Drivers who go over the speed limit, why do you do it?
I drive, and always stick to the speed limit. There are likely a lot of laws you don’t break, why do you think it’s acceptable to speed?
I’ve heard the argument that it can be safer to overtake when over the speed limit, but I’m talking about when drivers just cruise above the speed limit, whether it’s a motorway or a 20 mph street.
I’m curious to understand the mentality.
23 comments
Speeding is one of those odd topics where seemingly rational people will say anything to justify their misbehaviour.
To reach my destination in less time.
Not really paying that much attention to the speedo constantly, just go on feel, sometimes thats over the limit
When I have sped , it’s not by much. Sometimes it’s either because I’m in a hurry or I haven’t been paying attention to my speedometer. Sometimes if I’ve gone from a 40 to a 30 road my mind is mentally still on the 40 road if that makes sense? But most times it’s because some cunt is up my arse and I want to get away from them.
1. Because I’m a super driver and so is my car (till they crash but they will blame whatever else)
2. Because when the speedometer reads 50 you are doing 45 (may be true, but is what motorists have to measure speed)
3. Because everyone else is sooooo slow (only ahead, those behind are psychos)
4. Because I’m in a hurry (besides eventually hitting a lorry’s queue, for most people is irrelevant to reach their destination 10 min late)
5. Speeding? Who speeds? I never do that.
Because nobody will stop me, there’s like 5 police cars in the whole of England.
I’d never speed in a 30 or below, I actually have some common sense.
I do 60 in a 30 zone in order to half the amount of time im on the road and therefore decreasing my chances of hitting someone ? Flawed ?
Does this not get asked daily at the minute? What is going on here.
It depends. I think speeding in a built up area is irresponsible, but the 70mph speed limit on the motorway is a completely arbitrary number set years ago when most cars couldn’t go any faster, had shite tyres and drum brakes.
Believe it or not its possible to speed safely. In a lot of cases speed isn’t danger its the driver.
Plus I’ve overtaken police on the motorway speeding and all they’ve done is flash me to slow down. However I wasn’t even doing 80
Because as someone who drives up and down the country for a living, I want to get to my destination quicker. As long as you retain a high average speed it’s very much worthwhile.
Have you ever made it from Birmingham to Heathrow and back in 3 hours? I have… 155mph down and back up the M40 very early Sunday morning.
Because while most people believe in the rule of law in every other possible arena, and that anyone who transgresses them should be punished, some of them personally don’t like speed-limits or speed-cameras, and so laws are uniquely suspended when they are in a car.
It is a little like a burglar complaining about rules against theft or complaining about those pesky burglar alarms or sneaky motion-triggered cameras that some people have.
Someone desperate for food shoplifts a sandwich – “lock ’em up”; “I want to drive at 40 in a 30-zone or 80 in a 70-zone – it’s my right to break the law” (RTAs are the biggest cause of non-natural death in the UK and speed is a factor in at least half of them); but “stop nanny-stating me (and I know that if I obeyed the speed-limit then those cameras would never raise a single penny of revenue, but I don’t do logic on this one)”…
I use to enjoy driving early, no cars around and people weren’t stuck up your arse and then gradually there was a shift into thinking the “road is clear ahead of me, the car infront doing the speed limit is the problem here, I’m not prepared to overtake, but I’m going to follow them as close as possible “. Now I actually enjoy driving more at traffic crowded times, people just seem to accept there is no possibility of going faster.
I just go with the flow of the traffic. When I commuted by car it seemed pretty normal for most other motorists to be going 80+ early in the morning. A known speed camera up ahead? Traffic slows briefly, and then returns to normal.
I do it because I’m often distracted by either my phone, eating a burger or smoking. Sometimes all three.
I only do it in my dad’s car though.
Life’s too short to follow others rules live the fast life and enjoy the short time we have I would rather die enjoying myself than die being bored staring at the back of another crap BMW Mercedes or Audi who’s driver refuses to even get to the speed limit and likes to be a danger to others on the road by using the wrong lanes to drive slow in on motorways and other multi lane roads.
Anyway there’s other more dangerous things people do on the roads that need to be sorted than picking on people going over the limit and it’s the people who moan about the speeders who are the ones who are the most dangerous on the roads for example people going over the speed limit is safer than driving in the middle lane on the motorway barely going fast enough to over take a lorry going 55mph and refusing to pull in to the driving lane if you aren’t over taking anyone and have nothing preventing you moving over and while you sit in that over taking lane you are forcing others to move into the 3rd lane doing less than the speed limit to over take the lane hogger.
Usually it’s inadvertent. I either wasn’t paying attention to my speed or I misread the road signs.
Sometimes it’s to complete an overtake. The overtake was obviously ill-judged if I can’t complete it without speeding, but if the lane to my left is crowded with tailgaters then I can’t really drop back.
It’s fun
20 or 30, or occasionally 40 zone – no. That’s just stupidity because there is normally a reason, often a built up area or a school or blind bends/junctions, etc.
50 or 60 yes, I’ll creep over but not by much. I have extremely strict personal standards on this though – like a perfectly clear and open road with no traffic. I’ll probably go 5-10mph over.
Motorways are the big exception. I’ll never do anything stupid, but “stupid” is way better defined on a motorway in terms of traffic density and type. In many busy motorway situations, 70 is legal still but also fucking dangerous. If you’re barreling down lane 3 at 70 on a busy motorway with lorries paying silly fuckers in lanes 1 and 2, with people lurching out into lane 3 at 60ish, then 70 is too fast.
But at 3am on a dry warm clear evening with zero other traffic about, 80 or even 90 is fine in my book. But again, on this note it’s stupid and potentially to just consider “speed” as your only factor. If I’m about to do a late night motorway drive knowing it’ll be very quiet with good conditions, I’ll check tyres (pressure, tread, etc). In a modern car, say a new C Class or Golf even, doing 100mph on an empty motorway in good conditions isn’t dangerous in terms of the speed itself. But what can and does kill people is having dodgy tyres and not even bothering to check.
To get there sooner, very obviously. Not defending it but the rationale isn’t hard to figure out.
Genuinely because I feel that 90% of speed limits feel inappropriately slow for the roads they are set on. 30mph to me doesn’t even feel like moving. On a big a-road or motorway, even 70 doesn’t feel fast. 100+ is where a real sense of “okay things are moving quickly now…” kicks in. Generally I’m happy to sit at 80-90 on those roads, traffic / conditions / known presence of speed cameras all factored in of course. I do have a pretty sporty car though that can accelerate faster and brake better than your average vehicle, so I think that gives a warped sense of slow / fast and stopping distances.
Cause I’m a bad man
I mean there’s always the just feel like being a bit of a twat reason and car go vroom, my time is more important than yours etc that accounts for most speeding.
I find a lot though that designing roads to be safe makes it far easier to speed accidently. To make a road safe why widen the lanes, straighten it, and move the shit you might hit back a bit. A quiet motorway is a great example of this. Straight, wide with no visual clutter to tell your brain its dangerous, it’s very easy to do over 70 if you don’t make a habit of checking the speedo. I’ve done 110ish on an airfield on one of those super car experience days, and that didn’t feel as fast as a completely legal 60 on a back country lane with big hedges.
I had one today where the 30 zone extended well past the end of the village. Once the road widened out, the clutter of houses and parked cars in my peripheral vision had disappeared the 30mph that had felt plenty fast in the village suddenly felt like I was barely moving, it’s incredibly easy to speed massively without really intending to be a knob in those circumstances.
I’m plagiarising this from one of those youtube urbanist channels that are appearing everywhere but the only way to stop speeding is to design roads that naturally limit your speed.
Also it has to be said, if you’re sat at an indicated 70 you’re probably going 65 at most. I go off gps speed (for the aforementioned impatient twat reasons) and pass tonnes of people, even though I’m only doing the limit.