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Drivers Fined For Going Too Slowly

As I was joining the M25 Motorway the other day (major motorway/freeway circling the whole of London) I was rather less than impressed by the driver of the compact car in front of me – the “I drive slowly everywhere, hence I’m a safe driver” type since he went down the ramp at 38mph, but luckily picked up his speed once he was on the motorway…to a dizzying 42mph! The result was that several articulated lorries behind us closed the gap incredibily quickly and had to either slam on their brakes or overtake us rather aggressively.

This made me think that there are cases where speed cameras set to catch cars that are driven too slowly for a given road condition may be required. This is the case with the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy for instance – if you get caught driving at less than 50kph you will get fined! I know this because my Maths teacher at a school in Italy got fined years ago (served him right, I hated him!). Furthermore, since the tunnel fire in 1999 the rules are enforced very strictly.

And speaking of enforcement, it is ironic that the Chinese Police have had to deal with loads of drivers that were either slowing down or actually stopping on the new record-breaking sea-bridge near Shanghai – it was “designed to slash travel time between its port city of Ningbo and the financial hub Shanghai from four hours to two and a half.” [Reuters]. This resulted in “Long lines of cars carrying whole families eager to see the bridge and sea vista [which] have caused serious traffic problems and led to a series of accidents.”

Maybe the slow driver on the M25 was enjoying the views too…

Tags: freeway, motorway, slow drivers, Travel Stories