Lorry overtaking ban, M11

[Huge]

[23 lines snipped]

I used to drive regularly from Port de Bagnolet to Aulnay sous Bois round the Peripherique and up the A1. The scariest driving experience(s) I've ever had.

[NY]

No, check a map. It's about 18 miles. Although *some* of the intervening section is A1(M), which I'd forgotten about, it's still (I'm sure) only 2 lanes.

[Roger Mills]

Sorry - I was responding to the previous paragraph about the A34 - I somehow missed the sentence about the M1!

[tim...]

'bout bloody time

Nope

The lorries that are in the right hand lane clog it up so that all of the traffic is forced to trundle along at 65 mph for mile after mile after mile

I once sat in the left hand lane all the way and timed how long it took, compared with another trip where I sat in the right hand lane behind the string of overtaking lorries

and from J9 (where the A10 joins) to J8 (where it goes to 3 lanes) the difference was 90 seconds.

ISTM that a rule that lets the cars zoom past uninhibited is worth asking the lorries to suffer an extra 90 seconds on their journey time

tim

[Roger Mills]

I tend to agree.

[Roger Mills]

The thing which annoys car drivers is having to follow a pair of lorries for miles on end as one overtakes the other at an infinitesimally small closing speed. On a hill - where the speed is determined by power to weight ratio rather speed limiters - a lightly loaded lorry will achieve a much higher closing speed over a heavily loaded one.

[Nightjar]

Which is fine, if only lightly loaded lorries try to overtake heavily laden ones. In practice, if the lorry behind is doing a couple of mph better than the one in front, it will still try to overtake.

[Capitol]

Try the Atlanta ring road in rush hour!

[AnthonyL]

There's still a short section on the A42 section Northbound just before Ashby. Works well until the lorries are allowed to overtake again.

[dennis]

Have you considered just how much time it will save them?

They overtake one or two lorries and then join the queue after five or six hills they may be 500 yards in front so about 45 seconds.

Whereas the car the held up could be ten minutes or more in front.

It isn't worth them overtaking, they just don't understand.

[Harry Bloomfield]

My car would hardley notice a hill, even when towing. Heavily loaded HGV's do slow down due to inclines.

[dennis]

You're lucky that they are speeding.

[Andy Burns]

Also the western end of the A14, but only certain times of day

[ARW]

The correct name for the drivers of such vehicles are knob jockeys.

[ARW]

You are correct

I am sure you meant A1 not M1 and some of that section it just good old fashioned A1 and not A1(M).

Those bad times you mentioned (Northbound) are every Monday to Friday from 7am to 9am:-)

I can get to Ferrybridge (I work there quite often) faster from Doncaster via the A630 the M18 and M62.

[ARW]

What happened to the caravans must keep to left hand lane on the M5?

Just after Gordano services ISTR.

[DJC]

Scary yes, but not as scary as A7/A12 around Genova.

[newshound]

Brussels ring road, 70's, lane 3 of four on an embankment without a crash barrier, a wagon in lane 2 flipped a metal structure into my lane giving me a fast front puncture on cross-plies (and a slow rear puncture, as it turned out). That was fun for a moment.

[Dave Liquorice]

20, 30 years ago you'd often come across a lorry doing 30 or 40 mph up a motorway "hill". These days the vast majority of trucks have enough power to maintain their speed on the relatively gentle inclines found on motorways.

The major problem is the slight differences in the calibration of the limiters (*) meaning a truck attempts to overtake with only 1/4 mph speed advantage. Happens on the flat, not just hills, thinking of the dual carriage way parts of the A1 south of Newcastle and the M6 south of Lancaster.

(*) I have sneaky feeling that modern "limiters" are really rather sophisticated cruise controls that also have control of the brakes. Often see a truck trundling down a hill at an apparent steady speed but it'll briefly brake, maybe only once or twice but well before a human would notice and far shorter.

[Trevor Smith]

They had that on the A20 coming out of Dover but as there are no police to enforce it the drivers just ignored it and sat beside each other going up the hill.