Ask a Highways England Traffic Officer anything
Discussion
Red 4 said:
FlyingFin said:
But I still cannot see the need for the HA to use 4x4's.
Adverse weather (4x4).Driving position (visibility in spray, etc).
Load capacity.
Presence.
The HE guys need a proper 4x4, like what they have now, they also had Land Cruisers in the past,
Landshark said:
Leptons said:
FlyingFin said:
I would like to know just how many vehicles are up-righted by the HA and how many times they are used for carriageway clearance...
Maybe a freedom of information request would cover that...
I have NEVER seen a HA vehicle do anything but sit behind the broken down vehicle leaving it there for the recovery to attend to...
As for your comments on another post, what allows you to massively exceed the vehicles towing weight by towing a 44 tonne vehicle behind one which is probably plated to approximately 6 tonnes or so MTW?
As a young Police Traffic officer in the late 80's, I was called in to explain to the Traffic Centre Inspector, along with my colleagues, why we had towed a 36 tonne tipper truck with a pair of Range Rovers, up hill, to clear the carriageway at a junction...
The dangers of our actions was pointed out,(namely grossly exceeding the max permissible towing weight of the RR) and we were instructed that under NO circumstances, except to save life or limb, were we to do that again, as we had no legal exemption to exceeding the weight limits by such a horrendous amount!
What were those dangers then out of interest? Apart from damaging the drivetrain in your police vehicles of course. It sounds to me like you were applying common sense and your superior was a nob. Maybe a freedom of information request would cover that...
I have NEVER seen a HA vehicle do anything but sit behind the broken down vehicle leaving it there for the recovery to attend to...
As for your comments on another post, what allows you to massively exceed the vehicles towing weight by towing a 44 tonne vehicle behind one which is probably plated to approximately 6 tonnes or so MTW?
As a young Police Traffic officer in the late 80's, I was called in to explain to the Traffic Centre Inspector, along with my colleagues, why we had towed a 36 tonne tipper truck with a pair of Range Rovers, up hill, to clear the carriageway at a junction...
The dangers of our actions was pointed out,(namely grossly exceeding the max permissible towing weight of the RR) and we were instructed that under NO circumstances, except to save life or limb, were we to do that again, as we had no legal exemption to exceeding the weight limits by such a horrendous amount!
I’m not sure dragging something out of the way for recovery purposes can be classed as the same as exceeding MTW’s in towing law e.t.c.
I’ve witness HA/HE tow hundreds of vehicles from the live lane (in all sort of states e.g on roof/side/missing bits).
cars dont even need wheels and the HE guys will pull them off the carriageways.
ShampooEfficient said:
PurpleTurtle said:
Have you ever been offered ‘special thanks’ by a young, or indeed old, stranded lady?
My mate had a short tenure as an RAC man, he reckoned damsels in distress were fair game for a bunk up and did indeed have success with a couple. He likened his orange hi-viz to that of a knight in shining armour!
Bit cramped in the back of the van?My mate had a short tenure as an RAC man, he reckoned damsels in distress were fair game for a bunk up and did indeed have success with a couple. He likened his orange hi-viz to that of a knight in shining armour!
Do you have carte blanche to use the hard shoulder to bypass traffic or just to get to an incident?
The reason I ask is I have seen HATOS use the hard shoulder to bypass "normal" congestion (ie the hold ups in the same place every day that you get very used to when commuting) and then after the congestion they're trundling along in lane 1 again.
The reason I ask is I have seen HATOS use the hard shoulder to bypass "normal" congestion (ie the hold ups in the same place every day that you get very used to when commuting) and then after the congestion they're trundling along in lane 1 again.
We run the hard shoulder all time, as what appears to be "normal" congestion could be the result of an RTC. So we'll get to the head off the congestion to see what's causing it. If we know why there's congestion, we'll set signals and sit on the nearest observation platform to monitor it.
BossHogg said:
We've also raised it as being unnecessary, we were informed it was to let the traveling public know that traffic was flowing smoothly.
Interesting on the X mins to Jy signs. I rather like them on the M56 as I know roughly what the clear motorway times are so it lets me know if I should jump off the motorway at J7 or crack on.Flibble said:
BossHogg said:
We've also raised it as being unnecessary, we were informed it was to let the traveling public know that traffic was flowing smoothly.
Interesting on the X mins to Jy signs. I rather like them on the M56 as I know roughly what the clear motorway times are so it lets me know if I should jump off the motorway at J7 or crack on.I slid down the 56 to Wales today and when I got on at junction 6 I knew it was a clear run to Wales/jnc 15 for the next 25ish miles anyway just because of 1 sign
I passed 2 HETO's and 2 t
tO's on the trip and no donut munchers Yes if you have local knowledge or are familiar with a route x mins to Jx can be useful
Problem is unless you know the distance you cannot know the speed!
Now if HE wanted to actually be helpful they would only light the sign if traffic was abnormal and put the speed on it (which they must know) - but that would be too much common sense
Problem is unless you know the distance you cannot know the speed!
Now if HE wanted to actually be helpful they would only light the sign if traffic was abnormal and put the speed on it (which they must know) - but that would be too much common sense
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