Reflections on UK Roads & Driving 4 Years On
Discussion
I used to live in the UK for around 8 years and like most people did a lot of commuting. In fact my home was North of Birmingham and my Office was near Milton Keynes so I became very familiar with many roads to and from.
I left to go back home to Australia four years ago but recently came back for a three week break.
Here's some things that have changed and sadly not for the better.
Trucks - Not only has the number increase (especially foreign ones) but they seemed to have limited the speed much lower. 60mph for Motorways and 40mph for B roads I saw on the back on one Tesco truck. This means you're crawling behind them everywhere, especially at night. What's with this?
And to compound it here's a common B Road:
It's about 8 miles long and used to have plenty of overtaking opportunities. But now it has a double white line the entire length.
And a truck doing 40mph when it was signposted at 60mph. Every trip I took I got stuck like this!
I don't understand why these solid white lines were put in??
Lastly, motorways. They used to be pretty good to drive on with most people cruising at 80-90mph safely.
But now everyone is doing 65-75mph (if they can get past the trucks) and it all seemed so slow.
I suspect it's because these camera gantry's have appeared everywhere:
I encountered these on most of the M42, M25 and large chunk of the M1. I'm sure the level of fines (revenue??) is through the roof now!
How did you all get conned into allowing these camera gantrys to be installed?
One of the few things I enjoyed in the UK over Australia was the ability to drive swiftly and safely. But you've all been robbed of that while you were sleeping!
(because that's when Road Works are happening everywhere)
I left to go back home to Australia four years ago but recently came back for a three week break.
Here's some things that have changed and sadly not for the better.
Trucks - Not only has the number increase (especially foreign ones) but they seemed to have limited the speed much lower. 60mph for Motorways and 40mph for B roads I saw on the back on one Tesco truck. This means you're crawling behind them everywhere, especially at night. What's with this?
And to compound it here's a common B Road:
It's about 8 miles long and used to have plenty of overtaking opportunities. But now it has a double white line the entire length.
And a truck doing 40mph when it was signposted at 60mph. Every trip I took I got stuck like this!
I don't understand why these solid white lines were put in??
Lastly, motorways. They used to be pretty good to drive on with most people cruising at 80-90mph safely.
But now everyone is doing 65-75mph (if they can get past the trucks) and it all seemed so slow.
I suspect it's because these camera gantry's have appeared everywhere:
I encountered these on most of the M42, M25 and large chunk of the M1. I'm sure the level of fines (revenue??) is through the roof now!
How did you all get conned into allowing these camera gantrys to be installed?
One of the few things I enjoyed in the UK over Australia was the ability to drive swiftly and safely. But you've all been robbed of that while you were sleeping!
(because that's when Road Works are happening everywhere)
I think the gantry's only start catching people when they have a speed limit displayed for roadworks or an accident. Or so I thought anyhow.
A lot of people would drive at 40 in a 60. Fuel saving via speed reduction seems to be popular throughout the UK now. They either don't look in their mirrors to see, or don't care about the ever lengthening cue of traffic behind them.
A lot of people would drive at 40 in a 60. Fuel saving via speed reduction seems to be popular throughout the UK now. They either don't look in their mirrors to see, or don't care about the ever lengthening cue of traffic behind them.
Is this the same Australia that has some ridiculously low archaic speed limit on perfectly good roads and is rigorously enforced by Aussie plod? If I'm correct then I find it amusing that you're complaining about UK roads!
The truck doing 40 when the speed limit says 60 tells me that you've never read a copy of the Highway Code.
The truck doing 40 when the speed limit says 60 tells me that you've never read a copy of the Highway Code.
Australia is ridiculous in that there will be a speed limit reduction shortly before a corner, and then once round it'll ramp up again. No sharp corner markings, just a reduction. At first I thought I was slowing for a town.
Double points being declared between certain dates typically flash up on the overhead signs. It's Christmas, double whammy points from December 24th till January 4th.
My car arrives in tomorrow and once on the road, I'm not sure how I'll fair. The current boring 4x4 just gets put on cruise, but I still manage to be blasé.
I find it's not as busy on the roads (a given), people seem to go at the speed limits as opposed to under. If you go under a big truck will happily go for the over take.
Double points being declared between certain dates typically flash up on the overhead signs. It's Christmas, double whammy points from December 24th till January 4th.
My car arrives in tomorrow and once on the road, I'm not sure how I'll fair. The current boring 4x4 just gets put on cruise, but I still manage to be blasé.
I find it's not as busy on the roads (a given), people seem to go at the speed limits as opposed to under. If you go under a big truck will happily go for the over take.
All that jazz said:
Is this the same Australia that has some ridiculously low archaic speed limit on perfectly good roads and is rigorously enforced by Aussie plod? If I'm correct then I find it amusing that you're complaining about UK roads!
The truck doing 40 when the speed limit says 60 tells me that you've never read a copy of the Highway Code.
He's not complaining about UK vs Australia. He is saying they are both crap.The truck doing 40 when the speed limit says 60 tells me that you've never read a copy of the Highway Code.
HGVs are limited to 56mph throughout Europe and have been since before OP left for Australia. HGVs have been legally limited to 40mph in NSL zones since long before OP started driving in the UK the first time round. Vans are limited to lower speeds than passenger cars too.
The white lines painted are to indicate that it is an unsafe place to indicate.
OP, no offence but if you're going to drive on our roads, will you please do us all the courtesy of reading our rule book? It hasn't changed significantly in a long time - so either your memory is misleading you or you didn't know the Highway Code first time you drove.
https://www.gov.uk/highway-code/contents
It's your responsibility to know how to use our road networks. Your post suggests you haven't a clue what you're doing.
The white lines painted are to indicate that it is an unsafe place to indicate.
OP, no offence but if you're going to drive on our roads, will you please do us all the courtesy of reading our rule book? It hasn't changed significantly in a long time - so either your memory is misleading you or you didn't know the Highway Code first time you drove.
https://www.gov.uk/highway-code/contents
It's your responsibility to know how to use our road networks. Your post suggests you haven't a clue what you're doing.
jamieduff1981 said:
HGVs are limited to 56mph throughout Europe and have been since before OP left for Australia. HGVs have been legally limited to 40mph in NSL zones since long before OP started driving in the UK the first time round. Vans are limited to lower speeds than passenger cars too.
The white lines painted are to indicate that it is an unsafe place to indicate.
OP, no offence but if you're going to drive on our roads, will you please do us all the courtesy of reading our rule book? It hasn't changed significantly in a long time - so either your memory is misleading you or you didn't know the Highway Code first time you drove.
https://www.gov.uk/highway-code/contents
It's your responsibility to know how to use our road networks. Your post suggests you haven't a clue what you're doing.
This, totally. He has never known anything about LGV speed limits. The white lines painted are to indicate that it is an unsafe place to indicate.
OP, no offence but if you're going to drive on our roads, will you please do us all the courtesy of reading our rule book? It hasn't changed significantly in a long time - so either your memory is misleading you or you didn't know the Highway Code first time you drove.
https://www.gov.uk/highway-code/contents
It's your responsibility to know how to use our road networks. Your post suggests you haven't a clue what you're doing.
Also worth noting in those last 4 years they increased HGV speed limit on DC from 50 to 60
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/hgv-speed-l...
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/hgv-speed-l...
djdestiny said:
Also worth noting in those last 4 years they increased HGV speed limit on DC from 50 to 60
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/hgv-speed-l...
No they haven't.https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/hgv-speed-l...
To be fair to the OP the one thing he has a decent point about is the proliferation of white paint and general obstructions to the well executed and safe overtake. Ok his photograph didn't help his case but it's generally a fair point.
As to how did we let ourselves be pushed into this state. Some of us didn't. But the appalling standards of driving by too many gave the powers that be their excuse.
As to how did we let ourselves be pushed into this state. Some of us didn't. But the appalling standards of driving by too many gave the powers that be their excuse.
duff said:
How did you manage to get those pictures?
Because 40mph is barely above walking pace, and most people could solve a crossword, do a rubiks cube, make a sandwich, take a picture on their phone and still have enough mental capacity left over to trundle along behind a truck at that speed.PS: I can't see his pic at work. If he is doing all those things, I'm impressed!
PPS: I don't use my phone while driving, there are better ways of using up one's points allocation.
trashbat said:
OP is a numpty, but what's actually happened about raising the HGV speed limit, either SC or DC?
I was under the impression, probably from on here, that the SC limit was to be 50mph from January this year, but I can't find anything to back this up.
The SC limit increase is scheduled to be implemented in "early 2015". That's the latest on that.I was under the impression, probably from on here, that the SC limit was to be 50mph from January this year, but I can't find anything to back this up.
The DC limit increase is scheduled to be implemented on 6 April 2015. Everyone drives flat out on DCs anyway so you'll see no difference. Tesco will still drive at 40 on SCs because they're "taking your safety seriously".
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