Your opinion on extreme lorry "overtaking"

[Trackdayer]

rev-erend said:

Stuff

Very interesting.

[IJWS15]

Slow a little beside the cab of the elephant that has just pulled in until he has slowed due to approaching the next elephant in the inside lane, and (2) there is another car behind you that he has to give way to (doesn't take long) really pisses the elephant driver off if he can't get back out of the inside lane and hold up someone else.

Apparently some bright spark had the idea that, although the limit was 56, to avoid long lines of lorries it would be good to vary the speed limiter setting by doing some at 54, some at 55 and some at 56 - if I put this on Facethingy it will become the next fact.

The "no lorries in outside lane" doesn't work, at the end of the restriction one pulls out and the queue soon reaches back all the way through the restriction and you risk a long long line of lorries passing a junction with not enough space between them for anyone joining or leaving . . . . . careful what you wish for. Anyone ever travelled north on the A34 at 5pm at over 40?

[Fastdruid]

MKnight702 said:

I take it you rarely used the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon (before the upgrade, I don't use it now so I don't know if it has improved, but I doubt it). I used to commute up and down this road and it was a rare day that I didn't get stuck behind an elephant race for at least one mile.

Whenever anyone talks about elephant racing the A14 is immediately what I think of. For my sins I had to go visit a customer once a month that involved travelling it and absolutely hated it.

For those saying "you're not held up for miles and miles are you?" what would inevitably happen is you'd get multiple HGV's trying to overtake a very slightly slower one. So you'd then end up with a queue of cars.. The first HGV would drop back in, a few cars would get by and then the *next* HGV would overtake. Finally get past them accelerate up to 70 again and a minute later you're at the tail end of *another* queue of cars doing exactly the same behind another set of elephant racers. Throw in a car or two that is only doing 60 and repeat that multiple times and it becomes massively frustrating.

It was annoying on the A42 as well, although not as bad as the A14 particularly where the HGV's would ignore the "no overtaking" sections.

[Trackdayer]

Fastdruid said:

It was annoying on the A42 as well, although not as bad as the A14 particularly where the HGV's would ignore the "no overtaking" sections.

I started using the M69 to avoid the A42 for that exact reason

[Solocle]

I was doing a 10 mile TT yesterday - one of the folks ahead of me caught up with a tractor and overtook it on the NSL DC Upton bypass

I'm just sad that I didn't catch up with the thing, as, frankly, overtaking it would have been hilarious.

[Glenn63]

Is drive hgv’s and if another goes to overtake I always knock my cruise down a couple clicks especially if it’s a busy dual carriageway. It’s usually the knobs in a heavy truck that aare going slow on a hill so you overtake then just as your nearly past they reach the top and get back up to speed and leave you hanging in lane 2 those are the real dheads. But to play devils advocate people are complaining they have to wait but what makes their journey more important than the hgv’s? Why don’t you wait?

[mac96]

Glenn63 said:

Is drive hgv’s and if another goes to overtake I always knock my cruise down a couple clicks especially if it’s a busy dual carriageway. It’s usually the knobs in a heavy truck that aare going slow on a hill so you overtake then just as your nearly past they reach the top and get back up to speed and leave you hanging in lane 2 those are the real dheads. But to play devils advocate people are complaining they have to wait but what makes their journey more important than the hgv’s? Why don’t you wait?

I think the answer is in your question- you are comparing the value of a person's time against that of an object- the HGV's load. Seen like that, the person's time is worth more.
On topic- I rarely see elephant racing long enough to be really annoying. Chilled is good.

[Toltec]

mac96 said:

Glenn63 said:

Is drive hgv’s and if another goes to overtake I always knock my cruise down a couple clicks especially if it’s a busy dual carriageway. It’s usually the knobs in a heavy truck that aare going slow on a hill so you overtake then just as your nearly past they reach the top and get back up to speed and leave you hanging in lane 2 those are the real dheads. But to play devils advocate people are complaining they have to wait but what makes their journey more important than the hgv’s? Why don’t you wait?

I think the answer is in your question- you are comparing the value of a person's time against that of an object- the HGV's load. Seen like that, the person's time is worth more.
On topic- I rarely see elephant racing long enough to be really annoying. Chilled is good.

A lot of the time it isn't the lorries elephant racing, they take longer to pass, but you can see them doing so steadily, it is the car drivers that then insist on passing the lorries at 62.5mph rather than getting their toe down and getting back to the lhd lane. This means you only get a couple of cars past the slower lorry before the next one catches it and goes for an overtake. The lead car driver then crawls past the lorry that did the overtake, then sits in lane because there is another lorry 500m ahead that they might be catching, in the next twenty minutes. When they do finally pull over they then accelerate to 70mph!

[Glenn63]

mac96 said:

Glenn63 said:

Is drive hgv’s and if another goes to overtake I always knock my cruise down a couple clicks especially if it’s a busy dual carriageway. It’s usually the knobs in a heavy truck that aare going slow on a hill so you overtake then just as your nearly past they reach the top and get back up to speed and leave you hanging in lane 2 those are the real dheads. But to play devils advocate people are complaining they have to wait but what makes their journey more important than the hgv’s? Why don’t you wait?

I think the answer is in your question- you are comparing the value of a person's time against that of an object- the HGV's load. Seen like that, the person's time is worth more.
On topic- I rarely see elephant racing long enough to be really annoying. Chilled is good.

And the truck drivers time is of zero value? And is probably on a much longer shift/ journey than any car driver. The standard of truck driving has dropped over the last few years though, is just like when driving in my car, everyone out for themselves and fk everyone else.

[Trackdayer]

Glenn63 said:

But to play devils advocate people are complaining they have to wait but what makes their journey more important than the hgv’s? Why don’t you wait?

I have no issue with waiting for a lorry to overtake another. I know they can't just sprint past.

But when there's a blatant stalemate or it's taking several minutes, it's just bad road manners (IMO).

[mac96]

Glenn63 said:

mac96 said:

Glenn63 said:

Is drive hgv’s and if another goes to overtake I always knock my cruise down a couple clicks especially if it’s a busy dual carriageway. It’s usually the knobs in a heavy truck that aare going slow on a hill so you overtake then just as your nearly past they reach the top and get back up to speed and leave you hanging in lane 2 those are the real dheads. But to play devils advocate people are complaining they have to wait but what makes their journey more important than the hgv’s? Why don’t you wait?

I think the answer is in your question- you are comparing the value of a person's time against that of an object- the HGV's load. Seen like that, the person's time is worth more.
On topic- I rarely see elephant racing long enough to be really annoying. Chilled is good.

And the truck drivers time is of zero value? And is probably on a much longer shift/ journey than any car driver. The standard of truck driving has dropped over the last few years though, is just like when driving in my car, everyone out for themselves and fk everyone else.

That wasn't what I was getting at, but in a way yes. The load is the thing that has to be moved- for a truck, that is the stuff in the back, not the driver.
For a private car though, the journey is actually to move the people, including the driver. They are the load.

I wasn't trying to suggest truck drivers are somehow personally worthless- apologies if it came over that way. And you are certainly right about driving standards- though cars are still far more likely to be driven by incompetents than trucks, although obviously poor truck driving can be more dangerous and scarey for people around them.

[wazztie16]

usn90 said:

This drives me bonkers, although the driver in lane 1 is equally to blame

Another scenario I despise is cars/vans/lorry’s bunching up on single lane national speed limit roads where the car at the front it sitting 5-15mph under the limit, either overtake or leave space so your not making a one car overtake into half a dozen

I was getting ready to go insane today with something like this, I was driving a 3.5t van behind a large class 2 size lorry driving through 30mph urban villages and 50-NSL country lanes, narrow at times.

This went on for roughly 7 miles.

Did the driver think to pull over at a safe point and let me and the 5/6 cars behind me past, no they didn't, so we all had to keep switching between 10 and 50 mph rather than being able to make progress, no consideration for other drivers is the norm now...

[Trackdayer]

wazztie16 said:

I was getting ready to go insane today with something like this, I was driving a 3.5t van behind a large class 2 size lorry driving through 30mph urban villages and 50-NSL country lanes, narrow at times.

This went on for roughly 7 miles.

Did the driver think to pull over at a safe point and let me and the 5/6 cars behind me past, no they didn't, so we all had to keep switching between 10 and 50 mph rather than being able to make progress, no consideration for other drivers is the norm now...

Dashcam is your friend here.

Record. Report to their employer.

[anonymous-user]

MKnight702 said:

I take it you rarely used the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon (before the upgrade, I don't use it now so I don't know if it has improved, but I doubt it). I used to commute up and down this road and it was a rare day that I didn't get stuck behind an elephant race for at least one mile.

Do you remember the milk floats on the bit near Huntingdon - trundling along at 10mph with almost-flat batteries?

[wazztie16]

Trackdayer said:

Dashcam is your friend here.

Record. Report to their employer.

That's not my thing, I'd rather mildly curse and shake my head

I do miss the days of being driven around by my stepdad and him being able to overtake other vehicles in a Freelander, and seeing slow vehicles pull into laybys for following drivers to pass.

It's such a shame so much went wrong.

[Trackdayer]

wazztie16 said:

It's such a shame so much went wrong.

I agree. Although it does vary by area and time of day. Inner city morning commute isn't much fun. Rural evenings are all good.

[Triumph Man]

Lorry driver in the OP is a . Couple of years ago dad and I were driving back from Santa pod on the A303 which was deserted apart from me and two lorries. As I was about to pass them, one lorry went to overtake the other. Right in front of me. Honestly? Couldn’t wait a few seconds for me to get past? ahole.

Then again there’s knobs in all forms of transport. I’m sure most truckers are diligent and drive professionally. There is, however, a special place in hell reserved for those truckers, and it always seems to be a trucker, who straddled both lanes 800yds before a merge point...

Edited by Triumph Man on Monday 12th April 20:08

Edited by Triumph Man on Monday 12th April 20:09

[944 Man]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

If they are tied up properly in the first place, then this will not be an issue.

[Trackdayer]

Triumph Man said:

it always seems to be a trucker, who straddled both lanes 800yds before a merge point...

I think they do that deliberately "to stop people pushing in".

Despite merge in turn being an established part of driving.

[silverfoxcc]

jondude said:

Not sure what the solution is as go to the USA and be doing 70 odd mph then have a massive juggernaut fly by you in the fast lane and you soon pull into the next lay by to recover your heartbeat.

OK not sure if it is still like this, was back in the 90s. Worse, they could overtake on any side.

It was in 2017, bloody frightening getting 18 wheelers zip past you at well above 70 in a 65 limit!!