Banned from overtaking..................... (1 Viewer)

Mar 21, 2009
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We often use the A12 & A14 and are constantly hampered by lorries overtaking causing tailbacks. Often these lorries are trying to pass another lorry traveling at the same speed.
Is it not time for overtaking by lorries to be banned!
Tony
 
Feb 24, 2013
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Most of these threads always come back to consideration for other drivers

Or typically the lack of it as it seems

In France the law states that when a vehicle starts to overtake the vehicle being overtaken has to lift off or face prosecution

Possibly this is not known to many UK drivers in France, beware, they do enforce it

How many times have you gone to pass somebody to have them speed up, either out of apparent spite or because they have come to the top of a hill, or they have finished their phone call maybe :mad:

Cruise control as mentioned above, why cant people just accelerate for a few seconds to make the overtake quicker and safer

One of the few no overtaking sections I know of is the A42 in Leicestershire, probably a good idea in the office, but who on earth decided it should end half way up a hill :doh:

I don't start an overtake when in MH approaching the top of an incline, on dual carriageways I mean, due to the inevitable race down the other side that might ensue

If only everybody else drove as well as me all the time, sorted...:wink:
 

PP Bear

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Having lived and served in Germany for 20 years, I was always impressed by their road laws and systems. It's a shame we can't adopt some of them here :)

The ones I like the most are:

1. No overtaking for any lorries over 3.5tons or vehicles towing between the hours of 0730-0930 and then 1730-1930 on duel carriageways and motorways (autobahn) . Perfect for a clear lane during rush hour traffic and worked really well. Sure we'd get some stupid rights campaigners complaining about progress, but for those 2 hour blocks the roads were much safer. Why not trial it here and see how it goes. All European drivers would comply as it's what they're used too, it would just mean educating our drivers here.

2. I liked that all vehicles are encouraged to switch off at traffic lights, thus keeping down the pollution and noise. First time I didn't do this when I arrived to live there, someone knocked on my car window and politely asked me to switch off. When I did, I noticed I was the only car running. Brilliant system and a great way to gut down on emissions too.

3. Liked the rules that no lorries are allowed on the roads over the weekends. Only those carrying livestock or perishables are allowed to travel if required.

4. That no large lorries are allowed into towns and city centres. They unload at stations and then smaller lorries are used to bring goods into the towns and cities, with a lot of them being electric to cut pollution and noise.

We could learn lots from other countries, we just don't seem to bother for some reason :)
 
Sep 10, 2013
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The problem with no trucks in the outside lane is that you can end up with a wall of trucks in lane 1 all travelling at the speed of the slowest meaning that and vehicle trying the feed in to the traffic from a slip lane has a major problem.
Trucks are a problem on UK roads, we don't use our rail network properly so have the madness of guys driving trucks long distances, when the load should be on a rail wagon.
Mind you I was in Poland a few years back and have never experienced so many trucks, thousands of them causing jams in all directions..

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Dec 30, 2008
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What a selfish comment, so its ok for a lorry driver who has deliveries to make to sit behind someone who is happy to drive at 40 mph, as long as you can get past, and I dont think lorries are a problem without them we would have problems.

Eric:)
 
Apr 9, 2013
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What a selfish comment, so its ok for a lorry driver who has deliveries to make to sit behind someone who is happy to drive at 40 mph, as long as you can get past, and I dont think lorries are a problem without them we would have problems.

Eric:)

Indeed. The problem only happens when two drivers insist on having a "snail race", both flat out on their limiters and one only capable of a fraction of a mile an hour faster than the other. Overtaking manoeuvres of this sort can take miles to accomplish and do nothing to speed the goods to their destination but rob dual carriageways and motorways of their traffic carrying capacity.

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Feb 24, 2013
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have you noticed that mostly the 'snail racers' (great expression) and the pull outs with either no or far too little indication, are the 'unbranded' lorries
 

johnp10

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Indeed. The problem only happens when two drivers insist on having a "snail race", both flat out on their limiters and one only capable of a fraction of a mile an hour faster than the other. Overtaking manoeuvres of this sort can take miles to accomplish and do nothing to speed the goods to their destination but rob dual carriageways and motorways of their traffic carrying capacity.

The problem is speed limiters, then?
Prior to these things being fitted at well below permitted speed limits, slow movers were never a problem.
Pull out, pass them, pull in.
Slowing an industry down has created the current situation whereby if a driver doesn't pass, no matter how long that takes, he must slow down.
It then takes extra fuel to get back to the pitiful limited speed.
Does the consumer want to pay extra for that extra fuel?
Limiters were imposed on the industry, they weren't a choice.

The cry about using the railways for freight doesn't and hasn't stood up for many years.
The railways are slow, expensive and inefficient.
Also, they don't go to the door, to the supermarket, the factory, etc.
Even more smaller goods vehicles would be needed to go from non existent rail hubs to the door, thus increasing the white van plague.
We also hear the cry "take the big scary trucks off the road, replace them with small ones."
Take a 42 tonner off the road.........replace it with 12 transits.
That would cure congestion, eh?
If you've got it, a truck brought it.

How about looking at the problems lorry drivers have for a change?
Speed limiters are as much a problem for them as everyone else.

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DP+JAY

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The Very Busy main road from France past Dunkirk to Belgium has a ban on lorries overtaking at times & it seams to work with no problems.
The biggest problem I have with lorries in the UK is the increasing number who have the brakes disconnected from the speed limiter.The overtake, or try to, at up to 80 mph on downhills but then are stranded in the second or third lane (depending on the number availiable) as the road levels out and their speed falls again.
 

DP+JAY

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[QUOTE="johnp10, post: 1059084, member: 8872"
Slowing an industry down has created the current situation whereby if a driver doesn't pass, no matter how long that takes, he must slow down.
It then takes extra fuel to get back to the pitiful limited speed.

As they are all limited to 56mph they should not need to overtake as they shouls all be doing the same speed, as they are ,give or take a mph or 2, which is the cause of the problem.

The cry about using the railways for freight doesn't and hasn't stood up for many years.
The railways are slow, expensive and inefficien[/QUOTE]

Tesco seem to manage to use them quite a lot.

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johnp10

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jay,
Speed limiters aren't connected to brakes.
Downhill is free running, no acceleration beyond the limiter's capability is possible.
Speed beyond the limited mean is achieved by gravity only.
80mph??:rofl:

The biggest problem with trucks is the number of people who are intimidated by their size.
 

DuxDeluxe

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Many roads in NL have two lane sections where no heavy goods vehicles in the outside lane between certain hours. It seems to work very well, but the best answer to all of the above "snail racing" is to make it the law and enforce the temporary slowing of the vehicle being overtaken as stated above (never knew it was a requirement in France) no queues in the inside or outside lane, no frustrated car drivers and minimal delays to everyone. Not perfect but it could work
 

johnp10

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[QUOTE="johnp10, post: 1059084, member: 8872"
Slowing an industry down has created the current situation whereby if a driver doesn't pass, no matter how long that takes, he must slow down.
It then takes extra fuel to get back to the pitiful limited speed.

As they are all limited to 56mph they should not need to overtake as they shouls all be doing the same speed, as they are ,give or take a mph or 2, which is the cause of the problem.

The cry about using the railways for freight doesn't and hasn't stood up for many years.
The railways are slow, expensive and inefficien

Tesco seem to manage to use them quite a lot.[/QUOTE]

Really?
Have you seen the size of their artic fleet?
Already said...trains don't go to supermarkets, you still need a truck.

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cruiser

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you are right if you are being overtaken.you have to let them back in.only the nutters in this country wont let you back in.they sit there and laugh at you.
 

DP+JAY

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Tesco seem to manage to use them quite a lot.

Really?
Have you seen the size of their artic fleet?
Already said...trains don't go to supermarkets, you still need a truck.[/QUOTE]

Yes but not 3 abreast on a 4 lane motorway, all doing 56mph give or take half a mph.
 

DP+JAY

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jay,
Speed limiters aren't connected to brakes.
Downhill is free running, no acceleration beyond the limiter's capability is possible.
Speed beyond the limited mean is achieved by gravity only.
80mph??:rofl:

The biggest problem with trucks is the number of people who are intimidated by their size.
They are, or should be if working correctly, the engine is cut & if the vehicle does not slow down, the brakes come on. comming down past Beatock last weel at 70+ mph I was overtaken by an artic tanker which must have been doing 80.

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Apr 9, 2013
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The problem is speed limiters, then?

Nope, the problem is inconsiderate drivers who can be found behind the wheel of any vehicle.

I think a ban on lorries overtaking to deal with the snail racing problem is way OTT. A law requiring people to execute overtaking manoeuvres as quickly as possible and for the overtaken vehicle to slow if necessary seems a "least bad" way of dealing with the problem.

Tim
 

PP Bear

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What a selfish comment, so its ok for a lorry driver who has deliveries to make to sit behind someone who is happy to drive at 40 mph, as long as you can get past, and I dont think lorries are a problem without them we would have problems.

Eric:)
I didn't see that as a selfish quote Eric. I've never witnessed any lorry driver happy to sit at 40mph, they've goods to deliver, many of them on multi drop deliveries around various towns and city's and have an extremely busy schedule to achieve. I know, I've been there, seen it, done it and have many t-shirts etc :)

I do feel sorry for the lorry drivers, it's a thankless job, but one that's essential to our country and our economy and one that goes unloved. If you looked around your home there's probably not one product that hasn't travelled at some stage of its life in a truck :)

As for removing speed limiters, they're fitted for many reasons, safety, pollution, economy to road haulage companies, tyre performance etc. To remove them would simply serve to move the problem of overtaking trucks at +1mph into a higher speed zone, nothing more other than increased wear and tear, increased fuel economy and hence pollution etc. Also increase the chances of those dreaded blowout we all witness and they still happen far too regular at the low speeds set, goodness knows how many more there would be if we increased the speed again :eek:

The thought of keeping the countries traffic moving over a 2 hour fixed period morning and then at night, is minimal. Trucks would actually achieve better productivity, as the motorists will have moved on too :)

Oh and I've read about the trucks, trains etc, how trucks are key and vital, well so are the store men who sell the products, the factory workers who build the products that trucks have to move, the depot workers who load the trucks, the managers who oversee the production process and even the dreaded reps in their cars. All required in the process of keeping our country moving and they should be given the opportunity of arriving at their place of work just as quickly and safely as the truckers who need to complete the thankless multi drop taskings :)

One things for sure, bankers, truckers, office workers and the like, we're all like minded and have one HUGE thing in common and that's our motorhomes. We love them in every way possible, would stop at a heartbeat by the side of any road, in any weather, to render assistance to each other as required and that's priceless :)
 

PP Bear

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Nope, the problem is inconsiderate drivers who can be found behind the wheel of any vehicle.

I think a ban on lorries overtaking to deal with the snail racing problem is way OTT. A law requiring people to execute overtaking manoeuvres as quickly as possible and for the overtaken vehicle to slow if necessary seems a "least bad" way of dealing with the problem.

Tim
Tim I don't think it's OTT at all. Works very well on the continent, why not here?

2 hours morning and then at night is hardly a chocking point for the haulage industry. It could be introduced on certain sections of roads, again like the continent. Doesn't needs to be a blanket rule across the UK.

Fully agree about educating the speeders who flaunt the limits, but legally cars can go faster than trucks. It's known by all that once a truck gets into the outside lane on a dual carriageway then a long tailback builds up very quickly. This only serves to compound the issue and even makes it harder for other trucks to pull out as the lane is chocker with vehicles.

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Dec 30, 2008
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Hello mr Bear, i did,nt say a lorry doing 40 mph i said

someone, could be anyone,:)
 

OllieUK

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If you are only travelling 1 mph faster than another vehicle why over take?? modern cars can all speed up to 80mph or faster but some drivers stick to the rules and overtake at a snails pace causing huge tailbacks afraid to go over 70mph.
I personally think these type of drivers should be banned from using motorways.
 
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The point about overtaking bans that most seem to have missed is that where these are enforced is on flat roads where most trucks can maintain a decent speed(50mph limit on UK dual carriageways) like the A10 from Bordeaux to the Spanish border, Holland!!

They will not work, and cause more problems than they solve, on any road with hills, heavy trucks slow down on hills surprisingly at different rates.

I would agree that truck drivers who insist on overtaking with little speed difference are inconsiderate.

Speed limiters are not connected to the main brakes but some trucks have cruise control systems and exhaust brakes that are connected.

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