Truck Drivers think ahead.
If I am going to hold up a whole line of traffic on a long hill, I keep out of the outside lane, unless I know I can get past the slower vehicle "In good time", unless there are more than two lanes that is, then use the outside lane to get past?.
You also have "sheep".
I get this daily, and it doesnt help there are now cars with DME, [distance measuring equipment] that allows them to just auto-cruise behind the vehicle in front...
I know someone who is working on that system to "Disrupt" the kind of radar that locks onto your bumper to follow you because he is fed up of it.
Some people would prefer to just follow the car in front than set their own pace... they see it as "easier".
It aint, its Lazy, and driving on someone elses brake lights, you are missing what they dont see, and if they have an incident it could have been the one you missed?.
You also get the "Let me be first" who completely independent of the speed of the surrounding traffic just simply HAVE to overtake and be at the front.
You also have the "Nose-fly".
I am going to name the monkey... bloody mobile home caravanner who will NOT follow a heavy truck but will overtake to be in front and then
SLOW DOWN again to slower than that truck wants to travel.
You try overtaking, they get the frights, and speed up....
Apart from the trucks limited to certain road speeds..
Who drives slower?.
Sunday Drivers?.
The "I am doing the limit you will NOT overtake" bloody minded gits?.
Old people?.
Discount old people... My Mum who is totally used to narrow country lanes drives a VW Golf of the GTI "extra" packages fully loaded type, and has now got protectors on her wing mirrors to stop they getting scratched so much... she scares me, she is nearly of "Rally driver" speed at times, and the lanes she drives on out in that countryside are to narrow for me to get a big truck down?..
She says she can see over the hedges and knows those lanes well.
I dont agree.
I dont see how you can test the vehicle against testing the driver...
I can rattle a 7.5 ton round the country lanes my Mum drives at the speed she is driving, because I CAN see over the hedges enough to see what is around the next corner... height gives you better viability...
But Should I?.
The same vehicle in a less experienced drivers hands may not get the same performance.
To start I can through experience "speed shift" through a manual gearbox... and because the thing is tiny to what I usually drive, I can "feel" the extremities better than your average "White van man" can, I guess if you set up two poles at say 30mph stopping distance from me, I can tell you when I will fit through that gap or not, to within 6 inch?. I could also tell you at what height you should allow extra gap for wing mirrors....[yes I have driven past hedgerows with my wing mirror over the top of the hedge...]
Can your average driver of a rollerskate do that?.
I also know of drivers who drive them regularly who can work that gap down to 3 inch, and regularly brush the bushes as they drive on narrow roads. At speed. I am not as good as them.
Then you have the small car driver in the "I am Schumacher" sports vehicle who thinks he is a better driver than he really is....
Then you have the "I may have a fast car but I dont drive like that".
I dont thing vehicle type can be used to measure average speed, unless you get to Audi drivers who are all planks, [on average..] and Old Mercedes drivers who are careful of their investment....
Read the alphabet spaghetti on the boot.
If there is a LOT of it, or, de-badged, [non at all], then they will drive it like they borrowed it.
If its just the "LX" version, they tend to keep to "sensible"
If its a family taxi, school kid runabout, then safety first.
If its a "Young Kids" cheep to insure and has plenty of Bolt-Ons from Halfrauds, expect it to do the stupid any time soon.
Thats why their insurance is so high.
Therefore, I suggest, on a blind test, of all types of vehicles, dependant on the type of driver, you will get differing results.
I say take your group as mentioned...
And then re-test with the following group...
FIRST time driver, new driver, maybe passed within last three month, which may preclude them from Commercial vehicles.
Young driver, has held licence for at least a year.
"Boy/Girl Racer", anyone who claims to be the best driver and can get you there faster.
A Taxi driver.
A School Mum/Soccer Mum [or dad]
A Young experienced driver who does commercial work, from the "S.W.I.F.T" school that you all know...
A ten year Commercial driver. also a Bus driver?..
A retired commercial driver.
A sales rep type person who has done more miles than the space shuttle.
School bus driver on and off duty.
White Van Man.... <--- This last one is one who owns a small van on car drivers licence has had no formal Heavy Good commercial training but just flies about everywhere and thinks they own the road?..
Some of course will not be able to do the Commercial vehicles because of lack of licence.. CDL in U$A, HGV or LDV in UK.
I suggest that as much as it is the vehicle, it is also the driver.
You know I own a Toyota Avensis?.
I have stated that it has more power than some of the vehicles I used to take to the track, and can do a lap faster than the cars I used to drive when I used to race?.
I do know, I have tested that one, it CAN manage a lap of a certain race track faster than I used to be able to do back in the 80's.
Its a Family Sedan, under your measure. Its the base family 5 seater "Dads Taxi" that has a lot of grunt to be able to take a family of 5 plus luggage to motorway speed safely.
Thats all.
Its not
supposed to be able to race the "ricer" racers that they young kids have these days?..
Yet from a standing start, I can scare the pants of some sports cars if I should want to try.. indeed most things front wheel drive are going to struggle to leave me at the lights...
Not that I do that 99 days out of 100, its just "now and again" when I get some twerp in a 1-litre "compact" with darkened windows and loud exhaust.....
Its all about the driver.
Do slower drivers drive slower vehicles?.
Hmmm... worth testing.
On the above demographic of people, take a look at what they turn up in?.
