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Does anyone know why some people drive at about 40mph on every type of road, (thankfully not usually motorways), regardless of speed limits, weather, road conditions, school chuck out times, or anything else.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 22 May 10 at 14:09
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I dont know why, but I know of a guy who did and with serious consequences!
My dads business partner before he retired. Posh guy, from posh family. Always drove old Citroens as far back as I can remember. My dad said he used to do 50 mph everywhere, motorway, backroads, even single track roads.
The last one of them was a problem for him as he lives in middle of nowhere and on two occasions he had head-ons with tractors. It never stopped him though, he couldnt see the issue. Nice guy though, cord suits, the whole eccentric posh guy thing, always amused me.
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Because they aren't paying any attention at all, and it requires no effort.
Very common round here, dawdling on the NSLs then speeding through the villages. I know a few; and boy, are they indignant when they are caught speeding!
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Some people have very little awareness of the world around them and live in their own little space. They are the same people who let the door go in your face when following them into a shop or stop as they step off an escalator and cause a pile up behind. They go through the world causing consternation around them but just don't realise it.
Nothing to do I'm afraid. Just give them a wide berth,
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Heh heh, a well-known mimser sub-category ON, seen a few of those today on the way down here to Sunny Sussex. Back this afternoon so there will be more. Sigh.
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I do wonder if the issue with mimsers and slow drivers is not so much that they exist, but some folk here live in places with busier roads so fin themselves suffering from higher traffic density.
I can do a 15 mile journey round here on A-roads and not come across another car for miles nor have one hanging off my bumper, but the times ive been down to sussex and kent, even during the day it seems unbearably busy compared to home.
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You have a good point there, Stu, our local rule of thumb calculation for any journey time is a mile a minute. I know that would not work in many parts of the UK. I don't think congestion effects the "40 everywhere" driver other than slowing them down in town.
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Every car has a comfortable almost silent end frugal cruising speed, we've been out today on country roads and have been lolloping along at around 50, windows open listening to the birds as we cruised quietly in the sunshine with the aircon firmly off, much faster than that and it becomes uncomfortable to have the windows all open and we don't want the sterilised airconned cocoon when nature gives us such a lovely atmosphere.
Don't really have to alter speed too much for bends and the like and it's an easy speed for others to overtake, if they lack the ability to do so doesn't make the slightest difference to me.
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I regularly see these '50' mph drivers near my work in a village and even in a 30 mph limit they still do 50.
Completely oblivious to anything. Its like they are in their little own world while driving.
I saw one last week drive through a red light and they didn't even notice when other cars (that had right of way) had to stop all of a sudden !
Just goes to show there are some unbelievably dangerous drivers out there and they are not always the person in your back bumper flashing lights at you.
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Going to work the other morning, down the coast road, there was a thick mist which brought visibility down to about 50 yards. But the muppets STILL come bowling along as they'd do on a clear day - 50mph all the way...
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It always seems to be 40mph for some unfathomable reason, except for the slightest whiff of a corner, then the speed decreases to anything down to 25mph. At least you can overtake these characters on straight stretches of A roads. They're not as bad as the total idiots who floor it on a straight so that nothing can get past, then slow to a crawl around corners.
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>> It always seems to be 40mph for some unfathomable reason
Maybe, as some folk have alluded to, that some cars are set up/geared to feel best at 40?
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In a lot of cars 40 is the slowest you can comfortably drive in top gear. The mimsers therefore believe they are being economical.
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Sounds like i'll have to put me spats, tweed trousers and flat cap on backwards and jolly well blast round the roads like Toad to fit in here, no thanks.
Lovely sunny day lovely lady at your side enjoying being a woman and all you lot want to do is drive like your lives depend on it, Evo8 would be a good suggestion for your next cars oh and no lady friends.
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Couldnt agree more GB, my misses wont stand for me flying down the road unless something is on fire or somebody is about to die. Ive seen the kind of girls who like Evo 8s - they are not for marrying ;-)
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Driving at the speed limit isn't 'flying down the road', 'driving as if your life depended on it' or anything of the sort, is it?
If people have so much time, why don't they walk or go by canal or take a series of meandering country buses?
Naturally one doesn't want to hurry people or make them flustered. But if they can't drive cars, why do they torture themselves pretending to? Honestly we would all be happier if they gave up trying.
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Well by that token, why dont the fast drivers get off the roads, hire a helicopter and stop complaining.
The gains in driving a bit faster are, well, a bit, minutes and unless someone is about to die, not worth worrying about.
Driving slower has nothing to do with ability, simply a lack of desire to get where one is going in the fastest possible time. There are plenty of crappy drivers who go fast.
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I am by no means a fast driver. Other drivers go considerably faster than me - if one is behind me I allow them to get past at the earliest opportunity. I have no objection whatever to other drivers travelling below the speed limit.
I do object to other drivers not taking any notice of their surroundings, never looking in their mirror, not spotting that someone might want quite legitimately to get past them, or wilfully obstructing others' progress.
By the same token I object to drivers who try to test the limits of their vehicles and their driving on the open road, who take needless risks in order to overtake a slower vehicle, and who have no concern for the safety of others.
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>> Ive seen the kind of
>> girls who like Evo 8s - they are not for marrying ;-)
I must get me an Evo 8
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Worth a try, you'll not pull in the one you've got.
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>>Worth a try, you'll not pull in the one you've got. <<
Well, pull up at an airport and it may pull a fare paying customer.
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>> >>Worth a try, you'll not pull in the one you've got. <<
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>> Well, pull up at an airport and it may pull a fare paying customer.
I'll keep it for another 10 years then you can buy it Stu, you like old taxis.
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>> I must get me an Evo 8
>>
Might just get more than you bargained for, but they say don't knock it till you've tried it.
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Whenever she's a passenger, my non-driver speedometer-watching nit-picking wife complains that I always do 60 mph on single carriageways regardless of whether they're wide and straight or narrow and winding country lanes. When it's dark I turn the fascia illumination down to the minimum in the hope that she can no longer see the speedometer reading. In the good old days I could have just disconnected the speedometer cable!
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If they really are narrow and winding, L'Es, she has a point, but I suspect I'm taking you too literally.
On the GB / AC debate, I think GB's method is entirely valid. 50 is a reasonable enough speed on most B-roads and certainly doesn't amount to wilfully holding up anyone else the way 40-everywhere does. His comments, in fact, show that he drives with mechanical sympathy and situational awareness, which make a pretty good foundation for good, safe and considerate driving. AC is fond of the louche Mr Toad persona he projects here, but condemning as a 'carphound' anyone who treats a speed limit as a limit rather than a target is simply counterproductive - not to mention being a doomed ambition for someone who lives in the southeast of England.
ON's 40-everywhere driver is a menace not because he drives too slowly on the open road but because he drives too fast in town and has no sympathy with or awareness of anything beyond the brim of his tweed hat. GM and CM merely describe driving safely and deliberately within their limits, rather than working themselves into a life-shortening froth of cortisol.
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Well I'll be a 50 everywhere today as I'm taking the Princess to a rally... so the speed merchants better avoid Worcestershire like the plague or they'll get annoyed with me!! ;-)
Last edited by: hobby on Sun 23 May 10 at 09:03
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>> If they really are narrow and winding, L'Es, she has a point, .........
She accuses me wrongly! I've explained to her about speedometer inaccuracy, and parallax errors when the speedometer is viewed from the passenger seat but it hasn't done any good!
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>> GM and CM merely describe driving safely and deliberately within their limits, rather than working themselves into a life-shortening froth of cortisol.
Of course that's what we all do or try to do. I'm afraid the froth you mention is all too familiar though. A lot of my nearest and dearest have warned me about it. But I just can't help it. The competence gap is so yawning sometimes that one genuinely wonders how people have managed to get driving licences, and survived without being taken off the road by an observant traffic policeman.
On the question of speed and limits, I like to nudge people in the right direction in a rudely tongue-in-cheek way. I do think limits are often too low, and I do try to stay a whisker above them rather than 20 or 30 per cent below them, but as people boringly and unnecessarily point out, one's road speed is really governed by road conditions and other traffic and therefore quite often necessarily below the limit. This is very elementary stuff though. I have said before that I have been a consistent violator of speed limits, but that I haven't often gone very fast. You can't after all in most places.
I know GB a bit of old and don't imagine for one minute that he is what I call a mimser. I hope most people here aren't although I must say one or two sound like it. I suppose though that there is little hope of even a decent percentage of drivers, say a third, managing to conduct their steeds in a way that is elegant, predictable and unobstructive (and therefore, by the same token, rapid, efficient and economical). Because the majority seems to consist of terrified, panicky rabbits infantilized and terrorised by the way they are taught to drive and by official speed propaganda and law enforcement into a state of mind dominated by vertigo and denial. While many of the more adult element have had the heart taken out of them by the surrounding mess.
There is nothing to be done about any of this. It's not in our hands. But short of going berserk at the wheel and getting banned or killed, what is a chap to do except resort to furious polemic here and tease people who seem to be soft on mimsing?
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Ahh keep it up AC, better out than in. Especially when it's as fun to read as your tales are.
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>> There is nothing to be done about any of this. It's not in our hands.
>> But short of going berserk at the wheel and getting banned or killed, what is
>> a chap to do except resort to furious polemic here and tease people who seem
>> to be soft on mimsing?
>>
Relax a bit? Or move to a country thats less crowded and has roads easier to overtake on??
Its not the end of the world...
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Thanks hobby. Join the waddling, hypnotised processions or move to Saudi Arabia. Like Balaam's ass I am paralysed by the impossible task of choosing one over the other.
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>> Join the waddling, hypnotised processions or move to Saudi Arabia.
You rather miss the point, AC...relax a bit, don't get wound up, and overtake when you can, but not rashly... thats what I do and I still make good progress... there is no point in getting so wound up that you end up in "angry" mode, which, from what I've seen of your posts, is where you end up.
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> don't get wound up, and overtake when you can
I'm reminded of an often used latin phrase: suoivbo eht gnitats.
Out of the population of motorists, there will probably be something resembling a bell curve distribution of driving ability. The top of the ability scale will complain of the bottom of the scale, it may annoy them so much they may take steps to help improve the folks at the bottom. The bell curve distribution will always persist, and the annoyance factor will always, in general, exist.
Now substitute motorists for golfers. Or mechanics. Or IT staff. Or Police. Or...
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Trouble is that complaining on here isn't going to "educate" the ones who are "supposed" to be in the wrong, as they won't be on here reading and taking notice... so the only thing its doing is allowing someone to get it off their chest, so to speak, but then I wonder if when some of us suggest other approaches to the issue we end up winding them back up?! :)
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You sure it isn't AC winding you all up :)
Pat
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hobby it can never be fixed, as the standards improve in real terms, the expectations will too == back to square one.
As a nation, we can't drive for toffee, but we're still better than a lot of other european countries. It aint so bad really.
Getting it off the chest's the whole idea. I'm 100% sure you'd rather folks like me vented here than turn into a tailgater or helped prop up the statistics.
As for winding anyone up, it's all part of the healing process -- sometimes you'll flick a light switch on in their head and cure them of an ill! -- someone did it for me once, eternally grateful!
Last edited by: CraigP on Mon 24 May 10 at 18:08
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>> >> Join the waddling, hypnotised processions or move to Saudi Arabia.
>>
>> You rather miss the point, AC...
Can't say I've ever noticed AC missing a point, but go ahead & patronise - I look forward to the response. Interesting reference to Saudi Arabia, though - in most respects the populace exhibits the dragooned uniformity of the pods in Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, but on their thrillingly dangerous roads a friendly anarchy is the order of the day. I remember it fondly.
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>> but go ahead & patronise -
>>
It wasn't meant as patronising, purely an observation that the only sensible way to deal with it was by taking it less seriously and getting less wound up... If he takes it as patronising then I apologise, it certainly wasn't meant that way!
Pat, you are probably right, though the number of agressive posts accross the 'net's many forums does seem to be on the increase these days... not sure if thats a good idea or not, on one side there's the "letting off steam" element, on the other there's the view thats its becoming acceptable behaviour... and before anyone says anything, thats a general observation and can only be taken personally if the cap fits!! :-)
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It's his blood pressure, together with the heat, and moving from his beloved City:)
Cut him a bit of slack for a few weeks and he'll get his sense of humour back!
>>>>waiting for Lud to come and tell me he doesn't need a woman to stick up for him......<<<<
Pat
Last edited by: Webmaster on Fri 28 May 10 at 11:55
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Don't worry hobbyhorse, I don't feel slighted in any way. And of course you are right about the benefits of not getting too wound up by things. Everyone says so. And I can't help noticing it myself when I catch myself - I often do - bawling random obscenities in an empty car or worse still one with passengers in it.
My doughty friend Pat, while leaping to my defence, suggests that I have somehow mislaid my sense of humour. Not quite sure how to take that...
:o}
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Thas rather like saying Dick Dastardly has lost his sense of fair play.
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And I was accused of being patronising!
Oh well, best not to try to help sometimes, is it... or express an opinion! ;-)
Last edited by: hobby on Tue 25 May 10 at 08:41
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OK. I'll admit it. I'm a single speed driver. 42 everywhere. Has anyone got a problem with that?
;-)
Well, perhaps not quite. But I drive according to conditions, try to stay below 50 if I'm not in a hurry, and to drive slow enough that I don't have to hit the brakes when I come to a bend in the road. And I believe most of the speed limits in 30 & 40 mph zones, at least in villages in the Highlands, are too low. Basically, I like gordonbennet's approach.
And I strongly agree with CM when he says "I do object to other drivers not taking any notice of their surroundings, never looking in their mirror, not spotting that someone might want quite legitimately to get past them, or wilfully obstructing others' progress."
I would add that I also object to those who negligently obstruct others' progress. If a car is on your tail, and it wasn't there a minute ago, and there is nothing in front of you, you have a moral obligation to make it as easy as possible for it to overtake.
So I'm not a full mimser, just a quasi-mimser.
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Mods, tyro would like his name changed to Heretic please :-P
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Actually, I did rather fancy the idea of changing my name to "Il Mimserino", a reference to a superb piece of writing by Lud a couple of years back.
(see a couple of posts down here: tinyurl.com/33cjp9y)
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you could make clint eastwood film
Il Mimserino, El carphoundo, and someting else.
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...you could make clint eastwood film...
Every Which Way But At 40mph.
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The Good, the Bad and the Forty...
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A Fistful of Forty Dollars
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>> High Plains Mimser...
You get those on the Cat and Fiddle road.
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Wed 26 May 10 at 22:33
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Just imagine you're driving your Gran Torino and you come up behind a Pink Cadillac and the driver gives you the Bird. You throw down The Gauntlet and put yourself In The Line Of Fire. In The Perfect World there would be a Sudden Impact and the Honkytonk Man would offer you a Fistful Of Dollars. Then you'd use your Absolute Power to get away from The Rookie, Any Which Way You Can before going home to Paint Your Wagon as when 'er indoors finds out there'd be Blood Work and you'd feel the City Heat and would remain Unforgiven.
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you would get caught by The Enforcer.
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The single speed driver. - Stuu
