Get out of My Way

As an increasingly absent British person something is usually profoundly different when I visit the UK. This time... is everyone driving more slowly?

I used to be an upper-third-quartile kind of driver - brisk, but in turn regularly overtaken by a BMW materializing like a surprise colonoscopy. This time I felt like Mad Max. And it's not just in my head, something has really changed:

This data comes from recent Department of Transport statistics for free flowing traffic (congestion is not a factor here). As recently as 2020 most people were speeding. These days, not.

There are probably many reasons for this. I could ask Claude, but I'd rather speculate.

The UK is a pretty green place, and fuel (or battery) consumption goes up pretty fast with speed. 60 mph is a lot better for the environment than 70 or 80.

Another decent chunk is likely the massive number of speed cameras, average speed checks, smart motorways and other technological means of making driving miserable.

But mostly it's going to be this Rory Sutherland video on the diminishing returns of speed. I should slow down.