Lorry poll on main site Options

[JeffG]

What a silly, unrepresentative poll. Presumably, there are few lorry drivers answering the poll compared with other road users.

And what do they mean by the "slow" lane? No such animal.

[Biker1]

What a silly, unrepresentative poll. Presumably, there are few lorry drivers answering the poll compared with other road users.

And what do they mean by the "slow" lane? No such animal.

I think the current results of the poll show that most of us have been stuck on a dual carriageway behind two lorries, one next to the other, taking about 4 miles to overtake!.
Most frustrating.
It is probably not feasible to restrict lorries to the slower lane but I wish they were more considerate.

Admittedly the term "slow lane" is not technically correct but I think most of us know what is being referred to here.

[Iommi]

Hear, hear, and I would imagine that some of us have also experienced being deliberately boxed in by three trucks as well. Stick to the near side lane.

[Strafin]

I think if I was doing 200 miles and the guy in front was going 3mph slower
i would overtake him. We all want goods in the shops all the time after all.

[Strafin]

And it certainly shouldn't be referred to as the slow lane. Show's a lack of understanding from whoever is asking the question.

[Biker1]

I think if I was doing 200 miles and the guy in front was going 3mph slower
i would overtake him. We all want goods in the shops all the time after all.

If the guy in front was doing 3 mph slower then you would pass at 4.5ft per second.
It would only take 10 seconds to overtake a 40ft lorry!

These people are doing almost the same speed and it takes many minutes for them to pass.

At least the person being overtaken could slow down slightly to make the procedure much shorter?

You are obviously in the minority Strafin, most people are totally p'ed off with these drivers' selfishness.

[JeffG]

And it certainly shouldn't be referred to as the slow lane. Show's a lack of understanding from whoever is asking the question.

Which is what I alluded to in my OP.

In any case, forbidding lorries to overtake, which is what the poll is asking, is a crazy notion.

[Iommi]

Which is what I alluded to in my OP. In any case, forbidding lorries to overtake, which is what the poll is asking, is a crazy notion.

I think the idea is to make stretches of roads non-overtaking rather than have a pervasive rule and on the face of it, I see nothing wrong in that.

[JeffG]

I think the idea is to make stretches of roads non-overtaking

Well, there's some sense in that. But what makes you think that's the idea behind the question? Has someone, somewhere, suggested this at some time? Otherwise I haven't a clue what prompted this badly-worded, ambiguous poll which seemingly has appeared out of the blue for no particular reason.

Re-reading that, it seems I'm getting all steamed up over something trivial. I'm not really

[Iommi]

Well, there's some sense in that. But what makes you think that's the idea behind the question? Has someone, somewhere, suggested this at some time? Otherwise I haven't a clue what prompted this badly-worded, ambiguous poll which seemingly has appeared out of the blue for no particular reason.

Re-reading that, it seems I'm getting all steamed up over something trivial. I'm not really

A little homework perhaps?

Here you go... Posted Tue, March 30 2010.

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article...articleID=12872

The Highways Agency has said lorries will be banned for a trial period on certain parts of the A34


LORRIES have been banned from overtaking on a West Berkshire stretch of the A34 this week under a new trial scheme.

On Monday, the Highways Agency introduced a trial to ban heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) of 7.5 tonnes and over from overtaking on a mile-long uphill section of the northbound A34 at Gore Hill, near East Ilsley.
The idea of the scheme, which will be trialed for a year, is to reduce congestion, improve journey time reliability and cut the risk of accidents caused by slow-moving vehicles.

Highways Agency project manager, Surinder Bhangu, said: “The A34 is the main north-south trunk route linking the Midlands with the south coast ports, and is used by 47,000 vehicles everyday.
“HGVs make up nearly a fifth of overall traffic and often slow down on the uphill section at Gore Hill.
“By trialling this overtaking restriction, the outside lane should remain clear for faster, lighter traffic and help ensure more reliable journeys for everyone.”

The overtaking restriction will be in place between 6am and 8pm each day and signs at the northbound A34 at Gore Hill will direct HGVs to remain in the inside lane.

A number of trial schemes are currently taking place on West Berkshire's highways, including the switching off of street lights on both the M4 and A4 last year and the recently announced Government plans to allow drivers of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles to refuel and recharge on the M4.

[dannyboy]

Which is what I alluded to in my OP.

In any case, forbidding lorries to overtake, which is what the poll is asking, is a crazy notion.

It works in Germany. Much of the autobahn is only dual carrigeway, with no overtaking for trucks.

[JeffG]

A little homework perhaps?

Thanks for the link. It was tucked away near the bottom the main page when I looked just now. It was easy enough to overlook!

The question makes fractionally more sense now.

[Darren]

The correct term would be Crawler Lane.

[Iommi]

The correct term would be Crawler Lane.

Is that more correct than slow lane? At the end of the day, it is a figure of speech and every one knows what it means.

[dannyboy]

The correct term would be Crawler Lane.

Nearside Lane. There should be no implication that the lane is for slow moving vehicles. The lane is for all traffic. Lanes 2 & 3 are overtaking lanes & should be used for nothing else.

[Biker1]

The lane is for all traffic. Lanes 1 & 2 are overtaking lanes & should be used for nothing else.

You're obviously not a fully paid up member of "CLODS" then?

I wish you would tell them this!!

[Iommi]

Nearside Lane. There should be no implication that the lane is for slow moving vehicles.

Or else...?

[Berkshirelad]

The correct term would be Crawler Lane.

The correct term is lane 1.

A crawler lane is an additional lane put in place on long/steep inclines for the length of the incline.

[JimG]

It works in Germany. Much of the autobahn is only dual carrigeway, with no overtaking for trucks.

Having spent most of my adult life living on the continent I can attest to the scheme working astoundingly well in many other countries besides Germany, e.g. the Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium... These are long-running and very well documented schemes that have been hugely beneficial to road users. Primary benefits are improvements to safety and huge time savings for all road users. I was living in the Netherlands when they switched this scheme on for the A27 motorway linking Antwerp in Belgium via Breda with Utrecht and Amsterdam -- a very busy 2-lane dual carriageway just like the A34 with a very high level of North-South heavy haulage traffic. Overnight there were immediate and very obvious benefits, not least due to everybody relaxing.

For years, car and van drivers would bunch up nose to tail to try and stop trucks pulling into the gaps between the cars, and trucks would launch themselves with almost no warning into any available space and slow everybody in one fell swoop from 120 KPH to 79 KPH or slower, and often this would cause horrific accidents with long queues of cars piling into each other. (Ring any bells?) Suddenly, from one day to the next, everybody relaxed. The trucks stayed in the outside lane with sensible safety spaces between them, and the cars stayed in the inside lane overtaking at 20 to 40 KPH faster than the trucks (depending on local limits -- 100 or 120 KPH), also with comfortable safety spaces between them. Calmer traffic leads to smoother flow and safer roads, with fewer concertina waves at the junctions. The initial scheme was for 6am to 9am and 5pm to 7pm only, but it was quickly extended to all day, and in some places 24x7. And now, you'll find it all over the continent at 2-lane motorway traffic hotspots. It's well established, it's well-documented, and it's a significant contribution to road safety and travel times wherever it's been used.

I have also worked in the haulage sector and know how this works from the truck driver's perspective. Being forced to travel 3 MPH slower for 200 miles makes a difference of roughly 10 minutes to a journey time, which can contribute to frustration and boredom levels. While 10 minutes might not be a strong cash argument for permitting trucks to overtake, I know drivers who overtake just to break the monotony and liven things up a bit, and we can all guess what's going on when 2 trucks are stuck side by side for mile after mile after mile, only to finally clear each other and then have the front vehicle magically pull away at a rate of knots faster than the slower vehicle and proceed to overtake the next truck before you have time to blink. Cars and trucks antagonise each other, and while it's difficult to say anything scientific about that it is possible to observe a correlation between the overtaking ban on the A27 in the Netherlands and the reduced death toll.

I, as you can probably guess, am a strong supporter of these schemes.