Going Slow Can Be Dangerous? Look Out For The Driver Behind You.
Many things annoy us when we are on the road and there normally isn’t one thing that universally sticks out as being the single thing most of us hate.
However, a survey conducted by Confused.com has found out that a massive 60% of us experience increased levels of stress and heightened irritability when we are following a vehicle that’s being driven more slowly than we think it should be.
If a vehicle does not keep up with the rest of the traffic, nearly half of the drivers in the UK would attempt an unsafe overtaking manoeuvre and that’s where it gets dangerous.
There is no doubt that driving well below the natural speed that most of us think appropriate for the road in question, is a very anti-social thing to do and now thanks to Confused.com, we know its dangerous as well.
There are laws such as due care and attention that could apply, but we all know that never happens, so maybe we could introduce laws like they have in Europe which call for a slow moving vehicle to pull in a the first opportunity to let the vehicles behind them get past.
We bang on about those drivers who go far too fast and it seems ironic that it’s now those that drive to slowly that are getting our attention, but clearly, this is an issue and some have called for having “minimum” speed limits enforced by camera. Trucks that are restricted to 40mph on single carriageways are also adding to the frustration of drivers who find themselves bottled up behind them.
There was however a recent campaign promoted by BRAKE to get drivers to drive at 20mph or slower in 30 limits and that’s simply ridiculous when there are no hazardous situations and in fact, if you did that during your driving test, it would lead to you failing the test.
Driving is all about being reasonable and thinking of others around you and perhaps showing some good old fashioned courtesy and it’s much more than just a way to get from A to B. Driving is not about daydreaming or listening to the radio its one of the most dangerous things any of us do and we have an absolute duty to every other road user to be part of a team and look out for other drivers and help and co-operate where we can. Its not about preventing the car behind from passing or making sure the car ahead cant get out of the side road in front of you and that my friend is where we are getting it wrong, as we treat it as an adversarial experience and one where we do nothing to help the other fellah, yet everything to make sure no one pushes in front of us in the queue and makes us 40 seconds late arriving home.
