Your opinion on extreme lorry "overtaking"
Discussion
NickCQ said:
I think the bit I would be most scared of is slip roads joining from petrol stations where drivers are still finishing their snack / coffee...
Slip roads are the worst, certainly. I believe stats from Cornwall (trying to find them) showed 12 cyclist collisions at junctions and 2 not at junctions on Cornish trunk roads (A38 and LEJOG favourite A30).A busy slip road exiting and rejoining and/or crossing is prudent, although busy DCs I do my utmost to avoid (unless it's slow moving). I typically regularly check over my shoulder when encountering a slip.
IroningMan said:
motco said:
IroningMan said:
Elephant Racing. It's a big issue on trunk roads.
Tusk, tusk, you should be ashamed! 
Irrelephant on a road with more than two lanes though is it not, Mammoth discussion this, the elephant in the room is it not ?
WyrleyD said:
Should do what they have done on the A10 in France north of Bordeaux, there's so much HGV traffic heading to/from Spain that they have banned HGVs from the outside lane of the two lane sections so they are not allowed to overtake.
Travelling along there in my old VW camper was awful - top speed 50 so from about 20s after entering those stretches until the end I would have an HGV about 6” from my bumper. I’d pull in to lay-bys to let them past, but inevitably as soon as I rejoined the road I’d have another one take up the same position. In a 1950s vehicle, with your legs as the crumple zone, and no scope to speed up it was definitely not fun!jmcc500 said:
Travelling along there in my old VW camper was awful - top speed 50 so from about 20s after entering those stretches until the end I would have an HGV about 6” from my bumper. I’d pull in to lay-bys to let them past, but inevitably as soon as I rejoined the road I’d have another one take up the same position. In a 1950s vehicle, with your legs as the crumple zone, and no scope to speed up it was definitely not fun!
Just out of interest, why didn't you use another route?Schmed said:
Put the freight on the damn railways
Is there a track in to the stores or delivery points now... and theres alot more moved by rail than you think too. Anyway all this talk of "us" not being allowed in lane 2, ok thats fine but what make you think that your coming off at any junctions that a full lane of trucks is staying in?
Yes im a trucker but im in the 52 MPH club and i still back off to let people past.
Road works boil my piss more than anything because the agitated car driver that likes the middle lane at 50 MPH in there car most dont realise its more like
48, so when the truck is behind them they are all happy holding them up, and then when you see one chuck it in lane 1 to overtake they find the go pedal.
Roofless Toothless said:
Personally I don’t blame the lorry doing the overtaking. I blame the guy in the one being passed. If there is another vehicle that has proved to be a bit quicker than you, why not just back up a little and help him get by? What is he going to lose? A few yards of road?
Lorry A not lifting in order to shave a few seconds off his arrival time.Lorry B not giving up the overtake in order to shave a few seconds off his arrival time.
2 idiots being selfish - both to blame.
Anyhow we’ll have driverless lorries soon, which will avoid this crap.
aka_kerrly said:
Getragdogleg said:
IroningMan said:
Elephant Racing. It's a big issue on trunk roads.
the one being overtaken is the arse, ease up and let the faster lorry pass.
good replies!I have never witnessed two lorries on a dual carriage way drag it out for 9 minutes like the OP is suggesting , perhaps 1/4 of a mile overtake or on a motorway causing half a dozen cars to move into the outside lane for a bit but to be honest on a motorway it's people in cars who are completely unobservant that cause more issues than 1 lorry overtaking another.
How often do you see people in the middle lane wait until they are within barely 50feet of the lorry that changed lane a mile ago before deciding if they are going to smack the brakes on down to 50mph causing the ripple back slowing down effect for miles or move into the outside lane at 60mph without doing any over shoulder checks or single flick of an indicator..
A couple of miles to overtake is a daily occurrence on the A1 between Ferrybridge and the M18 turn off.
You occasionally get the 10+ minute overtakes too.
oyster said:
Anyhow we’ll have driverless lorries soon, which will avoid this crap.
I don't think they're even close to being able to get a car to tow a trailer around successfully, I doubt that's going to happen in the next couple of decades. The best you can hope for is maybe they'll be able to drive themselves between hubs in motorways, they're still going to need a driver in them for any industrial estate. I deliver to quarries, driving down country lanes all day, same with farms and God knows how many other industries. These will all still need drivers in the cab for a very long time and if they're paying a driver for these bit why are they going to spend extra money to equip the truck for self driving. We'll be on Mars and be restricted from driving our own cars before trucks are all self driving.
Roofless Toothless said:
Personally I don’t blame the lorry doing the overtaking. I blame the guy in the one being passed. If there is another vehicle that has proved to be a bit quicker than you, why not just back up a little and help him get by? What is he going to lose? A few yards of road?
Then you’ll see what I used to see daily on the M62 (30 years of this s
t) - the truck that has just spent five miles being overtaken, causing chaos, huge tailbacks etc, pulls straight back out to overtake the wagon that’s just overtaken it. I don’t buy this “without truckers we would have no food on the shelves” line either - I doubt the few minutes it saves makes one jot of difference to Gillinghams supply of Cheerios. Other countries with hGv restrictions don’t appear to be starving to death.
I’m also 100% NOT for increasing the speed they’re allowed to go or removing the restrictors- the tailgating in heavy traffic and just downright bullying I witness daily by having drivers (not to mention the crashes when they rear end stuff) beggars belief - giving them faster trucks so they’re mixing it with free flowing cars is an awful idea. My in-laws own a big (~170 truck) haulage firm, it’s safe to say that a significant number of the drivers aren’t employed for their intellect (in fairness many are excellent, very professional).
aka_kerrly said:
I have never witnessed two lorries on a dual carriage way drag it out for 9 minutes like the OP is suggesting , perhaps 1/4 of a mile overtake or on a motorway causing half a dozen cars to move into the outside lane for a bit but to be honest on a motorway it's people in cars who are completely unobservant that cause more issues than 1 lorry overtaking another.
Whilst I agree with your sentiment in general, you need to reconsider your distances. To travel 50m further at a 1 mph speed differential at 50-60 mph is almost 2 minutes, therefore almost 2 miles. I travelled the A14 east-west yesterday, J13 to the M6. Had about 10 miles of slower travel all included, nothing to complain about. My journey is 125 miles and always takes about 2 hours 20 minutes in 'normal' traffic.Trackdayer said:
In fairness, for every inconsiderate or dangerous HGV driver we all see, there are hundreds if not thousands we don't see. Because they are unremarkable and just part of the background noise on our road.s.
I thought you were going to say ''....there are hundreds of inconsiderate or dangerous car drivers". Which there almost certainly are. Last Sunday I drove the length of the M40; very few trucks. Not much traffic at all, but more cars in the middle lane than anywhere else, mostly overtaking nothing and therefor driven by a driver who was at least inconsiderate.
Of course a badly driven truck is far far more scarey than a badly driven car, which is why they attract attention.
car user said:
Any vehicle limited to 60 shouldn't be allowed outside of the first lane IMO. Should have the same rules regarding overtaking over solid whites so you avoid the obvious pitfalls of HGVs getting stuck behind extremely slow vehicles but otherwise let them sit and wait.
It's not a big problem on most roads but certain ones are terrible for it. The A14 is just miserable.
Perhaps a slightly better approach would be that any vehicle limite dto 60 shouldn't be allowed to overtake unless the vehicle is going <50 - 10mph, allows overtaking to happen but restricts those that seem to do it when they're doing 0.5mph more than the truck ahead.It's not a big problem on most roads but certain ones are terrible for it. The A14 is just miserable.
J1990 said:
car user said:
Any vehicle limited to 60 shouldn't be allowed outside of the first lane IMO. Should have the same rules regarding overtaking over solid whites so you avoid the obvious pitfalls of HGVs getting stuck behind extremely slow vehicles but otherwise let them sit and wait.
It's not a big problem on most roads but certain ones are terrible for it. The A14 is just miserable.
Perhaps a slightly better approach would be that any vehicle limite dto 60 shouldn't be allowed to overtake unless the vehicle is going <50 - 10mph, allows overtaking to happen but restricts those that seem to do it when they're doing 0.5mph more than the truck ahead.It's not a big problem on most roads but certain ones are terrible for it. The A14 is just miserable.
J1990 said:
Perhaps a slightly better approach would be that any vehicle limited to 60 shouldn't be allowed to overtake unless the vehicle is going <50 - 10mph, allows overtaking to happen but restricts those that seem to do it when they're doing 0.5mph more than the truck ahead.
problem with this type of approach is you don't know how fast the vehicle being overtaken is going unless you slow down and match it's speed. Do you think the following truck will slow down and match speed to see if they are 10mph faster? If they do, how far do they have to drop back to then being doing 60 when they actually pull out to go past?Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff