Why is lorry overtaking not banned?

[Bennet]

I rarely drive on the motorway during the week. Driving between Manchester and Birmingham yesterday I was struck by the near constant slowdown of traffic caused by lorries overtaking oneanother with a tiny speed differential. (They also often pull out on you in ways that would quickly result in serious road rage if it were a car.)

For the pecious little time difference this must make to their journey, why is this still allowed? Would banning lorry overtaking cause other problems that arent immediately obvious?

(If a massive crane or a grandma is doing sub 50 mph, I'd still support their requirement to overtake.)

[aww999]

There's a section of the M11 near London (I think) that restricts HGVs to lane 1. I haven't used it for years, but they have at least tried it.

[kambites]

aww999 said:

There's a section of the M11 near London (I think) that restricts HGVs to lane 1. I haven't used it for years, but they have at least tried it.

Would be nice to see this done at least on two-lane sections of motorway.

[lauda]

Sits back and awaits the arrival of lorry drivers to remind us all how the goods we buy reach the shops and that the whole world would fall apart if they weren't allowed to overtake another lorry travelling 1.5 mph slower than they are.

[keslake]

The worse offenders are those that start pulling out, then indicate and carrying on regardless of if there is traffic about to pass them on the outside.

[Riley Blue]

Places where I can think of where a lorry overtaking ban is in place, sections of the M11, A14, M42, M20.

Any others?

[viggyp]

kambites said:

aww999 said:

There's a section of the M11 near London (I think) that restricts HGVs to lane 1. I haven't used it for years, but they have at least tried it.

Would be nice to see this done at least on two-lane sections of motorway.

Agreed, but there'll be the one time that you will have to take an exit but that will be death defying due to lorry drivers driving bumper to bumper.

[Europa1]

Riley Blue said:

Places where I can think of where a lorry overtaking ban is in place, sections of the M11, A14, M42, M20.

Any others?

I think they're removed the restriction on the M11. It used to be on the hilly (well, hilly for East Anglia) bit in North Essex.

[V8forweekends]

I knew an HGV driver who told me he used to signal and then count to ten, then move, and it was up to anyone else to be out of the way by then.

On the other hand, given the general fkwittery about, I can see if they didn't do this they'd never move out.

I've often wondered why this isn't done - especially on two lane sections - they've had it in Germany for ages and it doesn't seem to have trashed their economy.

[WokingWedger]

viggyp said:

Agreed, but there'll be the one time that you will have to take an exit but that will be death defying due to lorry drivers driving bumper to bumper.

This I can imagine would be a very real problem.

[aka_kerrly]

It's not quite that straight forward though.

You can also blame the companies that are insisting that their drivers are restricted to 52mph or 54mph when other lorries are restricted to 56mph and that's before you start considering the effect of one lorry being loaded to 44T and another being empty.

It would be more foolish to ban them from overtaking as it would just lead to some driving even closer to each other and more dangerously.

Don't forget that some lorries are not just overtaking other lorries they have to put up with eco warriors or hyper milers whatever they want to be called who drive their cars at 55mph.

Dual carriage ways on the other hand, well there are definitely stretches that lorries should be banned from overtaking on .

[jamieduff1981]

WokingWedger said:

viggyp said:

Agreed, but there'll be the one time that you will have to take an exit but that will be death defying due to lorry drivers driving bumper to bumper.

This I can imagine would be a very real problem.

Then charge them with Dangerous Driving for tail gating each other.

[kambites]

viggyp said:

Agreed, but there'll be the one time that you will have to take an exit but that will be death defying due to lorry drivers driving bumper to bumper.

I always try to be in the inside lane at least a mile before my exit; you'd need a lot of lorries to create a solid block THAT long.

It might even make it easier because as things are at the moment, you often see two lorries along-side each other with a huge queue of idiots tailgating each other behind them. At least if lorries aren't in the outside lane you can get past any queue of lorries that's there reasonably quickly.

[Rawwr]

aka_kerrly said:

it would just lead to some driving even closer to each other

Is that even possible?

[SteveSteveson]

It is frustrating, but just as at fault are the powerfully built directors in 520's an A6 S-lines pilling along in lane 3 at 85-90mph. If the rest of the traffic stayed at a uniform 70mph you would not get the bunching up of traffic behind the lorries and people would be able to safely merge in to lane 3 and slip past with no problem in all but the heaviest traffic. They also leave you with nowhere to go when a lorry decides he is pulling out car or no car in lane 2.

[OllieC]

we are only one more ban away from utopia, one more !

[gus607]

So you are telling me a modern car cannot pass a 44 ton truck driving at 56mph ?

[oldnbold]

As others have said, its works very well in Germany, but it also applies to cars towing trailers, including caravans. I also seem to remember that it only applies on certain streaches and at certain times. But then again lane disipline in Germany is so much better then the UK.

I think it should be applied on all 2 lane roads in the UK from 06.00 - 19.00.

[swisstoni]

I don't remember a single truck out of lane 1 whilst in Italy a couple of years ago. Could well be restricted there too.

[skyrover]

Here's a better idea. Remove the limiters from lorry and let them speed up to overtake.