From: ianking@nnsgs52 (Ian King)
Newsgroups: uk.transport
Subject: Re: Stopping/Speed > 70mph
Date: 20 Jan 1993 09:50:59 GMT
Organization: Northern Telecom Europe Ltd
Distribution: uk
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Martin Croxford (martin@praxis.co.uk) wrote:

: Ian King (ianking@nnsgs52) wrote:

: >                   The faster you go the less chance you have in stopping.
: > You might have ABS/4-wheel drive but what about the chap behind/in front?
: > or the chap behind/in front of him? 

: If you drive so that you can stop in the distance you can see to be
: clear the problem becomes one of judging the stopping distance. Even
: experienced drivers can get this wrong; I think a lot of people get used
: to everybody stopping at the same time which is fine unless the car in
: front stops instantly (in a pile-up). When first showed the two-second
: rule I was astounded at how long the stopping distance at 70mph was. And
: it only "works" in ideal conditions up to 70mph. 

: The "chap behind" is a problem. It is possible to pull over and let them
: pass, but even driving at 60mph there will be somebody too close. An
: extreme solution would be to leave an enormous gap in front which would
: allow you to decelerate less and allow the "chap behind" to wake up.
: Apart from that the solution is education.

When this happens (often on the M1/M25), since the wally behind doesnt
appreciate that he/she is too close, I try to drive for both of us ie give
enough gap in front so hopefully I can slow us both down in time.. Having 
increased the gap I sometimes touch the brake pedal just enough to put the 
lights on & hopefully wake the other driver up. Even if that doesnt work,
at the earliest opportunity I will get out of the way. Its called 
self-preservation.

:  
: >                                 In any case why drive faster than
: > 70mph? It *doesnt* get you there much quicker unless your journey is
: > longer than say 1.5hours. You can get your calculator out but any calcs
: > you do cannot allow for weather conditions or the odd shunt or breakdown.

: Depending on conditions, I generally find driving in the third lane at
: 80mph less stressful than driving at 70mph in the second lane. For
: example, rather than follow a coach at 70mph for two hours I'd rather
: accelerate past it and slow down to 75mph. Better visibility, less
: fatigue. For long journeys an extra 10mph can save a lot, especially when
: trying to get past (say) Birmingham before the rush hour starts.

Interesting... I find driving at 70mph *less* stressful than driving at
80mph whichever lane I'm in. When the Rover had its 2nd speedo 70mph was
really 80mph. The third speedo (some 106,000 miles ago) fixed that. 

As far as I'm concerned increasing speed above the limit to overtake a
coach and then returning to the limit is perfectly acceptable (to the police
too). You are only going above the limit during a manoeuvre. You are not
constantly driving above the limit.

The extra 10mph in theory might save time. But then you could argue that
an extra 20mph or 30mph would save you even more time. The answer is to
drive at 70mph and leave *earlier*. In any case you never know what is 
going to happen on that motorway in advance... a small shunt on the M1 or
even a broken down vehicle can bring the whole lot to a complete standstill
and completely jam up all surrounding roads.

Regards...
.........Ian


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