Should HGVs speed limits be upgraded?

[rov1100]

Any regular user of the roads knows that its not usually the speed that kills but the disparity between the slowest vehicle on that road combined with the fastest. If cars are allowed to do 80 and HGVs remained the same this gap will increase.

Also its the container traffic that would benefit from a higher speed limit as the driver is confined to a set number of driving hours.

Therefore if we want to improve efficiency should HGVs have their max speed adjusted?

http://www.theanswerb...uestion1061925-2.html

[boxtops]

The 56mph limit is EU law, rov - can't be done without Brussels.

[ABerrant]

There is no 56mph limit - you will find no mention of 56mph in any British legislation or EU directives.

The limit is 90kph which is a tad under 56mph.

[boxtops]

Yes I know, ABberant - my mph was an approximation for the UK.

[ChuckFickens]

"The limit is 90kph which is a tad under 56mph."

The limit is 60mph in the UK

The EU say speed limiters have to be set to 90kph (a tad under 56mph)

[rov1100]

As you can see from this chart except for urban roads there is quite a disparity across the whole of Europe for vans and lorries

http://www.transportsfriend.org/int/speed.html

[boxtops]

Yep, that's where I got my info from, chuck - OH is a driver and can't go above his 90 kph limiter either in Europe or in the UK.

[JonnyBoy12]

Yes, I think that this should be higher as well. This silly speed limit would apply to trucks in the Second World War which had bad brakes and were poorly serviced. Modern trucks are state of the art and can stop on a dime. They can easily cope with much higher limits.

[boxtops]

^^ yes rov, but if your limiter is built into your tachograph (as OH's is) he can't go above 90 kph, irrespective of the local speed limit.

[boxtops]

JB, that's rubbish. Modern trucks fully laden to maximum load weight can take several hundred yards to come to a complete stop.

[ELVIS68]

Sometimes I drive a lorry at work and I wouldn`t want it to go any faster than the 89.5 kph it`s set at.

[JonnyBoy12]

Sorry boxy, I stand corrected. Would you like me to test this theory by jumping out in front of a lorry in full motion? If I am wrong then I would pay with my life.

[boxtops]

JB, you can try it if you like, but OH wouldn't recommend it!

[old-wos-is-name]

restrict all hgv's to the inside lane on 2 lane motorways, allow them into the second lane on three way lane motorways for overtaking. this would speed up the domestic users and reduce accidents caused by idiot hgv's who suddenly indicate and pull out to try to overtake another hgv that is going 1/2 a mile an hour slower, hence causing a car doing 70/80 mph to slow suddenly, which then causes all the tailgaters behind him to brake suddenly. I travel from Lincolnshire to London twice a week, and come back in the dark. The hgv's on the A14 are deadly, most of them being foreign. Listen to the traffic reports on the radio each morning, A14 nearly always mentioned. why? Because the road has two lanes, HGV's trying to overtake each other are the problem. London has bus lanes, A roads and motorways should have hgv lanes. But for Gods sake don't let Boris take control of them.

[boxtops]

Wos, same here on the dual carriageway coming out of Dover - HGVs are banned from the outside lane on the long hill coming out of the town.

[seadogg]

A14 between A1 and Cambridge should be 40 mph as it is generally nose to tail when we use it whatever the speed.

[old-wos-is-name]

That bit of the A14 to the A1 is a nightmare. I have never seen so many HGV's and I thought the M25 was bad. As you get nearer London on the M11, there is a "trial section" where HGV's are restricted to the inside lane for a couple of miles
at certain times of the day. thats a start, either build wider motorways and create employment for the locals ( not imported labour) or restrict the HGV's.
As I said earlier, most of them have foreign number plates, so I don't know if they pay any road tax in this country, or even buy their fuel here, so lets put some order into this country.

[boxtops]

The answer to the last part of your question is no, it's a big bone of contention - our trucks pay to use foreign roads, they don't pay anything to use ours, other countries charge at the border - we don't.

[New Judge]

My answer to this question:

http://www.theanswerb.../Question1058912.html

Might help explain the confusion between HGV speed limits and speed limiters.