The lost pleasure of driving

[cleverusername]

I had to make a long distance trip for a course for work. Which of course meant driving on Britain's increasingly unpleasant roads. Clogged with traffic, surrounded by lorries, tailgaters, broken road surfaces, endless daft speed restrictions, average cameras protecting road workers without a worker in sight and licence destroying cameras everywhere. I can't say it was fun.

So on the way back I turned off the motorway and went the backway. At first it seemed like a bad decision, caught in the rush hour in some shitty northern town, but then I escaped the traffic into a lost world. No speed cameras, no traffic, national speed limit, fantastic road and scenery.

Yet it made me feel a bit depressed, because I knew that it wouldn't be long before some health and safety idiot from the council, backed up by the oh why won't you think of the children lot, would ruin it. It would be reduced to an absurd limit, covered in cameras, speed bumps and be completely ruined.

You may think that is absurd, but that is what is happening all over the country. Look at the Black mountain road near the Welsh border, beloved by driving enthusiasts. Which has been ruined with an absurd 40 limit. I can see a day when the health and safety nazis ruin every road in the country,

[tony g]

Yes I agree. Its happening to protect the idiot unaware drivers that drive sensible modern cars that think for them, all made far more obvious when we drive our Triumphs. Im always leaving a large gap in front of me so when someone is late braking behind me I can have a chance of moving forward out of their way when they finally realise the car wont stop for them

Tony

[oily66]

For the record, there are "shitty towns" in the South also.

[trackerjack]

Well you have a very valid point and it is obvious from observing the drivers who regardless of conditions go at the speed limit because some idiot has said its a limit.
Where I live I often travel at 15 mph below the limit because its not safe to go faster.
Near me in Horndean Hants there is a road with side turnings housings and businesses plus bus stops and the limit is 60mph however there is another road where there are fields and no turnings where the speed limit is 40mph so limits are just opinions in reality.
I hate driving now and avoid it whenever possible but still pick times and places to go using my sports cars. At other times we use the trusty old BMW 318 to plod to destinations.
As I write this the young lad with the motorbike down the road has accelerated past our house like a rocket (we live in a cul-de-sac) but motorcyclist's never obey any speed limits anywhere and wonder why people pull out on them, but that's another story.

[SprintMWU773V]

I do like to go for a drive, especially in the Mazda. Trouble is we're now deep into the tractor season so you have to watch out as scores of farm machinery takes to the roads and causes a nuisance, oh and Kia drivers. Nothing says you're not interested in cars more than driving a Kia, except perhaps a Dacia. I've driven both and can confirm they are more than capable of exceeding 40mph and yet most of them are not driven like this.

[Galileo]

I do like to go for a drive, especially in the Mazda. Trouble is we're now deep into the tractor season so you have to watch out as scores of farm machinery takes to the roads and causes a nuisance, oh and Kia drivers. Nothing says you're not interested in cars more than driving a Kia, except perhaps a Dacia. I've driven both and can confirm they are more than capable of exceeding 40mph and yet most of them are not driven like this.

Cars that can only do 40mph, nothing more nothing less? I'll throw in the Honda Jazz then.

Most backroads around me have in the last couple of years had 50mph limits slapped on them, must have cost a fortune in miles of repeater signs being installed where there used to be just the one NSL sign. Nice little cash cow as well for the local safety camera partnership vans that target straight rural sections with no side roads but ignore urban roads such as those around schools.

[Carledo]

Don't get me started! PLEASE! Don't even GO there!

Steve

I live in one of these lovely unrestricted rural backwaters, every day, it shrinks a little!

[James467]

As I've been recommissioning RUK I've been having to run up and down the road quite a lot to test things. I'm lucky in that at the end of the road there's a nice of 60mph speed limit separated by a couple of roundabouts so I can do some loops, the road is relatively straight so I can get her up to speed under load. The problem is that people drive so sodding slow and I have to do a couple of loops to find a decent gap in the traffic, I have been known to circle the roundabout a couple of times to let cars go.

[Galileo]

Do you ever get other drivers with an "oh look an old car it'll be slow must overtake" syndrome? I get that then the nobber slows right down, and then I end up having to overtake them, happens with annoying regularity, though I do enjoy the bit where I leave bits of rubber on their windscreens as I disappear off in a cloud of unburnt hydrocarbons into the distance. I know, I'm such a child...

[uphill racer]

Mustn't rant... mustn't rant... mustn't rant... blood pressure rising, steam building up under collar...

I'll openly admit to driving like an old fart on the road (mainly because I am one) but I still get wound up by inappropriate speed limits. 40mph and 50mph limits on country roads - the person who came up with them deserves to have their underpants infested with the fleas of a thousand camels. I've had it suggested to me that if they designate a lower limit, the maintenance standards are lower and it's therefore a cost saving measure. The opportunity to scam people with speed cameras (I refuse to refer to them as anything to do with that other "S" word that is commonly linked with "Health") is just a bonus.

And don't get me started on bikes...

Aaaand breathe...

[tony g]

I get this a lot where 2 lanes at the lights become 1 a bit further up. The sprint 0-40 is very good and i regularly show people its not a Morris 8 lol..yes im a child too

Tony

Do you ever get other drivers with an "oh look an old car it'll be slow must overtake" syndrome? I get that then the nobber slows right down, and then I end up having to overtake them, happens with annoying regularity, though I do enjoy the bit where I leave bits of rubber on their windscreens as I disappear off in a cloud of unburnt hydrocarbons into the distance. I know, I'm such a child...

[tinweevil]

I live in one of these lovely unrestricted rural backwaters, every day, it shrinks a little!

Me too. The calls for stupid speed limits in the papers every time some wazzock wraps himself round a tree does get the pressure rising somewhat. Do they teach in driving lessons that the numbers on the posts are what you should do in all weathers now? Funny how they are always 'a good kid really' or 'the kindest sole you could meet'. Evidence suggest rather that they were 'a clueless idiot' or 'unable to resist unwise goading from mates' or 'had inflated self confidence'.

[Galileo]

Don't forget that it's not speed that kills, but the stopping quickly...

[NickMorgan]

Do you ever get other drivers with an "oh look an old car it'll be slow must overtake" syndrome? I get that then the nobber slows right down, and then I end up having to overtake them, happens with annoying regularity, though I do enjoy the bit where I leave bits of rubber on their windscreens as I disappear off in a cloud of unburnt hydrocarbons into the distance. I know, I'm such a child...

I continually get people pulling out in front of the TR3. I don't know if it is because it is small they think it is far away, or because it is old they think it is slow. It is a frustratingly regular occurrence though!

[Mahesh]

I've come up to Highley today, a lot of motorway drivers will think again about an old car being slow.