The Crittenden Automotive Library

Driving Too Slowly Should Count As Dangerous Driving

Driving Too Slowly Should Count As Dangerous Driving

Matt Hubbard
Speedmonkey
December 16, 2013

I'll warn you now that this is a rant against inconsiderate, dangerous drivers. Not the type who drive too fast, but the type who drive too slowly.

I don't tolerate people driving above the limit in urban areas, or through villages. 30mph is plenty when driving past schools, shops and housing.

But hit the open road and you usually find a 60mph limit. Yet the majority of drivers on the roads trundle along at 40mph - and then frequently carry on through the next village at 40mph until they brake sharply at a speed camera.

Doing 40 in a 60 is downright dangerous. The roads were put there to get from A to B (and for some of us to enjoy ourselves on cars and motorbikes). We all have to share the same ribbon of tarmac, and have to have due regard for our fellow drivers.

Driving too slowly not only leads to inconvenience but it also leads to frustration. People end up weaving around behind the slow-coaches in their Yaris's and Jazz's looking for somewhere to overtake.

Our roads are increasingly lined with safety measures designed to contain us, control us and inhibit overtaking, so we bimble along in ever-increasing snakes getting nowhere fast, with rising blood pressure.

I live on a fast section of road. The council decided not to make the road outside our house 30mph. Instead it is 60mph. This is fine. You just have to have your wits about you.

To get home from anywhere means using a decent chunk of 60mph A-road. But the idiotic council has put pedestrian crossings every half mile - even though no-one crosses there.

So there is simply nowhere to overtake. It doesn't matter how fast your car is. There isn't the room. I recently saw a biker overtake a line of traffic doing 40mph, then crap his pants when he saw the inappropriately placed pedestrian crossing that had been built there two weeks beforehand.

Driving slowly on A-roads, B-roads, motorways and dual carriageways is a menace and the people who do it should be prosecuted for doing so.

I don't mind getting stuck behind a tractor, steam engine, horse, HGV or cyclist (well, maybe I do mind getting stuck behind cyclists…) because they cannot help going slowly.

It is when some inconsiderate bastard in their tinny shitbox that is perfectly capable of travelling at 60mph dawdles along that really gets my goat. They are undoubtedly the same morons who take 30 seconds to pull away from traffic lights.

We all have to use these roads. We should all look out for each other. We should all respect each other. Driving at 100mph is inconsiderate and likely to get you nicked by the police. Driving at 40mph is also inconsiderate but the police aren't interested in slow drivers. They should be. Because slow drivers are a danger to the rest of us with their selfish behaviour and fuckwittery.

By the way, I've had criticism for taking a photo whilst driving. My iPhone5 was sucker mounted on the screen. I simply leaned over, swiped up once to open the camera and jabbed at the screen to take the pic.

Rant by Matt Hubbard