Playing leap frog

Story Bud?

This is mostly a rant but anyway. I just did a round trip from Dublin to Limerick this afternoon and the number of cars that played leap frog with me was ridiculous.

I maintained the same speed the whole way pretty much, but these cars would speed up to overtake, then slow down, then speed back up to overtake me again.

People: Maintain yer bleedin speed will ya? Ye were doin' me nut in.

Why do drivers do it? Bother anyway else or just my rangy head?

Superwofy

If they're that impatient I find it's easier to just pull as far as possible to the left, slow down and let them pass. Saves me the bother of constantly checking my rearview to check their distance.

Story Bud?

Superwofy wrote: »

If they're that impatient I find it's easier to just pull as far as possible to the left, slow down and let them pass. Saves me the bother of constantly checking my rearview to check their distance.

I think you misunderstood my post.

Dublin to Limerick is virtually motorway. I'm driving in left hand lane at continuous speed. They overtake. Then they slow down way below the speed limit. So I end up having to overtake them again (I haven't increased or decreased my speed). Then they speed up to way above the limit overtake me and do the same things few times over.

odyssey06

Are you driving a wide load vehicle or something? People see something they think will be slow and overtake it... but maybe you're not as slow as you look.

If you're driving a regular vehicle... I don't know what to tell you. Seems like strange behaviour.

colm_mcm

Happens me a good bit on the m7 too.

Seth Brundle

It's just crap Irish drivers not wanting anyone else in front of them.

Story Bud?

odyssey06 wrote: »

Are you driving a wide load vehicle or something? People see something they think will be slow and overtake it... but maybe you're not as slow as you look.

If you're driving a regular vehicle... I don't know what to tell you. Seems like strange behaviour.

Nope, driving a 22 year old mr2.

It's happened to me before where one car will do it for a while but there were at least 7 cars that did it on the way down today. Traffic was much heavier on the way back so it didn't happen that way.

Just crap drivers is right. Makes absolutely no sense to me. Would that not wreck your head driving like that?

Supergurrier

Look down at phone text/notification while doing 80-90kmph

Look up from phone take off like a loon for afew minutes

Get a reply slow down to 80-90kmph to check phone

Look up and speed off again.

aido76

I have had this on the M6/M4 also. driving along 120kph or so with the cruise control on and overtake a car then 2 mins later they are speeding past me and guess what 5mins later I am right up behind them again and haven't changed speed. So annoying.:mad:

Atlantic Dawn

Best way around it is stick your car to roughly 130kph on your speedo and leave it there, should give an actual speed of 120kph, problem solved.

pred racer

colm_mcm wrote: »

Happens me a good bit on the m7 too.

11 times between roscrea and newlands cross is my record. A woman in an smax. I was on cruise the whole time

ironclaw

Most drivers have no concept of speed or maintaining it. Simple as. They see a car, can't stand it to be in front, speed up to overtake, then lacking all focus and concentration, just slow down and eventually are passed again. Rinse and repeat.

TL;DR - Stupidity.

Supergurrier

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Best way around it is stick your car to roughly 130kph on your speedo and leave it there, should give an actual speed of 120kph, problem solved.

This is exactly what i do, works a treat

Ego is a mad thing OP. There's also the aspect of simple schizophrenia. i've seen it a lot on long trip motorways. You're not alone on this, rest assured;)

Supergurrier

You think its bad in a car imagine what its like in a 3.5t or so box body van dealing with crosswinds just about able to do the 120 and somebody keeps doing this and you either have your momentum made ****e of or you need to eek past them slowly with traffic bearing down on you in the distance.

jimgoose

Lot of gowls on the M7, particularly towards the Dublin end. Put the hoof down a bit and screw 'em.

pablo128

Supergurrier wrote: »

You think its bad in a car imagine what its like in a 3.5t or so box body van dealing with crosswinds just about able to do the 120 and somebody keeps doing this and you either have your momentum made ****e of or you need to eek past them slowly with traffic bearing down on you in the distance.

LOL. Our old work wagon, an '02 2.8 NPR curtainsider was like that but with added sloppy steering. I used to call the overtaking lane 'no mans land' when I was driving it.

jimgoose wrote: »

Lot of gowls on the M7, particularly towards the Dublin end. Put the hoof down a bit and screw 'em.

In a car, this is the thing to do. Blitz them and they give up. If they don't give up and give chase, run them up to 90/100 mph and slow back down. They will realise then how thick they are.

Supergurrier

pablo128 wrote: »

LOL. Our old work wagon, an '02 2.8 NPR curtainsider was like that but with added sloppy steering. I used to call the overtaking lane 'no mans land' when I was driving it.

How fast you were going depended on the direction of the wind, luckily we have upgraded to a 161 Peogeot Maximover

jackofalltrades

Always found the M8 to be bad for this kind of behaviour.
For a lot of drivers out there their world exists for around 25m behind and 100m in front of their car.
They're in a motorway induced coma and you passing them out wakes them up.
They realise that they can speed up as they're under the speed limit or they're just dicks who don't like to be overtaken.

I've had people do this to me while I'm on cruise control and I just know they're thinking "who's this ejit overtaking me again".
It's best to drive on right on the limit using a GPS reading, seems to scare off a lot of dopey drivers.

pablo128

Supergurrier wrote: »

How fast you were going depended on the direction of the wind, luckily we have upgraded to a 161 Peogeot Maximover

Oh I know all about it. I once saw 75mph downhill on the way to Cork, 5th gear and the rev counter in the red!:pac: And as slow as 30mph uphill with a headwind!

We have the same make and model now but it's 2011. It's like a Bentley compared to the other yoke.

Del2005

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Best way around it is stick your car to roughly 130kph on your speedo and leave it there, should give an actual speed of 120kph, problem solved.

Happened to me on the M1 with cc set to 130. After the 5th or 6th time passing the same car knocked it back to 125 and didn't pass them again.

Story Bud?

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Best way around it is stick your car to roughly 130kph on your speedo and leave it there, should give an actual speed of 120kph, problem solved.

This is pretty much where I was at.

These guys were dropping and increasing their speed quite significantly, not just by a couple of km.

All of them ultimately ended up behind me as eventually they didn't bother overtaking the final time.

The poster who mentioned getting texts could well be right.

savagethegoat

happens all the time to me too. I stick to a constant 120 (as suggested 130 on the speedo works for me) and I'm forever having to deal with people who slow up and then re-pass me a minute or two later (and repeat)

Endaaaagh

This is very noticable when I'm driving with cruise control.
Happened to me on the Gort/limerick motorway. I was driving along @ around 120kph with the cruise control set when I noticed a micra in my rear view mirror slowly approaching. Next thing it moved to the overtaking lane and proceeded to very slowly overtake me (took 30-60secs to get past me). When it eventually got in front it pulled back in and slowed down causing me to have to swerve out around it.:mad:

hi5

I see this all the time too. A lot of cars slow down going up gradients and speed up going down because the drivers keep their foot at the same position on the accelerator.
I gave up using cruise on the motorways, not worth it.
People are competitive, being in front means a lot to some of them, and driving a 22 year old mr2 you become a target, just take a few deep breaths, hang back for a while and let them off.
As for driving past the speed limit, its not worth getting points over someone else's bad behaviour.

_Brian

I was on way back from Belfast few weeks ago with the caravan in tow. I always use the cruise control and set it to ~95km/hr.
Twice I was overtaking cars when they started to speed up slowly, resulting with us being side by side for too long on the motorway, such bad driving practice it's just being s complete tool.

Can't understand people who don't just hold a constant speed where the road allows.

Mc Love

Like many posters, I just drive a bit quicker to put some distance between us, stops them from carrying on like that.

Or what I have noticed on the M7 some cars speed past you and then a few km's up the road you have to pass them because they are crawling along

Caliden

Sometimes with cruise control on you end up undertaking someone who just went past but has stayed in the overtaking lane. Completely different topic but unless I have to overtake slower traffic I just stay in the left lane and cruise by.

Skatedude

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Best way around it is stick your car to roughly 130kph on your speedo and leave it there, should give an actual speed of 120kph, problem solved.

why do people always assume their speedo is that far off, my last 4 cars speedo was accurate to 1 mph or spot on using a gps speedo an flat straight roads

bear1

It can cause road rage as well.
I had some utter gob****e of a woman who was doing below 100 on the motorway and I sped past at 130ish.
Next thing I know she is flooring it to get to me and then moves to overtake.
Now, she doesn't even overtake, instead she just sits to the right of me and stays there.
I see a truck in front of me approaching and I want to overtake but this bitch is having none of it and refuses to speed up or pull back into the left to let me pass.
So I have to slow right down and overtake. She finally gets past the truck, moves the left and slows down again and I overtake.
The dirtiest looks in the world fired my way while I overtake and then what do I see in my mirror? Her again coming up to me.
Well fcuk this I thought and floored it.
****ing eejits on the roads which that time turned me also into an eejit for speeding.

savagethegoat

Skatedude wrote: »

why do people always assume their speedo is that far off, my last 4 cars speedo was accurate to 1 mph or spot on using a gps speedo an flat straight roads

that can't be the case unless you kept the cars for such a short period that tyre wear didn't influence matters.

bear1

savagethegoat wrote: »

that can't be the case unless you kept the cars for such a short period that tyre wear didn't influence matters.

You can have your speedo calibrated can you not?

Atlantic Dawn

Skatedude wrote: »

why do people always assume their speedo is that far off, my last 4 cars speedo was accurate to 1 mph or spot on using a gps speedo an flat straight roads

I've tested with a mobile phone and with a sat nav and both indicated an error of 8-10kph under the actual speed when doing 120kph on the car speedo. Same occured on my last car and the car before that.

Tigger

bear1 wrote: »

You can have your speedo calibrated can you not?

Tyre wear means that your speedo will be most accurate at correct pressures and new tyres
Once the tyres have started to wear the reading will become progressively over

Alun

Tigger wrote: »

Tyre wear means that your speedo will be most accurate at correct pressures and new tyres
Once the tyres have started to wear the reading will become progressively over

Not as bad as you'd think. Typically there will be less than 2% difference between new tyres at 8mm and worn ones at 3mm.

MarkAnthony

Combination of stupidity, not concentrating and the car you drive; happens to me constantly in my Fiat 500. They see it, overtake, realise I'm doing 140 and then slow down. Usually it's no biggie but it's fecking annoying when circumstances mean I have to slow down and speed back up again. A Fiat 500 with a 6'2" fat man in it doesn't have much acceleration.

Tommyboy40

Normally they wait for you to pass at 130 on cruise then floor it to overtake and pull in directly in front of you at 120. I'm in a 5.0 V8 and people seem to take it as an insult to be passed.

farna_boy

Tommyboy40 wrote: »

Normally they wait for you to pass at 130 on cruise then floor it to overtake and pull in directly in front of you at 120. I'm in a 5.0 V8 and people seem to take it as an insult to be passed.

You should see how bad people get when you overtake them while driving a Corsa. I lost count of the amount of times I passed people on a motorway and they would have to overtake me again even if they were taking the next junction. It was actually just kind of pathetic.

bear1

that time turned me also into an eejit for speeding.

But according to your post, you already were speeding, anyway? :P

bear1 wrote: »

woman who was doing below 100 on the motorway and I sped past at 130ish.

bear1

Deleted User wrote: »

But according to your post, you already were speeding, anyway? :P

Yep but only slightly