IS DRIVING TOO SLOW JUST AS DANGEROUS AS SPEEDING?

Whether you’re travelling down the motorway or passing through a residential area, driving too fast is extremely dangerous.

However, a recent study highlighted by the RAC has suggested that driving your car too slowly runs the same amount of risks as speeding.

Let’s take a closer look.

How driving too slowly causes issues

In the eyes of the law, driving too slowly is a hazard to those who are following the speed limit maximum and may cause unnecessary road rage to other drivers. This can then lead to them taking risks and making reckless decisions on the road.

Faster cars then need to apply their brakes sharply which can create a domino effect and result in crashes and traffic.

Another negative is that HGVs and larger vehicles may then decide to use the faster lanes on dual carriageways or a motorway to overtake, creating further congestion and pile-ups.

In fact, hogging the middle lane on a motorway when the left-lane is free can actually cost you a nasty £100 on the spot fine and three points on your driving license. Yet despite this law, 32% of drivers admitted to confused.com that they are guilty of doing this on a regular basis.

Why do people drive too slowly?

There are a number of reasons why people might decide to drive slowly. For instance, they might not be as confident on the road as other drivers due to health-related issues like bad eyesight, poor reactions or anxiety of causing an accident.

However, there will be the odd driver who breaks the law by using their phone. In such cases, providing you are in a safe position to do so, it might be worth reporting these people to the police if you think they are putting other pedestrians and drivers at risk.

How slow can you go?

In the UK, there isn’t actually a minimum speed limit in place unless you pass certain stretches of road. You can recognise these minimum speed limits when you see a round blue sign with white numerals.

But for most roads, there isn’t any real guidance to go off. And to top it off, driving too slowly or braking for no real reason is actually deemed as an offence, coming under the category of ‘inconsiderate driving’.

As a rule of thumb, you should use the maximum speed limits as a guideline. If you don’t stray too far below the speed limit, you won’t put others at risk or break the law.

To help give you an extra nudge while you drive, a lot of modern sat navs can notify you of a road’s speed limit. To see our full range of sat navs at Halfords, take a look here.

Or for more driving tips, check out our previous blog: ‘7 obscure driving laws you might be unaware of’.