Ironic Driving

This is a phenomenon which seems to be spreading, and is mostly noticeable on my journey to work, during which time I travel from a 30 zone, into a 20 zone, back to 30, up to 60, slowing to 40, back up to 60, then finally 30 as I get closer and come through a residential zone, and during this time I will occasionally find that I am behind the same person almost all the way. Occasionally this person will shoot through the 40 zones at 50 miles an hour, but then maintain that speed in a 60 mile an hour zone. Now, I appreciate that sometimes people aren't confident driving at speed, and that the speed limit is a limit, not a target, but when a driver displays such flagrant lack of regard for these facts by speeding at inappropriate times, it makes me think that they don't really understand the national speed limit. They see the sign with the black line across a white background, and they aren't really sure how fast they're allowed to go, so they toddle along at about 50 just in case. I don't really understand it as there are only two speed limits really - 60 on a single carriageway and 70 on a dual carriageway in a normal vehicle. Presumably, those who have taken extra tests to be allowed to drive a vehicle which has different limits should really have learnt what those were when they took their tests. So why is it, that on a clear road with no obstacles and no adverse weather conditions, someone who just hooned through a residential area at 45 mph suddenly gets all shy and sticks to 51 on the A-roads. Another practice which I can't fathom is that of over-taking at either terrifying speed, terrifying proximity or both, only to then start driving slower than the person you overtook was driving. Why? What on earth makes you risk your life to overtake if all you wanted to do was drive slower than the person in front of you? It does make me more confident in my own driving abilities - because I passed my test when I was about 22 and everyone I knew had been driving for longer than that I always felt as though I was catching up and that I was the only person on the roads who didn't know what I was doing. This feeling stayed with me until the beginning of last year which is when I started to drive to work, meaning that instead of driving approximately once a week, I was now driving twice a day, which has done wonders for my confidence, but has so dented my confidence in other people's driving that I think my overall road confidence is just about balanced out as I exercise extra caution to avoid being the unfortunate victim of someone else's witless inability to wait, watch or just drive properly generally. All the same, I do like to imagine a world where everyone drives with a bit more care and really thinks about whether their personal desire to get somewhere really outweighs their desire to live, own functioning legs or sleep at night without the soul-gnawing knowledge that their twattishness has had a horrific impact on someone else's life. Until then I will just be content that I wasn't the spanner I saw the other day who indicated left, but instead of making the turn, pulled out to his right instead, still indicating otherwise - he must dice with death on a daily basis, I just hope it's his own.