Tarmac_Terrorist Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Sat back, watched and timed what seems to be becoming all too common place....M3 southbound midday...one articulated lorry trying to overtake another, only it couldn't! I followed it on the inside lane for just over 7.5 minutes and almost 2 junctions with disbelief. Goodness knows how long it was trying to pull off this manoever before I came upon it. I reckon there should be a 40 second rule whereby if the overtaking vehicle cannot accomplish it's mission within 40 seconds it is deemed as 'driving without due care and consideration'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 After being held up for a good 10 minutes earlier on the A1, I completely agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! You have started me off now! This is my biggest gripe in driving, by a very long way. On my trips to Scotland, as anyone who uses the A1 knows, there are long stretches of single carriageway where you'll be stuck at 40-50mph for miles and miles with no chance of overtaking long lines of traffic. So...the traffic then hits a dual carriageway. There are several, some about 2 miles long, if that, and some of 8 miles long at most. Why then is it that as soon as you come to one of these stretches of road....that the fecking lorry behind the one holding everyone up....pulls out to overtake him....and takes the full fecking stretch of road to do so!!!!!!!!!!! No-one gets anywhere, except extremely annoyed!!! There is one particular stretch of my journey that is critical. I know that if I get past the lorries by the end of it, that I'll have a reasonable run home. If I don't....I can add a good 15 minutes to a 2 hour trip. That doesn't sound like much, but it can be infuriating. I once sat behind a lorry on the A1 down to Grantham and watched him take the best part of 10 minutes, and around 12 miles....to get past another HGV. It was the worst example I had ever seen, and the tailback was collosal, but I see other examples on a weekly basis now on my travels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Most lorry drivers drop back once they see it's going to take too long. I've seen this, to my great surprise, several times recently. I wonder whether the fast approach of my car with Xenons on has anything to do with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 I've recently seen more car drivers take just as long to overtake and all at 69mph! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Most lorry drivers drop back once they see it's going to take too long. I've seen this, to my great surprise, several times recently. I wonder whether the fast approach of my car with Xenons on has anything to do with it. [/ QUOTE ] All I can say to that is that I very very rarely see it. Up here, and this is no exaggeration at all, I'll witness exactly what is described above at least once a week, no problem at all. It disrupts everyones journey and is nothing other than selfish b*stards thinking they rule the roads (unlike me, because I actually do of course...). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P_G Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 It's not just lorries now though, it's feckless idiots who are either afraid of overtaking a lorry incase it suddenly topples over sideways onto them or who don't know what an accelerator pedal is for coupled to common sense driving. Oooh no, I'm going to hit 70mph, better slow down and annoy the fack out of the mile of cars sat behind me! IDIOTS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssFour Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Over here, Vaterland, lorries are not allowed to overtake during certain hours. The same applies in Belgium and Holland. I think that in Holland it is outlawed completly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomic Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! You have started me off now! This is my biggest gripe in driving, by a very long way. On my trips to Scotland, as anyone who uses the A1 knows, there are long stretches of single carriageway where you'll be stuck at 40-50mph for miles and miles with no chance of overtaking long lines of traffic. So...the traffic then hits a dual carriageway. There are several, some about 2 miles long, if that, and some of 8 miles long at most. Why then is it that as soon as you come to one of these stretches of road....that the fecking lorry behind the one holding everyone up....pulls out to overtake him....and takes the full fecking stretch of road to do so!!!!!!!!!!! No-one gets anywhere, except extremely annoyed!!! There is one particular stretch of my journey that is critical. I know that if I get past the lorries by the end of it, that I'll have a reasonable run home. If I don't....I can add a good 15 minutes to a 2 hour trip. That doesn't sound like much, but it can be infuriating. I once sat behind a lorry on the A1 down to Grantham and watched him take the best part of 10 minutes, and around 12 miles....to get past another HGV. It was the worst example I had ever seen, and the tailback was collosal, but I see other examples on a weekly basis now on my travels. [/ QUOTE ] Same trip different route, I take the M6 up past Carlile(sp) and hit the dual carrageway jut beyond it, any grief is normally caused by lorries passing each other. It doesnt have to be a dual carriageway though, it happens frequenlty enough on the M25.. 2 lorries block 2 lanes for junctions at a time leaving the rest of the drivers to filter past them at what is essentially the slowest speed someone wants to drive - 10Mph. My other big gripe about lorries is the way they indicate and then assume right of way and change lanes, regardless of whether or not you are next to them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rozzerfodder Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Agree with the comment about completing an overtake in 40 seconds. The A34 between the M40 and M4 is one classic stretch heavily used by HGV's I suspect predominantly heading to/from Southampton. The average speed along this dual carriageway is 45-50 MPH due to the inconsiderate tossers trying to overatke at 0.5MPH faster than the other truck. Now I understand these guys spend 8 hours a day 5 days a week travelling and like MrMe states, if he can clear the queue he has a 15 minute advantage on the run home. I suppose the lorry being held up by the one doing 40 (the max speed on a single carriageway for HGV's) will want to crack on at what is probably a safe 50mph but does take a long time to get by cos the law abider doing 40 then runs up to his speed limiter at 56 on the dual carriageway. However, if the same bloke who is "law abiding" looks in his mirrors and sees a long queue of cars behind him, how much out of his day will he lose if say he does 40MPH as opposed to 56 for the length of the 2 mile stretch, about 30 seconds roughly. If there are 20 cars stuck behind him, all capable of, like MrMe, saving 15 minutes if they get by, then he is costing the general public 300 minutes in this case IE 5 manhours. This Government has seriously screwed up on its Transport policy, if we had a decent rail network then less freight would be on our already congested highways. Climbs down off his soapbox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TP27 Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 [ QUOTE ] This Government has seriously screwed up on its Transport policy, if we had a decent rail network then less freight would be on our already congested highways. [/ QUOTE ] Agree but I was horrified to hear last night how much road traffic is made up of lorries distributing food for national Supermarkets (over 30% apparently). One way to help reduce road freight volumes is for us all to buy local produce and NOT rely on Supermarkets. Go to local farmers markets advertised in your area, stop frequenting food outlets and use your High Street. It'll all help in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Go to local farmers markets advertised in your area, stop frequenting food outlets and use your High Street. It'll all help in the long run. [/ QUOTE ] Every little helps? Seriously, it's an interesting point; as supermarkets spread out using smaller stores placed nearer to each other than large stores used to be, this will mean more lorries making 'just in time' (why they call it that, I'll never know - if it was 'just in time', they'd never run out of anything!) deliveries. Smaller stores will have less back-room stock storage space too, so they'll need deliveries even more often. So actually, the best situation from a transport point of view would be the emergency of a smaller number of larger hypermarkets, built near train lines so they can have their own freight 'tail'. Not sure I'd be keen on that though, even more of a blow to local retailers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparticus Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 I see more examples on the motorways as well now. Lorries and HGV's will use the fast lane to overtake. Dangerous and illegal. " How's my driving " stickers on the back as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Problem_Child Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 The reason they pass like that is that it takes ages to speed up again after they slow down, and it uses loads of fuel. When you're paid a flat rate it's in your interest to keep econony up and the best way to do that is to maintain your average speed come what may. I'm not defending it, just explaining it. I drove up to Stafford on the M6 at the weekend and drove through two sets of roadworks with average speed cameras- and on both occasions got stuck behind two cars running parallel at 35mph. I followed them the length of the roadworks in which time the one on the outside had probably gained, ooh, maybe a centimetre over the other one. The queue behind was quite a sight both times... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theduisbergkid Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 We all know why the traffic on much of the M11 and all of the A14 never goes quicker than 55 mph .... because at the head of each of the 2 lanes of traffic, there is a sodding artic doing 55.01 mph, next to one doing 54.99 mph ... The Germans have the right idea, during rush hour, all HGVs should only use the inside lane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 It's annoying. Really annoying. But those guys have difficult jobs to do. I don't think I could do it. If they don't drive competitively, their contracts will go and so will their jobs. We lose minutes: annoying, but not as serious. In the end, they are doing this for economic reasons, not because they are numpties who don't know better. I'm not promising that I'll never get irritated and blast past them with the horn blaring when he *finally* moves over. But let's try to live and let live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simonl Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 [ QUOTE ] The reason they pass like that is that it takes ages to speed up again after they slow down, and it uses loads of fuel. When you're paid a flat rate it's in your interest to keep econony up and the best way to do that is to maintain your average speed come what may. I'm not defending it, just explaining it. [/ QUOTE ] I wonder... taking into account those people stuck behind them, how much money is wasted in hours. The thing is, most people that use the m/ways during the week for work, need to be somewhere pronto. I've been overtaking sensibly on a motorway before, only to be tailgated at ridicluous and dangerous distances by impatient lorries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACA_Chap Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 [ QUOTE ] I wonder... taking into account those people stuck behind them, how much money is wasted in hours. The thing is, most people that use the m/ways during the week for work, need to be somewhere pronto. I've been overtaking sensibly on a motorway before, only to be tailgated at ridicluous and dangerous distances by impatient lorries. [/ QUOTE ] I think both arguments are clear = the lorry driver saves time by overtaking, and we lose time by sitting behind them. Assuming that a lorry requires 20 metres to overtake another and they do so within 40 seconds they are travelling at c.1.125 m.p.h faster. If the overtaking lorry would otherwise be stuck behind the slower lorry, it is probably worth while. Say it would be stuck for 300 miles behind it, then it would save about 10 minutes by overtaking that lorry. But the fact is that it will encounter another lorry after 15 minutes, and another and another etc. So if you add up all those overtakes it is probably best in everyone's interest if the lorries all stuck at the same speed unless they can overtake within a normal time frame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorburn Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 The ones that really get me are when they go for an overtake, and then after a few miles realise they don't have the power to get past due to a slight incline or whatever and drop back behind again. Surely the lorry in front could help the process by easing off the throttle or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilB Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 I was talking to one of our wagan drivers about that subject Thornburn, ease off the throttle when you have a large load and your gonna piss people off even more as you will go even slower if you do this on an incline. What also really annoys me are car drivers who don't leave enough of a gap after they have passed a wagan. So the driver has to back off forcing the other lorry driver to close up on him, making him pull out to keep his momemtum causing the problem that people are moaning about in this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Having done long distance white van driving in the company of lorries, I try to respect their point of view and always give them space and time. However, I'm never driving under any commercial or other pressures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tizzy Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 My biggest gripe on the roads - this one. The A1 is particularly blighted by it. The M62 is as bad. The bottom line is that it's dangerous, it causes "phantom traffic jams" and RTA's where people get killed, all for the sake of a few mph/mpg. Most trucks have limiters on them which is why they often can't / take ages to get past. The system in Germany is far far better, in that HGV's of any sort are banned from the outside lane between the hours of 07:00 - 19:00 and it works like a dream. I wrote to the DVLA last year asking why this wasn't adopted (they did try something similar on the M4 I believe) - I won't go into the drivel answer in detail, but it basically said that the road transport lobby was far more important to the government than the motorist's safety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pingpongpo Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Try driving on the A14 each day, clogged up from the largest container port in the UK (I think) on the only road towards London or Birmingham. Not funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kite Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 As HGV's are limited to 56 mph surely there shouldn't be any overtaking ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 [ QUOTE ] As HGV's are limited to 56 mph surely there shouldn't be any overtaking ! [/ QUOTE ] it seems like some HGV's can manage 56.25mph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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