ThrustSSC

Wahey - AT LAST!!!! Common sense is finally being applied.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4065085.stm

tuscan57

wot about all the other mindless idiots that sit in the middle lane........... bout time they were shot.......

ethanrob

iTrader: (3)

Yeah! fair dues to wagon drivers trying to do a job,bit of common sense needed in all corners me thinks,ok hows about all bmw drivers to be banished from the motorways full stop,unless they have the optional extras pack fitted(indicators and controls to use them)

mark

ARM-Scooby

i guess if people make stuff a big enough issue (i.e. possibly an election issue) then something has to be done about it!

comic cuts

A14 as well please! Fed up of 56.1 mph overtaking that takes miles!

S.B.

Seeing as you seem to know whats best. What happens when you get an old codger plodding along at 40 mph in the slow lane?

Bigger holdups

S.B.

You should think yourself lucky they should only be doing 50

quicksprint

The tw*ts that hog the middle lane of an empty motorway are the ones they need to sort out............or make undertaking legal

JackClark

I'm well pleased with this. About the only thing that winds me right up on the motorway are lorry races. Appologies to all lorry drivers who are now going to have to allow a few more minutes for thier journeys.

ThrustSSC

For years we've all been forced to travel 30mph slower than we wanted by truckers (and I've got a full LGV C+E, by the way, I've done my time in a unit!) who wanted to overtake with 0.1mph speed difference. In the circumstance you describe, they're going to have to do a short stretch going 16mph slower than they'd like. I'd call that fair all round.

Don't forget that selfish overtaking (by which I mean overtaking with a minimal speed differential) causes congestion and slows the trucker's journey, too.

ThrustSSC

I couldn't agree more...

There's an interesting pattern developing recently. Instead of the old idea of widening roads, which itself causes months of misery and ends up with the hoggers just moving right one lane anyway, we're seeing a series of initiatives by the Highways Agency to deal with congestion by a 'soft' (i.e. no new building) approach:

1) The trial of "Don't hog the middle lane" and "Keep left when not overtaking" messages on matrix signs the other month
2) The trial of slow-vehicles-must-keep-left on that notorious hill in the West Country (where caravanners and boaters would slow everyone down with their overtaking) over August Bank Holiday
3) This initiative on Jn 10-11 of the M42

Perhaps the HA is finally realising that you can deal with congestion by other means. What next? Lane-hoggers being pulled, fined and given points? I hope so!

ThrustSSC

See my post above - you never know!

GC8

Undertaking isnt illegal; you cant be charged with 'undertaking', 'driving without due care and attention' maybe...

Buzzer

Bigger holdups for the truckers

..... and thats great

So pi55ed off with crawling for 10 miles only to find that theres two trucks level with each other doing 50mph

Minimum speed for motorway cars should be 50mph. Coppers to re-calibrate for this and point the gun at the inside lane.

S.B.

Motorway: Car = 70mph Lorry = 56mph yes?

70-56=14 yes?

30mph

Chip

Having an HGV licence I think it's unfair as the vast majority of us truckers are professional drivers unlike most car drivers who's motorway driving can be a lot more dangerous the trucks.

This may also be a ploy to force truckers onto the underused M6 Toll road which most days is almost empty.

Chip

OllyK

What an utterly stupid idea.

You are now going to significantly increase the amount of trucks in the inside lane, who now cannot pull over to let new traffic join the carriage way, so all of you thinking you are going to have a nice clear journey, think again, it's going take you forever to get on to the motorway, and the lorries will bunch up nicely and stop you getting off if you do actually manage to get on.

Add this to under powered trucks that when laden can loose 10 mph plus when going up a hill they are going slow many others down. This will reduce the amount of deliveries that can be done in a day thus increasing delivery costs and increasing the price of just about everything you buy.

Marvellous!

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

70 may be the limit but he wants to go 86 mph

Flatcapdriver

Chip, I've no doubt the majority of HGV licence holders are professional but the simple fact of the matter is that it's almost impossible to travel anywhere on dual carriageways without being seriously held up by lorries taking ages to overtake. Why can't the lorry being overtaken simply take his foot off the accelerator for a couple of seconds and let the other lorry complete the manouevre?

This week alone, I've been chopped up at least a dozen times by lorries who are desperate to get in front of the truck in front, only to take several miles (or in one instance 6 miles) to pull back in. I understand the momentum issues but the selfish nature in which this happens will lead to the inevitable retaliation by car drivers to simply bunch up so that lorries cannot overtake and carve everyone else up.

Before we move on to the ubiquitous " we need lorries " argument why can't we have a joined up transport policy and shift HGVs to greater night usage of our motorway network?

OllyK

Night trunking is used, but for regular haulage this isn't viable as a driver has to follow tacho regulations on how many hours he can work in a day (9 with the occasional 10, I won't go in to detail) to be done in no more than a 15 hour spread. It's the 15 hour spread that kills your proposal, they can travel during the night, park up for 4 hours waiting for the first place to open unload and then run out of hours later becuase of spread.

I'd prefer a limiter override to be honest. A button you can press that dis-engages the limiter for say 30 seconds that can be used so many times a day and allows the driver to go up to 65mph. This would allow them to overtake without causing as much disruption to other drivers.

Buzzer

Olly, just throw a few hundred 3 pointers and £120.00 for undue care and attention for tailgaiting that'll sort that problem out


...................... and congrats on 3,000 posts (when you reply)

OllyK

AFAIK they haven't devised a camera that works for tailgaiting so that one isn't going to work

TYVM BTW

Buzzer

Coppers can just take photos and pull them over, easy

Buzzer

BTW a good solution to the problem could be to spend all the money raised and saved from the motorist and plough into reviving our rail services. I dont mean for public but for commercial wares.

Y'know the rail service, that thing that, that bitch Thatcher completely fcuked up years ago.

S.B.

My local supermarket hasn't got a railway line near it, how is the food going to get there?
And they can't have night deliveries because the people that live near to the store have complained about the noise.

OllyK

The railways have been going down hill since the 1940's, you can't pin that one on Thatcher!

The big problem with transporting by rail is that you have to use trucks to get the goods to the railhead, and from the railhead to the end destination. This adds an additional 2 loading / unloading operations to the transportation with the increased costs and potential for damage in to the process. You will never get direct rail transport of goods back, the best you will get is transporting the whole truck on a train similar to how the chunnel works and transport through the Alps and such

Buzzer

Thats okay, just operate the same way that we dealt with it years ago

Bulk freight by train to the nearest point and then lorries from there to the destination, like i said, worked years ago, why not now?

No one has said it will be easy but you can bet your life things will only get worse over time.

If i was going from our house to Manchester 15 years ago it would take 30 minutes tops. Now if i left at the same time, that journey would be 1 1/2 hours. Thats not extra cars on the road, thats single lane for everything other than a sixteen wheeler. The other two lanes are lorries, neck and neck, fooking everyone up

Buzzer

C'mon tell me that even if we managed to shift half these onto rail networks it wouldn't be a good idea

Flatcapdriver

Presumably, you didn't take History lessons at school?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/d...00/2804441.stm

Buzzer

1963 has no resembelance to the 80's

If it was identified then, then why wasn't the rail network adapted for commercial use. It was still operating in the 80's and with a bit more thought and foresight could've been a great solution to congestion on the roads.

Seems to work in other countries doesn't it.

Frankly if posting something up relating to 1963 is the best you can do then i dont think i need History lessons