Slow driver campaign needed post haste

Speed Kills! Kills! How many of these signs have you seen around Ireland? We motorists are told the worst thing we can do, after drink-driving, is speeding in our cars.
Now there is some merit to this obviously. Mr BMW driver in his Teutonic tank tearing down the inside lane of the dual carriageway at three figure speeds is just the kind of person you want to see pulled over and handed a ticket.
However, let’s face the first reality of modern motoring. Almost all of us speed at some time. We might creep a few miles north of 100kph or we might set our cruise control at 112kph in the hope that we are going faster than some traffic but not fast enough to attract the attention of the authorities.
The margins in urban driving are much, much slimmer. It might seem acceptable to blast through an estate or along a deserted back street at 80kph, but it is not big or clever and nine times out of then if an accident does happen it will not be you in danger, but a pedestrian.
This is a very simplistic argument, of course, but simple messages are most effective when it comes to dealing with serial speeders.
Why is there nothing done about serial slow-coaches?
You travel on a road in Ireland for two hours or more and, chances are, you will have to overtake slower drivers at some stage. There seems to be a driver ‘type’ who, for reasons fathomable only to themselves, insist on travelling 20kph, or more, less than the posted speed limit.
The Road Safety Authority has a campaign in place with signs that say “100kph is a limit, not a target.” I don’t agree. I think it should be a target. Motorists should be encouraged to stick to the speed limit and help create a more efficient road network, with fewer hold-ups.
And this is not just the ranting of some speed merchant. On a recent trip to Galway I met a string of about 15 cars which was being held up by one motorist who decided to travel at less than 80kph on a 100kph national primary road.
The tail back was compacting and expanding like an accordion behind this vehicle. Brake lights were being flashed every few seconds as motorists got too close to the car in front and had to hit the brakes. At one stage it looked like an elaborate light show.
I increased the gap between my car and the one in front to around two seconds (the recommended safe distance). No sooner had I done this than a car overtook three cars and slotted in to the space in front of mine.
Was I at fault for leaving a large space in front of my car? Was the motorists who overtook me at fault for his impatience? Or was the driver at the front of the queue who insisted on travelling almost 30kph slower than the speed limit on a road with ample hard-shoulder space in perfect driving conditions the root cause of all this annoyance.
A few weeks ago I wrote a firmly tongue-in-cheek column about how some road rage was good for you. In instances like these road rage is the enemy and it is perpetuated by drivers who decide to impose their own speed limits.
If this particular motorist was on his driving test and had been travelling that far under the speed limit, chances are he would have failed or been marked down severely.
Part of being a good driver, a competent driver, is your ability to make progress efficiently – to keep up with traffic. It is what every learner driver is told by their instructor.
The authorities hands are tied on this issue because there is no specific legislation for going slower than the speed limit.
However, the Road Safety Authority are spending taxpayers cash in an effort to improve our driving habits and they have never addressed the issue of slow drivers. Maybe now is the time to start.