NRW Autobahns. With effect 1st September, trucks will be banned from overtaking each other on two-lane autobahns in NRW. Other Lander are considering introducing the same restriction due to the large number of accidents caused by trucks pulling out suddenly into the overtaking lane.
All ######### personnel are to adhere to this rule, until further direction distributed.
Has anyone else heard/seen this?? I’ve been trying to get some better (i.e. more ‘official’) sourced info but to no avail as yet.
Well I’ve been to NRW twice this week, and going back tomorrow, and there are no new signs indicating this. My route from the border to the depot only makes use off two lane autobahns and trucks, including German registered ones, are still overtaking on them. This morning on my way home I overtook a couple of slower vehicles and about 30 seconds after pulling in a police car went past me, they didn’t pull me but they definitely saw me overtaking.
I’ll ask when I get to the depot tomorrow afternoon to see if they can shed any light on this.
An equally quck read suggests to me that the proposed blanket overtaking ban can only be authorised at national level. The article suggests that the NRW transport speaker discusses overtaking bans and truck speed limits with the minister from the national government at the next conference.
The RHA/FTA equivalent has put forward some interesting counter arguments on this topic.
The original source is WDR of today’s date, with a time-stamp of 17:31 hrs German time.
The opinion of the gist of the article is from my own (very quick) translation.
So it seems that the email might be from MMTM, unless anybody knows differently.
dieseldave:
So it seems that the email might be from MMTM, unless anybody knows differently.
Errr, it {the email} was really sent to me and it’s not a ‘MMTM’ kinda thing. The fact that I hadn’t got an ‘official’ source to check the info against is the reason that I was asking if anyone had seen something with more substance to it.
Thanks for those links Dave. My German is far too basic to make total sense of it but I will get our translator to have a look and explain it to me in easy 1-2-3 as opposed to eine-zwei-drei!!
I asked about this here in the depot today and nobody knows anything about it, it isn’t in operation at the moment. This is a Deutsche Post depot operating a lot of trucks so you would think they would know about it if it was correct.
Haven’t seen any evidence of this this week in Germany,and our office know nothing about it.
It would be typical though,putting the prohibition on trucks instead of reducing the speed limit for cars.
Rain,snow or shine,Fritz will still be driving flat out out in his BMW/Merc/Porsche/Audi. (Other makes are available)
I find it very annoying here in Belgium,on the E42 around the Charleroi-Mons area,that even though it’s a 3 lane motorway,there is an overtaking ban during morning and afternoon peak periods.
I think it would be far more productive if car driver’s were educated better in road manners and speed limiters were fitted to cars.
There are after all,national speed limits across europe,even though they are at different levels.Surely in these day’s of high technology a car could be speed restricted via GPS.
Why don’t they just ban us off the roads completely,then we can all be train driver’s.
KW:
It would be typical though,putting the prohibition on trucks instead of reducing the speed limit for cars.
Rain,snow or shine,Fritz will still be driving flat out out in his BMW/Merc/Porsche/Audi. (Other makes are available)
Sentiments noted (and pretty much agreed with), however, for every 10, 20, 30 or more BMW, Merc, Porche, Audi drivers there’s about 1 truck driver to go to the next general election.
Ahhhh!! So that’s how a government makes its policies!!! More important to be popular to the masses than to be right, proper and sensible.
KW:
It would be typical though,putting the prohibition on trucks instead of reducing the speed limit for cars.
Rain,snow or shine,Fritz will still be driving flat out out in his BMW/Merc/Porsche/Audi. (Other makes are available)
Sentiments noted (and pretty much agreed with), however, for every 10, 20, 30 or more BMW, Merc, Porche, Audi drivers there’s about 1 truck driver to go to the next general election.
Ahhhh!! So that’s how a government makes its policies!!! More important to be popular to the masses than to be right, proper and sensible.
And there was me thinking that I’m the only cynical old so-and-so around!! marcustandy, IMHO that’s a very astute observation.
Just been having a bit of a surf through the German media and it seems that although this is a hot topic, the prospect of a blanket ban on overtaking in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) becoming law is still a long way off. According to one newspaper, there are at the moment 340kms of the 1400 kms of Autobahn in NRW where an overtaking ban for vehicles over 7.5t is in place. The NRW traffic minister Oliver Wittke proposes that not only a maximum speed but also a minimum speed for heavy goods vehicles be introduced to prevent the need for overtaking and is quoted as saying: “On our motorways, only heavy goods vehicles that can maintain 80kmh ON HILLS! should be allowed”. Yeah, right. Don’t hold your breath.
So, just stick to the existing restrictions which are well signed and there should be no problems.
AS REGARDS the overtakeing ban UNLESS THERE
are shields saying this is FORBIDDEN ;then you have
no need to worry,Please bear this in mind if caught
overtakeing where it is posted as forrbidden, you will get
fined and points put on your account in FLENSBURG
ALSO IF YOU GET caught gain doing the same offence
you will get a stiffer fine
DRIVERS of ADR GET 3 points and 75€ plus for the first
time they get caught, and this will be doulbled for the next time.
NON-ADR traffic gets 40€ and 1Point which for the second time will be also doubled.
German Politicans have been discussing an overtaking ban on all 2 lane motorways since last year but at the same time increasing speeds on B roads to 80 kmh
Geoff
