Minimum safe speed for Lorry to join a free flowing motorway

[surveyor_101]

Just wondering was behind a horse Lorry at a services and they entered at 22mph, causing bedlam.

What is legally is the position on that?

[surveyor_101]

Drumroll said:

WOW 22mph is very specific, how did the OP get to that figure? My understanding is there isn't actually a legal minimum speed limit. (Reasoning if there was a minimum limit you could be prosecuted if you had to slow down for roadworks etc)

Have a camera system with gps speed

[surveyor_101]

Drumroll said:

OP maybe what you should have said is I had to slow down to 22MPH you/I can not say what speed the lorry was actually doing.

Speed was matched, so not really relevant

[surveyor_101]

GreatGranny said:

I know they are carrying horses but Horseboxes seem to be the slowest vehicles on the road.
No real reason why it can't get up to a decent speed on a (presumably) straight ish slip road.
I understand caution when cornering but its hardly going to accelerate so harshly that they all fall out of the back :-)

I suspect in their mind (Having been in a relationship once with a girl with horses) they are protecting their horse going slow and not accelerating. It was not the youngest lorry. However if you get hit at 20 by a car going 70 its not going to be good news for the horse.

[surveyor_101]

caelite said:

Im generalizing but I think this for the most part is something that has most likely been caused by another car driver than the truck itself, surely I cant be the only one who has witnessed (normally old biddies or young girls) stopping on slips when they fail to merge correctly. Or slowing down to horrendous speeds until a 50m gap opens up if there happens to be a truck behind them it takes a laden truck a LONG time to get back up to 30, nevermind 56. So that pretty much leaves the driver with 2 options, pull out and slow down the active lane for a couple of minutes, or accelerate in the shoulder and merge 200m down the motorway.

The later would cause less disruption but the motorway cops are currently running a crackdown on trucks on shoulders and it would be extremely difficult to justify slowing lane 1 for a few minutes as an 'emergancy', also the safety issue if there is a breakdown on the shoulder that you are accelerating towards with 44ton gvw.

The lorry was leaving a motorway services and didn't accelerate as it left to join the carriageway.

[surveyor_101]

a4cabrio said:

The HGV might have been running at max weight, was the slip road up hill??

Gotta laugh, 1 slow moving HGV has made the OP start a thread about it, imagine if every one done the same for every minor incident they came across on the roads, someone doing a job is looked at as causing a nuisance, try having a moan about people leaving motorways at the last moment from the middle lane etc etc, something dangerous

No it seemed to make no effort, I will upload the video later.

It came from the access road probably shouldn't of been using it but I still have a motorway pass. The north bound section of the m5 at Taunton Deane services is immediate left 180 degrees from the road and so they didn't have a massive run up. They did seem to make no effort and didn't wait to the end of the slip road to merge but that is not unusual, most drivers who have had no advanced training don't know how to join multi lane roads.There are no prizes for entering a motorway early the slip road are design for you to build speed and make smooth transition into the carriageway, people need to bare in mind they are going from a minor situation to a major and so need to give way to vehicles already on the carriageway..

Edited by surveyor_101 on Saturday 2nd July 11:11

[surveyor_101]

DoubleD said:

Most drivers haven't had "advanced" training to join motorways because it isn't needed. Almost every driver that I've ever seen manages perfectly fine.

Most do ok but, many rush onto the carriageway when the lines break, it's not a race and you must give any to people already on the motorway.

If you still building you speed, lorry or any other slower moving vehicle you should can utilise the full width of the slip road to make a smooth transition. This is especially relevant in this case as the lorry was most likely carrying a horse and a straight transition would be safest for the horse.

Then if we talking about leaving a multi lane carriageway. A lot of people don't utilise the signage in particular the 1/2 mile sign for your exit, I will be planning my appointment with lane 1 once this sign is reached and then by the 3 yard sign /// I will be lane one settled and them start indicating my intention to leave, if there is anyone to benefit from that. I don't get to the exit and the indicate left and swing the wheel hard left as many people do risking an accident as there is no planning or thought to their exit.

Edited by surveyor_101 on Saturday 2nd July 21:26

Edited by surveyor_101 on Saturday 2nd July 21:28

[surveyor_101]

The Wookie said:

Girlfriend has horses and horsebox (although doesn't hold anyone up with it) here's how I see it from my experience

1. As said even if they're relatively shiny on top they're usually built on an ancient chassis with a trundling, gutless engine

2. With a horse on board it'll likely have water tanks full and plenty of gear and thus right on the weight limit, if not over with two horses if enough care hasn't been heeded to loading

3. There are plenty of stuck up cows in the equestrian arena but most of them are sensible enough. If they're driving annoyingly carefully it's because it's not hard for the horse to slip over or if the horse is a tt simply for it to go fking ballistic because of the movement and injure itself. Even if it's unlikely to permanently damage the horse, a pulled ligament or relatively minor injury means several months of spending money, waking up early, shovelling horse poo and generally risking getting kicked in the head with no chance of actually enjoying the experience of horse ownership by riding the evil thing. It's not like a race car with a knackered wheel bearing where you shove it in the garage until you can be arsed to fix it.

I'm sure someone will say 'if it's a tt in the back of a horse box then don't put it in the back of a horse box' but trust me they're unlikely to be relishing the prospect of driving for hours with the constant fear of the thing kicking off in the back so there's usually a pretty good reason for it being in there.

Having had another one do them same and the swing 180 degrees from the access road to the slip road, think they should use another route. Doubt they have permission to use the services acces and clearly it's not suitable.

15 mph the one this week and it drove in the middle of the road so if a police car had come it would of been seriously delayed.

[surveyor_101]

boyse7en said:

Going back to the OP, surely it isn't that hard for the users of a free flowing motorway to use a bit of forward observation and to pull out into lane 2/3 on approaching a joining slip-road? I do it as a matter of course, its nearly always easier for me to move from 1 to 2, or 2 to 3 if necessary, to make space for a joining vehicle as I am already at motorway speed.

You think but it's full of 2-3 lane joggers. I mean Friday drive home bmw 3 with a young lad driving passed a police x5 at 70.4545454mph but he was lane 3 for along time nothing lane 2 and police car lane 1. He stayed out for a long time and police didn't bat an eye lid.