What are they thinking?
On my commute home from work recently, there was a point where I got off the motorway and onto a dual carriageway that was undergoing roadworks. So getting off the motorway roundabout put you straight into a 40mph zone for a couple of miles, before going back up to the national speed limit of 70mph.
Anyway, I'd get off the motorway and onto the 40mph roadworks area, do 40mph, and be impatiently overtaken by people who are in a terrible rush, or who are special snowflakes to whom laws apparently do not apply (or both), at about 50mph. So far, so normal.
However, once they'd got out of the roadworks area (or, within a couple of hundred meters of the end of it) and onto the ordinary 70mph stretch of dual-carraigeway, they'd accelerate... to 60mph, 10mph under the speed limit. At which point I'd overtake them back again.
The trouble is, I'm trying to figure out why these people drive the way they do. If you're in such a rush, or believe that speed limits do not apply to you, why only do 60mph in a 70mph zone? If you're not, why do 50 in a 40 zone? It's not even like they just didn't slow down in the first place for the 40 zone, as the motorway roundabout/junction requires you to slow to below 40 (or to a stop if the lights are red) to navigate successfully. And they can't have not seen the 40 limit signs, as they were going more slowly than they did not in the 40 zone.
I simply cannot imagine what these people are thinking.
I mean that literally. I am unable to conceive of any possible model for their thought processes which explains the behaviour I actually observe. The only conclusion I can come to is that they're not thinking, while speeding, which is the scariest part of all.
Anyway, I'd get off the motorway and onto the 40mph roadworks area, do 40mph, and be impatiently overtaken by people who are in a terrible rush, or who are special snowflakes to whom laws apparently do not apply (or both), at about 50mph. So far, so normal.
However, once they'd got out of the roadworks area (or, within a couple of hundred meters of the end of it) and onto the ordinary 70mph stretch of dual-carraigeway, they'd accelerate... to 60mph, 10mph under the speed limit. At which point I'd overtake them back again.
The trouble is, I'm trying to figure out why these people drive the way they do. If you're in such a rush, or believe that speed limits do not apply to you, why only do 60mph in a 70mph zone? If you're not, why do 50 in a 40 zone? It's not even like they just didn't slow down in the first place for the 40 zone, as the motorway roundabout/junction requires you to slow to below 40 (or to a stop if the lights are red) to navigate successfully. And they can't have not seen the 40 limit signs, as they were going more slowly than they did not in the 40 zone.
I simply cannot imagine what these people are thinking.
I mean that literally. I am unable to conceive of any possible model for their thought processes which explains the behaviour I actually observe. The only conclusion I can come to is that they're not thinking, while speeding, which is the scariest part of all.