Elephant Racing

[sunny-dave]

What on earth can we do to stop this nonsense.

I spent 5 minutes (and over 4 miles) stuck behind a wagon on the A14 as he crawled past another wagon in the inside lane - by the time he completed his overtaking there were (at a rough guess) 25 cars and light vans frustratedly stacked up behind him - very scary and dangerous in a car - even nastier for me on the bike.

I estimate that his speed advantage over the other wagon was around 0.5mph at most - yet he persisted and persisted despite the obvious chaos he was causing behind him.

There has to be an answer - and the current (limited) outside lane bans aren't working - they are just ignored by the arrogant, ignorant HGV drivers.

I'd ban all HGVs from the outside lane on dual carriageways from 7am until midnight - draconian yes, but they have brought it on themselves by their inability to drive with due consideration for other road users.

[ChuckFickens]

Oh, but then it often gets better, once the overtaker has pulled in front of the lorry they've just spent the last 10 minutes passing they pull in front... the slipstream is then reversed so the lorry that's just been overtaken can now travel 0.001mph faster so it proceeds to pull out and re-overtake, if you're lucky they let two cars past before doing this... often with the 0.005second flash on the indicator to show that they are about to pull over into the outside lane regardless of other traffic.

[ChuckFickens]

oh... and another pet hate, people who trundle along at 40-50 in the outside lane of a dual carriageway because they will be turning right at a roundabout coming up in 5 miles!

[FredPuli43]

HGVs have metric speed limiters (must be metric as the limit is 56 mph) so why they bother to overtake any vehicle going at 55 or 56 is not immediately clear; what do they gain over a journey ? The M11 is two lane for long stretches and is a complete pain for car drivers because of this.

[mikey4444]

This can be frustrating when it happens. But an important factor may be that lorries carry such huge heavy loads these days, that they just don't have the power to overtake cleanly and quickly.

I can't find any salient data on the 'net but I seem to remember that the weight limits that HGV's are allowed to carry was increased quite substantially during the last 20-30 years.

One of the results of this is that main roads and Motorways are now wearing out faster than was originally planned for. I am not sure how many bridges there are in that cross Motorways, but most of them were built in the 60's or early 70's. As they are now carrying much larger loads, then we may be facing huge problems in the near future, with essential repairs required. I went to Birmingham and back from Swansea recently and there were dozens of bridges involved. Can you imagine the huge congestion that these repairs are going to bring about ?

[RATTER15]

I think that a bit of rivalry between the drivers relieves the boredom when on long distances so they like to beat their chests a bit with "My lorries faster than yours" kinda thing.

[sunny-dave]

All true Mikey - they are destroying our roads and the burden of repair costs is falling on the car driver and general public, rather than the freight industry.

I know that any extra HGV taxation would eventually be passed on to the public in higher charges, but at least it would place the cost where it properly should reside and encourage efficient use of HGVs, rather than the huge amount of 'empty air' which is currently being shipped around the country.

[gness]

And another!!! A14 this evening...line of lorries too close together. One trying to overtake them all and what was behind us? An ambulance on an emergency. No possibility of the cars pulling in and certainly no way the overtaking lorry could....rant over!