Lorries in the Outside Lane
Discussion
I have noticed recently there is an increasing trend to see lorries in the outside lane (lane 3 or in some cases Lane 4) of motorways. I thought lorries along with large coaches were banned from this lane?
As I have seen so many recently I assume certain lorries must be permitted, but which is right. Just who is banned from the outside lane?
As I have seen so many recently I assume certain lorries must be permitted, but which is right. Just who is banned from the outside lane?
This 
s me right off when mr safeway wants to over take mr tesco at 0.1mph faster and holds up loads of traffic , then comes to a hill hasent got the power slows down and drops back in behind 
also when you see lorrys driving along with a 10-20ft gap between them , no wonder they have so many accidents
brainless morons
s me right off when mr safeway wants to over take mr tesco at 0.1mph faster and holds up loads of traffic , then comes to a hill hasent got the power slows down and drops back in behind also when you see lorrys driving along with a 10-20ft gap between them , no wonder they have so many accidents
brainless morons
jmorgan said:
Whilst I see this but not often I get more tailgating whilst trying to overtake HGV's than I care to remember. In my ickle 4 tonne sprinter that is. Often I can't see them in my mirrors.
If it's that little don't bother to overtake
You're holding the rest of us up! We gotta get somewhere faster then youpreferably today! Last thing I want is somebody crawling along at 75 mph in the overtaking lane passing another person crawling along at 72 mph in the fast lane. Move over, make some space and let us complete our executive deals on time! What was the point of my buying a supercharged 6.7 Merc when I could have had a sprinter like you! I could have saved £80k and got a Smart. Keep the outside lane clear so we can really make progress. If they are tailgating you they are saying move over rover, you're to slow
>> Edited by Boosted LS1 on Thursday 18th March 00:07
This infuriates me as well.
Ive often wondered what the solution is. Simply banning Trucks from all overtaking is I think not enforceable, and will cause to many delays to the transportation of goods. But like wise I don't want to see Trucks speeding up in order to allow faster overtaking. The thought of 40tonnes of articulated truck & trailer hitting a car at 70-75mph is just unbearable!!
Ive often wondered what the solution is. Simply banning Trucks from all overtaking is I think not enforceable, and will cause to many delays to the transportation of goods. But like wise I don't want to see Trucks speeding up in order to allow faster overtaking. The thought of 40tonnes of articulated truck & trailer hitting a car at 70-75mph is just unbearable!!
The solution to many problems on the motorway is good lane discipline. At least artic drivers usuall pull back into the inside lane when they have completed their overtaking until many car drivers!
Although its annoying when one artic overtakes another, and then crawls past at a speed of 0.00001mph faster than the truck they are passing, particularly on the 2 lane M26, I assume at the time of starting the procedure they believe they will get past fairly quickly. By the time they find they won't its a bit late!
As regards tail gating that is a real problem although I don't think it is fair to say that HGV truck drivers have lots of accidents. My suspicion is that for mile driven they on average have less than car drivers. The problem is that when they have accidents they tend to be serious and involve other trucks due to tailgating. It then takes hours to clear the wreckage of the roads.
Although its annoying when one artic overtakes another, and then crawls past at a speed of 0.00001mph faster than the truck they are passing, particularly on the 2 lane M26, I assume at the time of starting the procedure they believe they will get past fairly quickly. By the time they find they won't its a bit late!
As regards tail gating that is a real problem although I don't think it is fair to say that HGV truck drivers have lots of accidents. My suspicion is that for mile driven they on average have less than car drivers. The problem is that when they have accidents they tend to be serious and involve other trucks due to tailgating. It then takes hours to clear the wreckage of the roads.
Chrisgr31
Your assessment is born out by the horrific accident on the M25 yesterday, one lorry driver dead after being involved in an accident with another Lorry. Result- M25 closed for most of the day, Massive local gridlock effecting, M11, A127, A13, A414 and A12 an estimated 30,000 people stuck in traffic and one road death, which perversly was not as a result of speeding?!
Your assessment is born out by the horrific accident on the M25 yesterday, one lorry driver dead after being involved in an accident with another Lorry. Result- M25 closed for most of the day, Massive local gridlock effecting, M11, A127, A13, A414 and A12 an estimated 30,000 people stuck in traffic and one road death, which perversly was not as a result of speeding?!
Here's a post I wrote earlier this week after another trip to Germany
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=87746&f=10&h=0
Is is possible to enforce a no overtaking rule for HGV's, it does work very very well, good progress can be made by all. It's the idiots behind the wheels that cause the problem for all of us.
Trucks that can do 1 or 2mph hour faster will only get to their destination 15 mins earlier after 8 hours of driving. Obviously most can only do 56.1mph so thats about 2 mins earlier.
PS Most Cdi Merc Sprinters will do 110mph quite easily, so I doubt they'll be holding anyone up.
>> Edited by cptsideways on Thursday 18th March 08:37
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=87746&f=10&h=0
Is is possible to enforce a no overtaking rule for HGV's, it does work very very well, good progress can be made by all. It's the idiots behind the wheels that cause the problem for all of us.
Trucks that can do 1 or 2mph hour faster will only get to their destination 15 mins earlier after 8 hours of driving. Obviously most can only do 56.1mph so thats about 2 mins earlier.
PS Most Cdi Merc Sprinters will do 110mph quite easily, so I doubt they'll be holding anyone up.
>> Edited by cptsideways on Thursday 18th March 08:37
I see if I can answer some of these points.
Any goods vehicle over 7.5tonne MGW is banned from the outside lane of a 3 lane motorway, basically anything with a speed limiter for obvious reasons.
Problems occur when lanes on motorways appear and disappear. I saw an Artic get 'stuck' in the outside lane of the M8 yesterday, he was in the middle overtaking another artic, suddenly, a lane appeared to the left, the lane to his right disappeared and he found himself in the outside lane.
Another case which is perfectly legal, is when you have two motorways on the same carridgeway at the point which they split, 2 lanes per motorway, so you often see trucks in the outside lane of a 4 lane carridgeway.
As for the tailgating. Think of it as slipstreaming. Sitting in the truck in fronts slipstream (which is quite big) means that you lose less fuel because the engine isn't having to work so hard to maintain the speed. This is common when you have two or 3 lorries from the same company in convoy. They also take turns to lead.
The overtaking business is like this.
The Truck in front is doinf 54 mph, he is heavy and can't quite make the limiter, you not and hence are sitting at 56mph. You enter his slipstream and his back door approaches VERY quickly, 2 choices, brake (which knocks off the Cruise Control) or overtake. You overtake, end of.
Any goods vehicle over 7.5tonne MGW is banned from the outside lane of a 3 lane motorway, basically anything with a speed limiter for obvious reasons.
Problems occur when lanes on motorways appear and disappear. I saw an Artic get 'stuck' in the outside lane of the M8 yesterday, he was in the middle overtaking another artic, suddenly, a lane appeared to the left, the lane to his right disappeared and he found himself in the outside lane.
Another case which is perfectly legal, is when you have two motorways on the same carridgeway at the point which they split, 2 lanes per motorway, so you often see trucks in the outside lane of a 4 lane carridgeway.
As for the tailgating. Think of it as slipstreaming. Sitting in the truck in fronts slipstream (which is quite big) means that you lose less fuel because the engine isn't having to work so hard to maintain the speed. This is common when you have two or 3 lorries from the same company in convoy. They also take turns to lead.
The overtaking business is like this.
The Truck in front is doinf 54 mph, he is heavy and can't quite make the limiter, you not and hence are sitting at 56mph. You enter his slipstream and his back door approaches VERY quickly, 2 choices, brake (which knocks off the Cruise Control) or overtake. You overtake, end of.
I think that many trucks tailgate each other to benefit from slipstreaming and use a significant amount less fuel for the same road speed on a lighter throttle. Truck moves out to overtake and loses the shelter it had, and can no longer overtake.
Not saying it's safe, but it happens.
Not saying it's safe, but it happens.
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