yourhavingalarf:
The tailgating was just as bad then as it now though.
I agreed with everything you just wrote apart from that ^^^^^ bit. I honestly can’t remember tailgating being a thing in pre limiter days. My theory on why is twofold; firstly, as you rightly commented if you were traveling along at 60mph and caught someone up you’d simply accelerate to 65 or 70mph for a quick and clean overtake and then drop back down to 60. Secondly; lorry drivers back then were acutely aware that they were driving a lorry with poor brakes, no seatbelts and very little in the way of safety aids, as opposed to today’s car drivers who happen to hold a class one who are cocooned in a safety cell and feel invincible.
I agree with you there, it seems a long time ago now but I remember seeing the odd one tailgating and I mean the odd one. It had absolutely no resemblance to what seems to have become normal now to some.
the maoster:
t. I honestly can’t remember tailgating being a thing in pre limiter days.
That must be one hell of a pair of rose tinted glasses you are wearing. Tailgating was plentiful on the busier stretches such as the M62 between Leeds and Manchester so don’t kid yourself it is a recent phenomenon and going on how lorry drivers used to drive they weren’t acutely aware they were driving vehicles with crap brakes and not wearing seatbelts.
Top quality driving from 1963, nice bit of tailgating and then an overtake on a hill on a bend into oncoming traffic that itself shows a lorry up the backside of a car - 1min 50:
1980 36 seconds two wagons so close you’d think one was towing the other and several examples from a minute onwards (might want to turn the volume down - crap music):
Remember the image of Knights of the Road was destroyed by the behaviour of lorry drivers throughout the pre-limiter days. One of the reasons we got limiters was because of the antics of lorry drivers. Everything we have today - speed limiters, tachographs, clampdowns on load security, overtaking bans - are all as a direct result of driver behaviour in the past. There have been enough incidents that the government have deemed it worthwhile spending a ton of money bringing those things in and enforcing them. And before you bleat on about it being revenue generating I doubt very much that the amount they get in fines for some of the offences comes close to covering the cost of enforcement.
Conor, were you actually around back then? I was and although I never used the M62 back then I regularly used the M1 and M6 and M4 all of which had very few tailgaters compared to today. Obviously there was a lot less traffic but as was said you had the power to pass if need be.
What generation were called knights of the road then? You have me puzzled.
DickyNick:
Imagine how some would drive if the trucks weren’t limited
As I recall…
I don’t remember speed freaks doing 70mph passing me every minute of the day before we had limiters. Sure there were the odd one or two (including on occaisions myself) that really hit it hard but for the most part drivers kept it around 60mph. We didn’t have the elephant racing problems because if you caught someone up, you just gave it a drop and went round them.
The tailgating was just as bad then as it now though.
Did you have tnt mark Thomson and fed ex though before limiters?
We did have TNT; also Lynx Express, Gloystarne and Solaglass.
DickyNick:
Imagine how some would drive if the trucks weren’t limited
As I recall…
I don’t remember speed freaks doing 70mph passing me every minute of the day before we had limiters. Sure there were the odd one or two (including on occaisions myself) that really hit it hard but for the most part drivers kept it around 60mph. We didn’t have the elephant racing problems because if you caught someone up, you just gave it a drop and went round them.
The tailgating was just as bad then as it now though.
Did you have tnt mark Thomson and fed ex though before limiters?
We did have TNT; also Lynx Express, Gloystarne and Solaglass.
And did they all drive like they stole it like they do now? Or did they not have daft trunk times to make?
Yep some drove like they stole it. Remember motors could do 70+ and more depending on what you were driving.
Definitely far less tailgating though and no streams
of vehicles all stuck together like we see today.
Also drivers were far more courteous and there was far less anger and aggression.
Yep speed limiters caused many of the issues we see now, but i would not like to see them removed because too many at the wheel of lorries are a bloody menace, hence all of the vehicle autobraking, stability and lane departure ■■■■■■■■ now having to be fitted and still they can’t look in front and avoid ramming each other up the arse at a max 56mph
And no, there simply wasn’t the ridiculous brain dead tailgating for mile after mile you see now, you might have a close few seconds as an overtaker started to gain speed for when his overtake would become clear (a technique which made everything flow a little better), but no way did thousands of lorryists on drum brakes all round with no ABS sitting in their fibre class potential coffins sit for mile after mile a car’s length from the arse of the vehicle in front like the muppets do now.
