This seems like a good idea

[headlamp]

Just saw this article in today's London Evening Standard.

I think the idea should be extended to all three lane A roads as well. Whilst they are at it they should ban vans from lane three too!
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Using a mobile phone while driving a car should be made a capital offence!

[stryker]

OH for the love of God, FINALLY!

Its about time someone took notice of that! I assume they mean this is in force during rush hour?

* They cause delays overtaking each other at a diff of 1mph.

* This will also cut down on accidents as they've no reason to swing from lane to lane any more.

* No more lorries in lane three. If they are not meant to be in lane 2 no FOOKIN way are they going to be in lane 3.


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Now what?

[dodsi]

Yeah, i dont use the duel carrigeway on my 125 as i am stuck at lorry speed and some try to overtake you going only a few mph more!

[fazed]

Yay ! Finally a good idea . That will stop Mr truck driver 1 overtaking Mr truck driver 2 at 57mph when Mr truck driver 1 is doing 56 , on the M26 , thats one thing what actually annoys the £$*% out of me .

[Kickstart]

Hi

Should make joining the now packed first lane from the slip road interesting.

All the best

Keith
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[innominate]

Why not just take the speed limiters off them.
Would help clear the road of cars.
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[headlamp]

[TheShaggyDA]

Coming home on the M1 on my Enfield wednesday night, I was sitting behind a lorry at 60. An artic started his overtake, and it took him one mile to get parallel with the one in front of me, and another mile and a half to pass it and pull in. He then hit his brakes, as he'd moved back to lane 1 just as another artic was joining from the slip road. Talk about a rolling roadblock.

Freight should be moved to trains, so only local deliveries are required, leaving the countries arteries unclogged, IMHO.
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[zx636]

Good one Keith

Now consider the new imposibilities of actually getting off once you are on. They will now have to put exit markers 3 miles from the turnoff.

[Bendy]

[Git]

[zx636]

Sending all freight by trains is a good idea except no investment in railways means the rail network is as clogged as the roads. One of the reasons a lot of freight moved away from trains to start with.
Plus trains arent door to door and the freight would need collecting from Depots. Now instead of having one lorry cutting you up you would end up with loads of smaller ones.

A vicious circle I think

[zx636]

[Git]

The one what?

[Harold_Shand]

Someone should start making use of the canals again.

[zx636]

I thought that was where Tesco's parked their trolleys overnight

[Git]

I cannot help but wonder if banning lorries from the middle lane is really the way to go? I believe there are more middle lane hoggers in cars than overtaking lorries, ban the car driver and leave the commercial vehicles alone, slow down the trucks from deliverys and someone will pay somewhere, increased delivery times raise the bill, the end user may pay for it. Good idea on paper, totally OTT in the real world.

[Kickstart]

Hi

There are some lorry drivers who take the mickey but many are fine. I agree with the point above that the best thing to do would be to remove the speed limiters from them (and they are currently speed limited to 56mph when the actual speed limit for them on the motorway is 60mph). The M42 was a nightmare in the morning, being a 2 lane motorway (much of its length) with regularly lorries blocking the overtaking lane.

Rather than limiting them to the left hand lane some kind of ruling how long an overtaking maneovre can take would be reasonable. For example, in the example above of the 2.5 mile overtaking manoevre then it would possibly be reasonable to prosecute them for driving without due consideration (and pulling them over and spending half an hour checking their documents would act as a pretty good penalty on its own, especially if that means they now need to park up overnight to avoid going over their hours).

While putting traffic onto the railways might appeal, in reality it would not be cost effective. You would land up with 2 lorries rather than one (one to a rail depot, one from). Journies would take far longer which would screw up various bits of "just in time" inventory keeping. Massive subsidies would be required to make the railways even vaguely cost effective when compared to the roads (passenger subsidies on the railways up over 30p per passenger mile in some areas, and the ticket prices are still hideous). Some could certainly be effectively carried by railways, but probably only those where there is a large volume of business going from one particular destination to another particular destination. Works well for coal for power stations, and could work well with (for example) the cars from Toyota near Derby heading to a port for export.

It is a difficult one, and really not sure what the solution is. A reasonable size motorway network would certainly help.

All the best

Keith
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[JonB]

Well this is one step towards better motorways, funny how they ignore the middle lane hoggers who forget that it is technically only an "Overtaking lane".
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[zx636]

I suppose they could do it by weight. If a lorry is loaded then restrict it to the inside. that way unladen lorries could still overtake and move along.

As you said, i dont think there is a perfect solution that will suit everyone but as usual the powers that be come up with a quick fix that just makes matters worse.

Can you imagine how many more traffic police will be needed to enforce any lorry lane ban. more traffic police = slower traffic.

[mchaggis]

[cagiva gezzer]

From what i've read in that article, lorries will only be allowed in the "slow /LH" lane.

My issue with this is that myself, being on a 125, spends a lot of time in the "slow" lane as i would rather go at 60mph a lot of the time as it saves loads of oil and fuel + engine wear.

So, from the wording of this article, lorries would not be allowed to overtake me, and some do normally. This means i'm going to end up with some fat arse lorry up my arse!

Before someone says i shouldn't be on the M'way if im only doing 60, i can do 80-90 with everyone else, but the costs out weigh the benefits.

I say, give the lorries a lane, give the cars two and give the bikers one!
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[mchaggis]

I'm not sure how well built and surfaced the hard shoulder is, but if it was used as an added lane, and refuge points built along it every mile or two for cars to pull into if they're breaking down, it could ease some flow problems.

Or, make the lanes changeable with cat's eyes that light up to show the different lanes. Or, operate a tidal system of using lanes from the opposite side of the motorway depending on how heavy the traffic is.
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[Jrod]

Just keep lorrys on the inside, They are only allowed to do 60 I thought?

[Kickstart]