Slow drivers should not be allowed on busy roads, or main highways during peak hour, unless of cause they have a valid reason, being a doctors appointment or the likes, but not a game of lawn bowls.

Frustration is one of the main causes of accidents, and slow non courtious drivers are one of the main Causes of frustration.

I have a slogan for road users, it goes, "if you wish to lead, at least do the speed". In other words, if you can't travel at the speed limit, then get out of the way.

Fortunately, around here at least, most of our slow drivers avoid peak hour. Unfortunately for me, as I also avoid peak hour, one of the advantages of being a retired old fart, so they head out at the same time I do.

Luddy to me anyone doing less than 90 in a hundred zone is dawdling. Fortunately our old drivers were brought up in the days of very slow trucks, & many old slow cars, so are unruffled by overtaking, or being overtaken. Unfortunately many middle aged drivers did not have this experience, & appear to take being overtaken as an extreme insult.

I have been flashed when I have overtaken someone doing 80 in a 100 zone, on a mile long straight stretch with no other traffic visible. No wonder some give in to their road rage tendencies.

I used to have to drive very gently around corners with some of our horses, who were bad travelers in the float. Even so, I could always avoid having more than a couple of cars stuck behind me for long. Unfortunately many slow drivers think it is their civic duty to prevent other drivers driving faster than them.

Well, must go shopping in town, 25 kilometers away. I'll be taking the little Oz Ford Capri, the 2+2 convertible. It is the only car I have with paintwork rough enough to park in supermarket car parks. I may be a while if I meet any of those dawdlers. The poor little thing takes a country mile to get up to passing speed, & there aren't many of those around here, so see you next week.

Hassie,

The ones that get me are those who drive just enough below the speed the conditions and prevailing limit would easily allow to be annoying, and then speed up just enough on the clear stretches to make it too difficult and dangerous to pass, and then, when you do manage to overtake, they proceed to sit right on your tail and at the very first chance race past you at an astonishing rate.
(You can just sense the virtual 'finger' as they race away.)
I then just hang back and give such m**grels a clear birth - you never know what they may do next.

The other poor sods I dislike (but who themselves have no real vindictiveness in their souls) are those who slow down to, or below, the 'advisory speed sign' speed at every curve in the road (irrespective of the conditions), and then floor it on the straight stretches - where one might otherwise have a chance to overtake.
Annoying, but I usually find a chance to overtake by hanging back a bit at a likely curve, and then flooring it going into and coming out of the curve so I can zip past before they know what's happening. (Rear wheel drive.)
A bit dicey, but ok if one has sufficient skill - and of course always mindful that there may be an oncoming vehicle at the other end of the 'whip'.

Ah, the joys of country driving.

I can't agree with Butch though. There will always be slow drivers, and they need to be treated with courtesy (just like all road users), but also with care, for some slow drivers can sometimes make erratic moves without warning. Part of getting old I guess, and perhaps a little absent-minded.
Discretion is the better part of valour, in such circumstances.

Mind you, some young people who think they are 'Jack Brabham' are a bit of a worry - as much for their own sakes, as for others.

<< The ones that get me are those who drive just enough below the speed the conditions and prevailing limit would easily allow to be annoying, and then speed up just enough on the clear stretches to make it too difficult and dangerous to pass… >>

I often feel the same, Salty. That can be very annoying.

However, they are doing precisely what the law, and the principles of commonsense / safety-first / erring-on-the-side-of-caution would have us all do – drive a little bit below the speed limit most of the time, hang it back a bit on the curves and crests, take heed of the advisory signs and perhaps take it right to the limit or a bit over on the straights. All of that really does amount to good driving. I think we just have to exercise patience with that sort of driver.

I do find that a bit difficult sometimes. However, there are much more annoying things on the road for one to get worked up about.

One very common thing that really peeves me out there on the open road is drivers who just have to pass you even when you are sitting right up there on the fringe of the bookable speed – 5 or 8kmh or so over the legal limit. They have to sit too close behind until they can overtake, and then after overtaking they go no faster at all, and often a bit slower than what you were going!!

The worst to me are those who drive 10/15Km/H under the limit in 100 zones, then at 10/15Km/H over the limit in the 60Km/h zones, making getting clear of them very difficult. I avoid the Hume highway in northern NSW because of this driving.

One of the best memories of my father was with one of those fast down the straight people. Dad had been a light horseman, & was a better horseman than mechanic or driver.

He was driving an early post WW11 Woolsey in the mid 60s, one of those big square heavy things of prewar origin, as seen in the Foyle's War TV show. It accelerated very slowly.

We were following a lady through the suburban streets, with many intersection type turns. She was driving a newish auto, & was virtually stopping at every turn, although it was a main connecting road, then blasting off down the straight. This necessitated dad going right through the gears from first, every couple of hundred yards, when he caught her at the next turn.

After about the 6Th near stop he quietly said, to himself I think, "Oh for gods sake lady, why don't you get out & carry the damn thing around the corners". He would never have shouted at another driver, but the frustration of following that lady, in the lumbering great Woolsey was obviously telling.

It was to be another 10 years before I got him into an automatic, something more suited to his driving ability. Still I don't think he ever entirely trusted a car that changed it's own gears, even if it was easier.

Most roundabouts have negative camber which tends to make them a bit unsafe, especially in the wet, but saves on the drainage costs.

The obstructions to vision that adorn most of them are there because of policy, the thought behind it is that drivers may speed up to get to the roundabout first if they have a clear vision of the approaching traffic; I've had a couple of near misses when a car has entered much to fast and has suddenly shot around the vegetation on my right.
Had there been a collision then I'd have been in the wrong for not giving way to a vehicle already in the roundabout, based on distance from point of entry.