"Shaun Rimmer" wrote in message
...

snip
The road I commute on is
a narrow country lane (2 cars wide, no shoulder or pavement). Most of the
road is at the national speed limit of 70 mph. The drivers all think they
have to be travelling at that speed the minute they see the sign, it's
utterly ridiculous that they can't slow down or move out when passing me,
and having a car pass at 70+ mph no more than 1' from your elbow is
_extremely_ unnerving.

snip

Shaun aRe

Shaun,
roads such as you describe don't have a speed limit of 70mph. I think you
must be talking about the black diagonal stripe on white circular background
sign. This indicates the national speed limit for the road type. This varies
depending on the road type, i.e. single carriageway / dual carriageway /
street lighting etc. and can vary from 30- 70 mph.
If they are doing those speeds then they are merely acting in the
traditional selfish manner of most car drivers and it sounds like the one
doing 80+ had probably recently been to see "2 Fast, 2 Furious" and now
believes he's in a movie!!
The only thing you can do to influence matters is either make a note of
random reg nos. (preferably worst offenders) and report them to the police
as having run you off the road into a hedge / ditch / whatever...or (and
this one takes balls of steel ;-), cycle far enough from the edge of the
road to force them to slow down / evaluate the situation / take evasive
action. Of course, the latter may lead to a genuine need to get in touch
with the police / other emergency services.
HTH
Dave.