Safe Speed Forums

Generally, it's not aggressive tailgaters that concern me. An aggressive tailgater, who wants no more than to get past because he considers you're driving too slowly, is easy to deal with - let him past. He is, at least, likely to be paying reasonable attention to his driving, even if his aggression is unpleasant and unnerving.

The really worrying tailgaters are those who are on crusie control and simply paying no attention to anything much other than the car in front. They tend to hunt in packs and I would not be surprised to find that they're the ones who get involved in the multi-vehicle pile-ups.

Apart from that, as Sixy said, speed limiters are more likely to increase tailgating than the reverse. Imagine a s/c with restricted overtaking opportunities. One vehicle choosing to bimble along at 40-45 could hold up any number of frustrated drivers behind, none of whom can overtake easily because of the speed limiter so end up closing the gaps.

Then factor in the increased risk of head on collisions from badly judged overtakes because of the frustration. There would be a significant risk of carnage.

Separate but related point so I'm splitting it from my other response.

The truck behviour you've described, imo, represents a significant hazard and a direct and major cause of congestion. Why? Well, what happens when a driver cruising at 70-75 sees a line of trucks nose to tail approaching his exit. He either tries to get to the front, perhaps accelerating and then having to cut in and/or brake sharply to force his way into a small gap or he has brake down to 55 and drop back in line. Of course the braking down to 55 sends a wave back down the motorway and it's quite easy to imagine traffic further back being forced to a halt as the wave spreads backwards.

Whose fault is it? Partly the driver who either brakes or forces his way in but mostly the trucks (and not particularly trucks but all vehicles) which leave inadequate gaps. If all drivers would leave ample gaps especially around junctions, faster traffic could enter and leave at slip roads without difficulty or drama, improving the flow of traffic for everybody.

All true. I was in a situation a few years back where I was on an unfamiliar motorway, and was late seeing the junction I wanted to exit at, partly due to the quantity of lorries in the left hand lane obscuring the sings. Nonetheless, there was still plenty of time to safely exit. I pulled alongside a gap between two lorries, matched my speed to theirs and indicated. The rear lorry then generously decided to accelerate to deliberately block me. I suppose they get fed up of people cutting in, but it was hardly productive, just meant I had to cut in further up the line.

The late cutters-in cause congestion too, trying to get past the queue the whole motorway backs up, even when the congestion is only related to one junction.

So after failing to get into the gap, you then did what? Accelerate, unless of course the other traffic slowed down. So you have thought of an occasion where acclerating got you out of trouble, something you assured us you had never had to do in ten years of driving, just a few posts back.

I see this a lot when I ride to and from work on the M20. You get a clump of traffic about a mile thick then a mile of black space and another clump of traffic. Sometimes its caused by heavies overtaking each other but quite often the clumps are moving at 70MPH+. I tend to sit between clumps and have the whole motorway to myself which is nice

They possibly do; but the best way to obviate the problem is to give them space. After all, you can't know whether their motivation is queue jumping or whether (like you) they were simply and inadvertently a bit late spotting their exit (you may suspect the former but you can't know for certain). It used to irritate me but now I make sure I always leave plenty of space for anybody else to use. It costs me virtually nothing and may even help avoid a crash.

Another truism is that we speed up as a road widens and/ or straightens and slow down as it narrows and/ or curves, which is why traffic calming measures generally work.

I'll just throw something else in - how many of you have ever owned and/ or driven a Citroen 2CV or similar? There's no way you can exceed 70 mph so you drive along minding your own business while everyone else overtakes. The downside is that other drivers can't wait to force their way past. If all vehicles were limited this wouldn't happen. Basically you'd have a choice - either to get annoyed and frustrated about having to travel at a certain speed or to accept it.

Tolouse, depends what you mean by trouble. I really meant crash avoidance, rather than as a 'danger reduction strategy' or for convenience (i.e. to change lanes or avoid missing a junction). I accept acceleration is pretty useful in these circumstances!

edited

You have to look a bit deeper. Even if all vehicles were speed limited, they would still have (dramatically) varying acceleration performance. Trying to squeeze everybody into the same size and shape box just doesn't work - human nature doesn't allow it (look at communism).

Even if everybody had identical cars (which aint going to happen), different drivers would still choose to drive at different speeds. All that would be achieved is that more vehicles would be squeezed into the same space, creating more risk for everyone.

nor would it achieve anything much as over 90% (or is it 95%?) of accidents occur below the prevailing speed limit and I'd hazard a guess that only a miniscule number occur at over 70mph.

Yes. And in the wide open spaces where over 70mph is commonly used many of those are still damage onlys.

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

I don't find speeds under the 70 limit a problem, only a psychopath speeds in towns. My only concern is clear A roads or motorways where the safe speed is far in excess of 70 and to drive at 70 is so unnatural as to require external assistance.

But if 70mph feels 'unnaturally slow' then surely the limit is too low?

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

Some of the most dangerous 'excessive speed' I've seen has been during these bouts of heavy snow we have had for 24hours over the last couple of years.

The bulk of traffic is running at 15mph with large gaps on the M25 and some berk decides he wants to put his foot down and overtake have seen several idiots weaving in and out of the traffic at 25-30mph run out of space and rear end someone. Limiters would do bugger all for these loons.

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