BMW on Motorway??

I bet he was popular when he was on single-carriageway roads where overtaking isn't easy.

Is it my imagination or are drivers of abnormally slow vehicles (eg tractors) less willing to pull into a layby to let faster traffic past? I used to see tractors pulling very large, heavy (possibly overloaded) trailers along the single-carriageway sections of the A64 and it was *very* rare that they would pull off anywhere between Malton and York - and three are very few sections of that road that have a long enough straight section to allow safe overtaking.

I wish the law would be changed to say that tractors are only allowed on the road for short journeys between one field and another of a farm, and that for all longer-distance journeys trailers had to be hauled by a lorry that was capable of reaching the speed limit, rather than a tractor with (at best) a top speed of 30.

Still hopefully the same external diameter, otherwise the car would (try to) go round in circles.

sheesh, I hope it was worth his time.

NT

no way. Maybe that sign applies to the ramp or a turn-off.

NT

There's already a law to deal with it. Adding another is not the solution.

Actually, it is. People complain about the slow traffic in the opposite direction (although it isn't quite as bad, as the carriageways diverge a bit).

Star Hill is about 10%, that may be what it refers to. No sane person would drive at 70 down a 10% incline.

NT

Call me insane but I have been both up and down it at well over 71mph.

What exactly *is* the law about using tractors for long-distance haulage (eg from field to processing plant or remote barn) instead of using a road-going lorry and road-going trailer?

Am I right, incidentally, that all trailers used on the road must have proper rear lights (tail/indicator) and number plate? Or is an exception made for tractors to allow for a fleet of tractors being used with the same trailer and to avoid having to connect/disconnect cables each time the tractor/trailer are uncoupled?

The problem has got worse now that farmers have fields in various places which are many miles from the storage barn, rather than the barn being adjacent to the fields where crops were grown, as happened in the past.

The farmer that grew barley/wheat in the fields behind our old house had a fleet of tractors and grain trailers taking the outflow from the combine harvester to his "base" which was probably about 10 miles away along fairly narrow roads.

Is there any legal requirement for drivers of slow-moving vehicles (for some definition of "slow") to pull over whenever possible to let traffic past? Or is it just a strongly-worded recommendation in the Highway Code, without any legal "teeth" behind it and which is at the discretion and bloody-mindedness of the driver? My wife used to work on a farm in the 1990s and it was drummed into them that they *must* be courteous to other drivers and pull in whenever they could.

Around York there used to be horrendous problems at sugar-beet times when farmers would use their own tractors to take their trailers of sugar beet to the central processing plant (now closed down) on the outskirts of York, causing big traffic holdups. I wonder if the same problem happens/happened at the one in Newark that we sometimes drive past.

Obviously tractors are not allowed on motorways, but you still get them on motorway-standard dual carriageways - and huge queues as everyone has to get over into the other lane to get past a tractor trundling along at 20 on a road where most traffic is doing 70 (or maybe a bit more if the police aren't checking).

No its the selfish cyclists in their peloton who wouldn't dream of single filing to let traffic through. And they wonder why motorists hate them.

Actually I think there should be a law that pelotons have to go single file whne in 30mph zones.

The M25 I don't doubt it. A 10% incline I hope not - at least not on the public road.

NT

Any vehicle that's holding traffic up must let them pass.

NT

In years gone by a speedometer was a precision mechanical device. Making it accurate expensive. Not so with electronics. Even more so when many makes have a very consistent error.

There's one round here that flashes saying you're exceeding the limit even at 20 mph - in a 30 MPH zone. One of the older types which all seemed to do that.

The newer ones which show your actual speed and a smiley etc, do seem rather better.

Quite. Although even eddy current speedos could be far more accurate than that spec.

Then there were chronometric ones. You'd laugh at a clock which couldn't better 10% accuracy even in the 19th century.

Back in the day it was an 848cc A35 van, then same size Mini. What a waste in the days when the black diagonal really meant no speed limit.

I've seen a suggestion elsewhere that this is a result of somebody badly interpreting the relevant rules saying that gradients less than 10% do not need signs.

They feel that some warning is required, so have chosen the least gradient that they believe they can have a sign for.

Chris

I would go further and say that a peleton should be illegal on the public road, irrespective of speed limit, and that groups of more than n (n being about 5) cyclists should break apart with a gap of a couple of car-lengths between one group and the next, to allow cars to "leapfrog" from one group to the next, rather than having to overtake them all in one go (or not at all).

I think I'd make it the opposite of your "law" - that a peleton is only allowed where they are travelling no slower than the speed limit - so allowed in a 30 zone where no traffic will want to get past them, but banned if there is traffic that is allowed to go faster than them that will want to get past.

If they want to ride as a peleton, in cycle race conditions, they should do that on private roads/tracks where there is no traffic wanting to get past them. The whole concept of racing on public roads, and the peleton grouping that goes with it, should be outlawed on roads. All other forms of (motor) racing, except on temporarily-closed roads, is banned - why should we make an exception for bikes?

I've no problems with a few friends riding together in a small group, two-abreast until a car wants to get past them. But large groups that make it difficult for cars to get past, are socially unacceptable.

Years ago when speedometers were mechanically driven I had a Cortina with an automatic box. I had always thought it was very noisy at 70 or so mph so I had a friend trail me one night. THe speedo was under reading byt about 8 mph. I often wondered ift they had fitted the wromng cable