Safe Speed Forums

I don't drive for a living, but my daily commute of 112 miles (roundtrip) in Cornwall, means that I take driving extremely seriously and cannot afford to lose my licence. I currently have no points and haven't had an accident since I was 18 and stupid, I'm now 26.

Currently, I have to go through two sections of quite serious road development, both with contraflows, reduced speed-limits and general pandamonium. If anyone is familiar with the A30 over Goss Moor then they will know exactly what I mean.

I know my speedo over-reads (I have a GPS speedo on my sat-nav) and so drive accordingly, indicated 44 in a 40 as long as it's safe to do so indicated 79 in a 70 etc. This is so that I a, make good progress and b, don't wind up others on the road more then I have to. I also drive at less then the speed limit when required. My understanding of driving safely is to drive appropriately to the road and conditions up to the speed limit. Not exceeding it. I am certainly not a member of the 40-everywhere club.

Cornwall is one of the worst places for lunatics and I don't know what it is, but unless you do 20mph over the speed limit everywhere you're classed as scum and I think I have fallen foul of this "rule" quite a bit recently.

Just last Friday I was coming home in the evening and hit the first section of the contraflow at Goss Moor; I slowed down to the speed limit and as I was the only car within half a mile (either side of me) I proceeded through with no change in speed. About a mile later, a blue Astra van and an Astra car came screaming up (at least a 30-35mph closing speed)
the van proceeded to take a position about an inch off my rear bumper, gave two long flashes of his headlights and then dropping back slightly obviously accepted the situation. We went through the contraflow and as it ends, the cones come to an end exactly where the NSL signs are. I checked my rear view mirror, the van wasn't indicating, so I started to speed up again to dual-carriageway speed. As I sped up, the Astra behind the van swung out, but as it was a dual-carriageway and there was no pressure to complete an overtake in 50 yards, I kept accelerating gently, at no point accelerating in such a way as to "race" with him.

The Astra overtakes me, pulls in front way too soon, then slams on his
brakes while giving me the wanker sign out the window. Thankfully the Astra van had backed off slightly, or he would have eaten my rear-bumper. A Lexus stops a lot quicker then one of those things!

My question is this. What did I do wrong?

Welcome to the site - I think you'll like it here!

How fast does your car accellerate when you're 'not trying'? It might be that without realising you were 'racing' with him.

Either that or he might just be a jealous w*nker in an astra...

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Well, I have the IS200 so as long as I stay under 4500rpm, it stays out of its VVTi band. I did stay under 3500rpm too. I really wasn't trying. Also, the car's quite slow in the great scheme of things. The 2l engine is really smooth being a 6 cylinder, and has a lot of horsepower for a 2l, but just like most other Japanese cars, the torque is way down on European engines.

sorry, maybe I should clear this up here. No one's ever going to get me to drive with complete disregard for speed-limits, so speeding through a contraflow just isn't going to happen.

My question really is, once reaching the NSL should I:

a, stay at the lower speed while the impatient ones clear me?
b, do what I did?
c, drop down a couple of gears and give it beans while getting back up to the speed limit?

From what you've said I'm not sure to DID do anything wrong - pottering gently back up to speed whilst someone behind has plenty of room to pass....

Just thinking out loud for a moment...

I do wonder if it wasn't an insurance scam maybe or a potenetial car jack? It seems a bit wierd that the van would flash you then back off, unless he'd been having problems with the other astra and was trying to warn you?

Dunno. It sounds to me like it might just have been one of those things...

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

I doubt he was trying to crash, he sped off as soon as he had vented his rage.

He was probably just annoyed that you had "held him up" through the contraflow, and wanted you to know it. I doubt it was anything to do with the speeding up afterwards.

I think you did the right thing, b.

If you overtake, you should do as quickly as possible. So, unless you were giving it some, even a lesser powered motor (in terms of peak power/torque) would have been able to overtake safely.

I only get annoyed when someone changes their "acceleration" not just their speed. That is, if you were accelerating slowly, and then as soon as I was on your side, you started accelerating more vigorously I would definitely feel a bit annoyed. But still, I would either accelerate harder, or jst back off and get back behind you. Still, I would not cause a potential accident.

The point unfortunately is that the Astra-man oviously doesn't understand why people who were going "slowly" according to him, would then speed up when the speed limit increases.

It was obviously bad judgement on his part.

Sounds like another idiot to me.

Something else I've noticed lately...

You're driving down a single carriageway road (A or B-road). You come up behind Mr 40 Everywhere. You know the road, so you hold back for a little bit, You know there's a long straight round the next bend so you take up the overtaking position well in advance.

The road opens up, you accelerate, overtake... and as you tuck back in the guy you've just overtaken sits there flashing his headlights and making "wanker" signs at you. WTF... that was a perfectly safe overtake!

This could have been an attempted scam. You drive a Lexus; that makes you a mark. They attempt to induce an "accident". They give their own version of what happened and claim against your insurance company for all manner of injuries sustained.
It may not have been this, could just have been a couple of wankers; either way you seem to have got off lightly.

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Occasionally slightly trollish.

Why would driving a Lexus IS200 "make you a mark"?

It's just a nice, well built, anonymous mid-sized saloon.

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Simon

Indeed, its only a Toyota with different badges afterall.

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www.misspelled-signs.com - A tribute to illiterate signwriters.

This wasnt a scam, it was a couple w@nkers mate, forget it.

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Any man can be a father, it takes someone special to be a daddy.

Exactly what I thought. This is of course exacerbated by having limits which people perceive as unreasonably low, and this is often the case in motorway roadworks, especially when there are no workmen. But as long as they're not deliberately obstructing you, there is never any excuse for having a go at someone just for keeping to the limit. The OP did nothing wrong IMHO.


I had exactly the same thing last week. NSL road, 40-everywhere in front. I even passed up a couple of safe opportunities and waited for the really straight bit so that I could take my time (relatively anyway). Got repeatedly flashed as soon as I had gone past, despite taking great pains to ensure that I treated him with the utmost respect.

I will never understand people who would rather keep someone behind them than let them past. Most of the time I can understand why people do things even if I don't agree with them, but I can't fathom what people think they'll gain from the above behaviour. It's utterly bizarre.

In their mind they are doing a "reasonable and sensible speed", however for you to overtake them you have passed their threshold and are therefore considered by them to be a "reckless and dangerous speeder" even though you are within the speed limit or even possibly exceeding it slightly for a safe overtake.

Nothing you can do to change their opinions. Just continue on your way.

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Prepare to be Judged

There are nutters around. Once I slowed down gently because the light ahead was red, and would clearly be red for some time. Unfortunately I had a boy racer behind me. Half a mile down the road he undertook me (just after I had pulled out to overtake another car), pulled in front of me, and slowed down to about 10 mph. Obviously his way of paying me back for "holding him up".

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Brian

Same experience here. But a new twist is Mr 40 will look in his mirror and from time to time stick on his RH indicator as though he's about to pull across you forcing you to drop back. When you can find a safe place and overtake before he puts his indicator on you get the full works horn and all

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Richard Ceen
We live in a time where emotions and feelings count far more than the truth, and there is a vast ignorance of science (James Lovelock 2005)

No insult but I'm not sure this is even worth discussing.
You were driving in the correct manner and you happened to encounter a small boy with penis envy. Drive a truck and you see it so many times you won't even see it as remarkable.

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Smokebelching,CO2 making,child murdering planet raping,granny mugging,politically incorrect globally warming (or is it climate changing now it's getting colder?)thug.
That's what the government want you to believe of me. If they get back in I'm emigrating.