This isn’t a thread to discuss the pros and cons of truck overtaking bans in the UK, that’s been done before elsewhere. Instead, this is to give people who do object an opportunity to do so. When the ‘trial’ on the A14 started I tried to complain, and was just fobbed off by someone from the HA. As far as I was concerned it was a whitewash with no way of the road users it affects being able to complain. The latest ‘trial’ to appear on the M11 at junction 9, in my opinion is a waste of time, and as far as the southbound carriageway is concerned is ■■■■ dangerous, being next to a slip road with traffic joining at maximum speed. On Friday afternoon and evening I did two trips up the M11, and both times the traffic in the overtaking ban area was not helped by the ban, instead lane 2 had a queue of stationary cars, whilst lane 1 had a slow moving line of trucks. On a return trip southbound I was caught out in lane 2 as I approached the ban, overtaking another truck who was trying to keep momentum for the hill. Up ahead were two slow trucks starting the hill, behind me, and I mean right behind me were several cars jostling for position to overtake me, and trying to join lane 1 from the slip were cars at various speeds, although most were trying to go as fast as possible and were desperate to get out into lane 2 as usual. I was forced just as the ban starts to jump in between the poor bloke I had just overtaken and the slow truck ahead, making me brake and consequently the driver behind me, and him and so on and so on. Had I been able to overtake I could have cleared the two slow trucks and pulled back in in around 30 seconds, not long but obviously a lifetime for these poor car drivers the ban is designed to help. Personally I am sick of these bans/’trials’ appearing, and in my opinion the HA have no idea how traffic flows operate with various vehicles, just look at the ridiculous 50mph limit recently enforced on the start of the M3 from the M25, it’s a motorway! Now cars trucks and buses all baulk together for a few miles instead of doing their own thing at their own speed. If anyone wants me to post the mails I sent to the HA before they told me how I can complain officially I will post them, and their reply. In the meantime, if anyone does want to complain (please keep it sensible and clean) they can to: Jim Godsmark, Assistant Route Performance Manager, at the Highways Agency, Woodlands, Manton Lane, Bedford, MK41 7LW. He can also be contacted by telephone on 01234 796020 or by email at, jim.godsmark@highways.gsi.gov.uk. We only have until 12th October to raise concerns, and as the HA wrote ‘We will ensure that any objections are addressed and further consideration of the impact of the trial will be given before reaching a decision as to whether the HGV Overtaking Restriction can be made permanent’.
Now is a chance to get your voices heard. If I am on my own with this so be it, as I said this is a personal interest of mine, but something I am seething about.
