what mileage I was getting, it was around 45 mpg, almost three times better than its predecessor and not too shabby for a 2L petrol Mondeo. Since then I've been keeping myself entertained by trying to improve it. I've never been particularly hard on the brakes but it has been interesting to see how little acceleration and braking is actually necessary, with anticipation.

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Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

Very true johnny. It is only that we allow ourselves to get irritated by this kind of driving behaviour that makes it a problem...

"So you're driving on my bumper, I know that if I allow myself to be irritated by it, it will disturb my concentration"

It's quite sad, but i feel quite proud when I look at my trip computer and find I have added 0.1 mpg to my average.

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

Its not sad, Ree.t - you're bettering your driving. Its the same deal as getting a warm glow when you've anticipated something early and avoided having to take emergency action as a result.

All part and parcel of being a good driver and something you've got every right to be proud of.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

I think you'll need to be careful. Too much concentration on that sort of thing will:

- Rob you of your vehicle's performance
- Lead you to chose higher gears giving better economy but poorer control
- Lead you towards coasting down hills
- Saving £1 on fuel by spending £10 on time.

Actually I think it's a route to madness, but only when it goes beyond 'reasonable' behaviour... I guess you'll be guarding against unreasonable behaviour...

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

So - the answer to tailgating is to let them overtake and tailgate someone else. I appreciate the sentiment but it is a bit NIMBY.

Actually, I would have said that the answer to tailgating is a roof mounted 20mm cannon, but the old bill aren't too fond of that one!

Seriously though, its not always possible to let them pass you, especially in town.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Agreed. Like I said in my original post on this, I was in a contraflow section of SPECS-enforced motorway at 40mph. It was impossible for me to let this guy overtake me.

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

Many Many years ago I drove a Daf 44 Variomatic (2 cylinder aircoolled engine, 850cc. "Unuseual" CVT auto transmission and centrifugal clutch)

You got very good at "Not Stopping" since the centrifugal clutch was a bit juddery from a standing start, however, despite its small engine the CVT gave Awsome performance between 5-25 mph leaving many larger engined vehicles for dust (provided is wasnt a standing start) but after this the 45HP engine showed its limitations (though you could get 70+ out of it on a good day)

Looking back, it was actually quite a nice car

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Dusty that's something I try to do in the Rover - if I can keep it rolling in 1st then its actually pretty quick off the mark, but if I stop it seems to take forever to get moving again.

Aside from the fact that it saves wear on the clutch and brakes and means that I don't have to apply the handbrake

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

This is fine if you are actually doing 40 (and this is not aimed at you personally). Both ways through the M4 40 mph SPECS yesterday and I was caught in L3 behind some muppet doing 33-35 mph (probably 40 on his speedo). However, it is not his role in life to enforce the speed limit using uncalibrated instruments.

My indicated speed was 43mph and my satnav said 40mph.

I quite agree that it's not someone's role to enforce the limit, but equally, it's not someone's role to tailgate...

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

I don't think it's fair to have a go at someone travelling through a specs enforced area at a speed that their instruments are showing to be around the limit. Not everyone has the benifit of gps speed display and all car speedos are slightly different in calibration. My previous car was around 5mph out my present is only 1-2 out compared to the same gps. I can only assume that older cars may deviate more so its not even the case of adding on a set fudge factor.

Couple that to the media hype about zero tolerance etc then you can see why people would be cautious.