Is it just me?

[TC350]

Am I the only one who didn’t get the memo? I drove a couple of hundred miles yesterday, on a mix of roads but mainly motorways and dual carriageways. There seemed to be even more people than usual unnecessarily staying in the outside lane at around 5mph below the speed limit. Had 17th August been declared a day for Just Stop Oil protesters to burn some oil by slowing down even more people than usual?

Then they all disappeared on the A421 in the early evening when a long stretch of the dual carriageway had a temporary 40 limit that was completely ignored by the vast majority of drivers. I suppose it was an opportunity for everyone to test out the top speed of their vehicles without being thwarted by lane hoggers. I’ve never been overtaken by so many lorries before!

 

[ALFAitalia]

A lot of those temp 40 and 50 mph limits are just figures on the sign with no red ring around....so therefore just advisory and not enforceable.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Summer holiday drivers during the day and
Commuters in the evening....

(Compounded by EV drivers, at any time of day, who love to do the French thing of accelerating to overtake, before settling back in front of you, at roughly the same speed as you're driving in the first place. The love their acceleration, but drive "slowly" to "protect range.")

 

[SpikyMikey]

I think it's fair to say it's not just you OP.
The one's that get me are the twonks who scream up behind you in lane 2 whilst you're overtaking a line of wagons at 70 ish, sitting on your rear bumper, urging you to go faster, even though they could just pull into lane 3 and roar off into the sunset.
When you do finally pull back into lane one having passed the trucks, off they go at warp speed. Only for you to catch them up a mile down the road , doing the exact same thing to someone else.
Why?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I think it's fair to say it's not just you OP.
The one's that get me are the twonks who scream up behind you in lane 2 whilst you're overtaking a line of wagons at 70 ish, sitting on your rear bumper, urging you to go faster, even though they could just pull into lane 3 and roar off into the sunset.
When you do finally pull back into lane one having passed the trucks, off they go at warp speed. Only for you to catch them up a mile down the road , doing the exact same thing to someone else.
Why?

That reminds me.

It seems that on almost every long journey there’s at least one person who accelerates past me and then slows down so I catch them up and eventually pass them again, only for that process to repeat umpteen times over the duration of the journey.

I know I’m driving at a constant speed as I use cruise control with (active/radar disabled). Most of the cars that do it probably have cruise control too, but it seems that they choose not to use it!

 

[Dryce]

I know I’m driving at a constant speed as I use cruise control with (active/radar disabled). Most of the cars that do it probably have cruise control too, but it seems that they choose not to use it!

I call them 'stickies'.

As they stick with you doing that over long stretches.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I call them 'stickies'.

As they stick with you doing that over long stretches.

It would be so much easier to tick in and follow at the same constant speed.

Maybe they’re hyper milers drafting, and taking it in turns to lead and follow.



PS I always think that terms should be draughting rather than drafting.

 

[davymead]

My own favourite is the ‘I’ll do whatever speed you do’, so as you pass they suddenly increase their speed to yours.

 

[SpikyMikey]

Also never ceases to amaze me how many drivers have not worked out that to maintain the same speed on a motorway going uphill as along the flat, they need to depress the accelerator harder.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Summer holiday drivers during the day and
Commuters in the evening....

(Compounded by EV drivers, at any time of day, who love to do the French thing of accelerating to overtake, before settling back in front of you, at roughly the same speed as you're driving in the first place. The love their acceleration, but drive "slowly" to "protect range.")

Ha ! 'The French thing' !! I had completely forgotten about that odd quirk some drivers have over there . Having toured France on motorcycles and Worked there and driven many Kilometres I too have witnessed this strange behaviour.

 

[markjay]

Summer holiday drivers during the day and
Commuters in the evening....

(Compounded by EV drivers, at any time of day, who love to do the French thing of accelerating to overtake, before settling back in front of you, at roughly the same speed as you're driving in the first place. The love their acceleration, but drive "slowly" to "protect range.")

It's a very silly thing to do... acceleration is the no 1 range killer on EVs... they should have read the manual.

 

[Jukie]

Lane discipline, keeping a safe distance, etc, sadly lacking in too many drivers.

The general standard of driving in this country is dire and getting worse.

 

[SpikyMikey]

Lane discipline, keeping a safe distance, etc, sadly lacking in too many drivers.

The general standard of driving in this country is dire and getting worse.

That unfortunately does generally seem to be true.

 

[ALFAitalia]

I don't think it's any worse than its ever been tbh....it's just as you get older (and hopefully a better driver....but this is not always the case) you notice the other drivers more.
Compared to most other countries I've been to we have far higher driving standards...and this is reflected in our relatively low road deaths per capita.....even more so when you take into account our high "people per square mile count".

 

[HappytalkAgain]

I don't think it's any worse than it’s ever been tbh....

Agreed ^^^

the stories my ole dad told me about driving incidents back in the day are just as bad.

Today’s poor driving standards are maybe accentuated due to more cars and drivers on the road when compared to ‘the good ole days’.

 

[TC350]

Agreed ^^^

the stories my ole dad told me about driving incidents back in the day are just as bad.

Today’s poor driving standards are maybe accentuated due to more cars and drivers on the road when compared to ‘the good ole days’.

Those incidents in the good old days were no doubt downplayed by a far less effective information network. We mostly didn't hear about them, so they appeared not to exist.

Today's vastly increased traffic level will certainly magnify apparent poor driving standards, because there are far more drivers and the chances of getting away with observed errors are consequently reduced.

I'm not convinced that our lower road deaths per capita can be attributed to better drivers. Car safety improvements have come on in leaps and bounds, along with better roads (as hard as that may be to believe). Vehicle automation should have provided drivers with more opportunities to be observant and plan their progress more safely, but instead it just appears to have lulled them into being less aware of what's going on around them. The ever increasing distractions in and around vehicles makes things worse.

Instead of moving forward with all the motoring changes that have come about over the last few decades, and embracing them for our own safety, we seem to have decided to let others take care of such mundane things. We think that we're safe in our tin boxes with their air bags and detection systems, so we don't need to worry about the mechanics of getting from A to B. The trouble is that we've become ensconced in our bubbles and completely oblivious to everything and everyone outside.

Driving standards may or may not have slipped, they just haven't progressed as they needed to.

 

[HappytalkAgain]

Those incidents in the good old days were no doubt downplayed by a far less effective information network. We mostly didn't hear about them, so they appeared not to exist.

Today's vastly increased traffic level will certainly magnify apparent poor driving standards, because there are far more drivers and the chances of getting away with observed errors are consequently reduced.

I'm not convinced that our lower road deaths per capita can be attributed to better drivers. Car safety improvements have come on in leaps and bounds, along with better roads (as hard as that may be to believe). Vehicle automation should have provided drivers with more opportunities to be observant and plan their progress more safely, but instead it just appears to have lulled them into being less aware of what's going on around them. The ever increasing distractions in and around vehicles makes things worse.

Instead of moving forward with all the motoring changes that have come about over the last few decades, and embracing them for our own safety, we seem to have decided to let others take care of such mundane things. We think that we're safe in our tin boxes with their air bags and detection systems, so we don't need to worry about the mechanics of getting from A to B. The trouble is that we've become ensconced in our bubbles and completely oblivious to everything and everyone outside.

Driving standards may or may not have slipped, they just haven't progressed as they needed to.

There are good and bad people in every generation.

There are good and bad drivers in every generation.

 

[Fastcar155]

Lane discipline, keeping a safe distance, etc, sadly lacking in too many drivers.

The general standard of driving in this country is dire and getting worse.

Hi , The driving standard in the UK is on a par with Portugal.

 

[Spudgunandy]

Another annoying thing guess where im going on roundabouts indicate when i feel like it etc

 

[rf065]

Hi , The driving standard in the UK is on a par with Portugal.

You think we're that good?