I've often found myself in a "knot" of traffic which seems to be caused by somebody tootling along at about 10mph below the speed limit and following a vehicle(usually a 4 x 4) with red and yellow chevron markings on the rear and a "battenburg" pattern down the side. On the roof is a bank of flashable beacons.
It turns out that the said vehicle is often a DfT Traffic Officer and I get the impression that the following driver is either unable to differentiate between them and police vehicles or that they assume that Traffic Officers have the same powers as police.
Has anyone else been aware of this?
1) Speed limits are maximums, not minimums
2) Speed limits apply at all times, even if there is no one around who can enforce them
I am not disputing speed limits
I am aware that Traffic Officers patrol the roads, but never noticed knots of traffic tootling along as there is invariably 1 or more other lanes available to pass said traffic officer.
Are you bored at work as well?
You seem to be blaming a single driver for a knot of traffic. All cars should reasonably be able to overtake two vehicles doing 10mph below the speed limit, on a motorway without breaking the speed limit themselves.
I’m assuming you are not referring to a 70 mph dual carriageway? (Edit: if you are: Yes, anyone in lane 2 or 3 speed matching a 50 mph battenburg marked traffic van in lane 1, because they think it’s a police car and because they are utterly unaware of their speed and/or the current speed limit, anyone doing that is not paying sufficient attention to the road around them)
Most people pootle along behind a 50 mph vehicle in a 60 mph zone regardless of what it is they are following.
I like to overtake the 50 mph brigade, but safe and worthwhile opportunities are very limited so I rarely am able to - and on many roads I don’t bother as I’ll just end up behind the next 50 mph driver.
Sometimes we take our Leaf out beyond its normal range; I then don’t go above 50 mph to eek some more economy out of it. When doing so I use every opportunity to slow down and let people overtake. This is a really common habit away from major urban areas in California and I found myself appreciating it both from the faster and especially from the slower side - it’s much nicer driving on weirdly foreign mountain roads without someone up your jacksie or even a safe distance behind.
Boingboing is correct. Traffic officers seem to sit on the motorway at between 60-65mph when not attending a 'situation'. What this does is trigger some strange response in a high proportion of drivers to slow down. WHY? If a police car, ambulance, traffic officer vehicle is sitting at 60-65 and you are doing 70mph, why slow down?
You then get the concertina effect of surrounding cars reacting to the slowing down and it causes much worse than even the 60-65mph the traffic officer is doing. It can be dangerous and its quite annoying when you are sat at 70mph and all the cars who were going past you at 75-85mph all hit the brakes and drive like idiots (Most of them are middle lane huggers too)
> I've often found myself in a "knot" of traffic which seems to be caused by somebody tootling along at about 10mph below the speed limit and following a vehicle(usually a 4 x 4) with red and yellow chevron markings on the rear and a "battenburg" pattern down the side. On the roof is a bank of flashable beacons.
> It turns out that the said vehicle is often a DfT Traffic Officer and I get the impression that the following driver is either unable to differentiate between them and police vehicles or that they assume that Traffic Officers have the same powers as police.
> Has anyone else been aware of this?
Really? Can't say I've ever seen that. Do see a lot of people who'd normally be doing 20-30mph above the limit, scrupulously obeying it whenever a police vehicle is encountered (a pretty rare sight these days I might add)
Speed limits aren't the same for every road user, I can only do 60 on a 70 mph dual carriageway, because I drive a LGV.
I'm not suggesting the 4x4 is a LGV, but there's plenty of them around.
I've seen this a lot. I think they stay at just below the speed limit to encourage people to pass at or beow the limit as otherwise there would be a queue. Almost n acknowledgement that most people on the motorway travel above the limit.
I slovertake them sitting at the limit and then enjoy the relatively empty roads ahead.
With regards to the Police, I've also read that in the context of going a bit over the limit it's so they filter through and see a wide variety of traffic, so they can spot and deal with offences rather than staring at the back of the same car for their entire journey.
I can't see any reason that wouldn't apply equally to going a bit slower than the majority of the traffic.
It's generally people who:
a) Think they are police: they are not and have no powers to issue speeding tickets
b) Think if they overtook the police they would get a ticket: You won't, police like to save fuel and drive at 60, it's legal to overtake them at 70 and they won't care if you overtake them at 75 either!
"... it's legal to overtake them at 70 and they won't care if you overtake them at 75 either!..."
depends if it's a 30 zone
Haha, someone has spent too much time in the UK. If you were driving in Europe you would complain about traffic behaviour that has a little bit more affect on your health and wellbeing!
Between Italy and France, the following practices are standard (as in "happen regularly pretty much every time I am out driving", not "happened this one time and I'm not going to forget it").
- Overtaking into oncoming traffic and expecting the vehicle you are overtaking and the oncoming one to squeeze over to their edges so there is enough space for 3 abreast on a 2 lane road.
- Horn honking, dangerous overtaking and other generalised impatience with anyone who is driving at the speed limit. This ususally only slacks off about 20kmph above the speed limit.
- Long vehicles on mountain roads use both sides of the road, if you happen to meet them on an area of road where they are doing this, you drive off the side of the road or you crash, they do not stop.
- Overtaking when there is nowhere near enough room to pass and expecting both oncoming and vehicle being overtaken to brake sharply to enable the manoeuvre.
- Cutting corners where there is no visibility and a hair-trigger-reaction swerve is needed to avoid hitting any oncoming vehicle.
- Cutting corners or just plain drifting across the road for no reason without looking in the mirrors to see if other vehicles are coming from behind.
The sum effect of all this is that one must be constantly looking in ones mirrors to see when the person behind does something stupid necessitating that you have to react to avoid a crash and that one much generally drive in such a way as to expect that traffic ahead and oncoming traffic will regularly dangerously violate the road rules. It is stressful, even after years and years of experience of it.
The average driver in the UK is very considerate and law abiding by comparison!
> The average driver in the UK is very considerate and law abiding by comparison!
Until it's a caravan driver in the UK. Abroad they seem much more inclined to pull over and let traffic pass.
> Sometimes we take our Leaf out beyond its normal range; I then don’t go above 50 mph to eek some more economy out of it.
What would Clarkson say to that ?
You must have been driving in different Frances and Italys to the ones I've driven in. Never had the slightest bother.
Nairobi on the other hand...
> The average driver in the UK is very considerate and law abiding by comparison!
Haha , that's what I tried to tell the cop who pulled me over for speeding in Louvie Juzon last Thursday driving the slowest car I have ever set foot in.
Ha that's nothing I drive a ride on mower occasionally (The bigger sort not your B&Q dinky things) along a nice straight stretch of road with lots of visibility. The mower is probably the size of a smart car but I still, now and then, get a tail back of people who won't overtake me. I'll pull over if I can but on a straight section of traffic free road I shouldn't have to
I've certainly observed people breaking the speed limit slow down for traffic cars. Maybe it's part of their job.
I don't slow down now; no need, I went on a course....
I drive a Nissan Navara, it has a speed limit of 50mph on single carriageways, 60mph ion duals and 70mph on motorways as do the majority of 'white vans'.
> Between Italy and France, the following practices are standard (as in "happen regularly pretty much every time I am out driving", not "happened this one time and I'm not going to forget it").
I once met someone who drove a classic (1950's) Mercedes saloon. After driving in Italy he had seatbelts retrofitted! He said the standard of driving decreases exponentially the further south you go.