Having read this article on the Commercial Motor news page i thought i would post a related thread on here.
I use this section of the M62 in both directions everyday and the police, with out doubt, should concentrate on the poor standard of car drivers.
It must be some sort of ■■■■■ thing because they just sit there in the middle lane doing around 45 mph enjoying the queue of HGV’S behind them and, as always, once clear of the roadwork’s they then accelerate away far in excess of the 70 mph limit,
Another strange tactic many car drivers seem to do in this long stretch of roadwork’s is pull over in to lane three when you come up behind them in lane two! Why? when there is not a solitary vehicle in lane one do they pull over into the narrow lane three instead of lane one.
The only thing you can do then is pull over into lane one and leave them on there own trundling along in lane three, like i say its not the lorry drivers the police should be looking at its the car drivers they should be targeting.
Well done Plod! Have a go at the Professional drivers!
Any idiot who drives knows that numbties in cars lane-hogging causes frustration and unnecessary delay through these sections!
Course professional lorry drivers also take into account that the vast majority of car speedometers are up to 10% optimistic, so showing 50mph or thereabouts on the car dial relates approximately to 45 mph true speed.
Secondly professionals also know that 50mph limit in roadworks is a limit, not a target, and is enforced for good reasons, working class blokes like us are trying to build or mend the road and are just as entitled as we are to go home after work safely and not in a wooden box.
Thirdly, trying to force car drivers, who are unlikely to be professional drivers themselves, to travel faster than they want to or pressure them to change lanes, is hardly the standard one would expect from someone who calls themsleves professional…being a professional means making allowances for those who are not, even though they might well drive you up the wall, it comes with the job.
Just remind me how long these roadworks are, 50 miles? 120 miles?, will travelling at 45 mph instead of the heady heights of 50 make a life or death difference in the grand scheme of things for the short duration involved?
dessy:
Nice post Juddian! You haven’t disappointed me with your view! It’s too predictable.
Stick to your shopping trolley,tossing off a 15 hour shift and holding up folk who want to finish and go home!
Yeah but at least as a professional driver he knows to keep in the nearside lane unless overtaking…
I have heard from lots of car and van drivers that these ‘Juggernauts’ are too big for the roads and should be banned. Oddly enough when I ask where they would get their food from they go oddly silent
Juddian:
Just remind me how long these roadworks are, 50 miles? 120 miles?
Obviously you don’t know this section of the M62 but these roadworks are a distance of 16 miles and after 6pm till 8am no one is working except for the odd night when the motorway is closed between certain junctions so that old chestnut of protecting the workforce does not apply
There is no reason for the limit to be implemented during the night its just a cash cow.
all very well is the usual complaints re car drivers.
Speaking as a retired HGV driver who uses the section of the road frequently and who also knows that the car speedo reads 50 when actually doing 47, why is it when I drive at an indicated speed of 54 mph on the speedo I will have some clown who claims to be a “professional” clinging to my rear bumper flashing his lights.
This happens even when in lane 2 ,overtaking slower vehicles in lane 1, when I simply have no where to pull in and let the “pro” through.
And why do “pro” drivers like to bunch up near an exit road so that traffic who may have been travelling in lanes 2 or 3 have to squeeze into the braking distance to exit the motorway.
Is traffic expected to get in lane 1 three or four miles before the junction?
For every argument truckers put forward regarding poor driving standards by car drivers there is usually an equally valid one vice versa.
There are plenty of comments on here boasting about forcing car drivers onto the shoulder, into the cones etc etc
At the end of the day, we are all road users and have to share the roads even if we don’t like it.
Get used to it, it ain’t gonna change
Hate to say this but them roadworks are a serious accident waiting to happen, i went through there last week and i swear i was just about touching another wagon who was overtaking me. Its only really bad on the crash barrier sections so for me hgv should only be allowed in lane one.
Well I trundle through here quite a bit and I say spot on. The standard of driving from HGVs is downright disgusting and in some cases [zb]ing dangerous. Stuck to the bumpers of a cars often in nose to tail traffic all going the same speed just because they aren’t going as fast as they’d like to .
I’m usually wide going eastbound so straddling lanes 1 and 2. I don’t hang around but I have 2 potential lanes to come across slow moving traffic in. The number of big trucking knob jockeys who sit in lane 2, 3 foot off my back end is ridiculous. quite often irate, flashing and weaving because I’ve dropped below 50 for a slow car in lane 1 and 3 isn’t clean to make a straddle pass. I often get them barging down lane 3 at the first opportunity and gesturing for me, I assume, to have coffee with them ■■
The kicker being I’m light and there’s a lot of hills so they usually end up being the ones holding me up shortly after their angry do or die passing maneuvers
Losing a few miles and hour for 16 miles aint gonna kill ya “drivers”. If your doing an indicated 45 then the car your “pushing” will be doing an indicated 50, in a 50 limit. So what are they doing wrong, unless lane hogging ■■
They probably don’t know what we know about i.e. the speed you can get away with
They are also not professional drivers doing it day in day out all day like us so may not be as perfect as you mostly think you are.
Let’s face it, if they did drive as perfect as you lot it would really make what you do seem even more everyday and unremarkable.
moomooland:
Obviously you don’t know this section of the M62 but these roadworks are a distance of 16 miles and after 6pm till 8am no one is working except for the odd night when the motorway is closed between certain junctions so that old chestnut of protecting the workforce does not apply
There is no reason for the limit to be implemented during the night its just a cash cow.
So do the lanes broaden magically at night ■■ Does a hard shoulder suddenly appear for 16 miles when the sun fades ■■
del949:
all very well is the usual complaints re car drivers.
Speaking as a retired HGV driver who uses the section of the road frequently and who also knows that the car speedo reads 50 when actually doing 47, why is it when I drive at an indicated speed of 54 mph on the speedo I will have some clown who claims to be a “professional” clinging to my rear bumper flashing his lights.
This happens even when in lane 2 ,overtaking slower vehicles in lane 1, when I simply have no where to pull in and let the “pro” through.
And why do “pro” drivers like to bunch up near an exit road so that traffic who may have been travelling in lanes 2 or 3 have to squeeze into the braking distance to exit the motorway.
Is traffic expected to get in lane 1 three or four miles before the junction?
For every argument truckers put forward regarding poor driving standards by car drivers there is usually an equally valid one vice versa.
There are plenty of comments on here boasting about forcing car drivers onto the shoulder, into the cones etc etc
At the end of the day, we are all road users and have to share the roads even if we don’t like it.
Get used to it, it ain’t gonna change
You have written a valid post there Del to be fair.
The only part I would take exception to (I would highlight it but my I pad won’t let me) is the part about trucks bunching up prior to off slips. No, I don’t expect yer average motorist to get into lane 1 three or four miles before a junction, but is it too much to expect a person who probably exits there every working day of his/her life to plan ahead slightly and perhaps move into lane 1 maybe 800 yards or so before the junction?
After all, as has been so eloquently posted elswhere, will 800 yards or so travelling at 5mph less make that much difference?
as we were originally talking about the M62, if travelling east in the busier periods it is almost impossible to move from the centre lane to lane 1, without using up someones braking space, from a point up by junction 24, even if you are planning to leave at junction 26.
If you wait until after junction 25 you will have no choice in the matter, you will have to dive into a small gap.
Even sitting in the centre lane with the left hand indicator flashing rarely gets anyone to allow you in, pro truck driver or car driver.
From 26 eastwards to 27 is the same situation.
To be honest we all grumble at other road users and when I was still driving for a living I was as bad as most on here compaining about “bloody skateboards”.
I honestly think a lot of the issues are caused by speed limiters and cruise control, whereby drivers will accelerate to max, click on the auto cruise and switch off the brain.
The same situation applies when trucks are trying to pass on a dual, one is saying “I must get past” and the others is saying “I won’t help him pass”
infuriating!!!
i didnt respect the speed limit thru the roadworks on that stretch of the 62,soon did tho when 3 points and 60 pound fine landed on my doormat,oh and still awaiting a nice trip to see ur majesty at a kirklees court house,i dont speed through them anymore,if a cars infront doin 40 i follow suit doesnt take long to get thru them anyway.
Juddian:
Just remind me how long these roadworks are, 50 miles? 120 miles?, will travelling at 45 mph instead of the heady heights of 50 make a life or death difference in the grand scheme of things for the short duration involved?
Being “forced” down to 45mph instead of 50mph for the whole 16 miles of the roadworks will add a little over two minutes to the journey. Two minutes - not even enough time to stop at the services and have a wee up the wheel (can’t go in and use the toilets - takes too long!). I think some of our professional colleagues really need to learn that the right-hand pedal is not a binary control, and that the cruise control has an ‘off’ position…
The trouble is with West Yorkshire police, is the fact that they do not have enough patrol cars to cover the area, and I only know that because one of my neighbours is an ex traffic cop with said force, (He’s a Sgt in Leeds now.) and he was telling me last Saturday night that the Government budget cuts have savaged all forces across the country, including WY. Most of WY traffic is now ran from J41 on the M1, whereas before they had more divisions. That is probably why more authorities rely on scameras. Real policing finished a long time ago.
moomooland:
Having read this article on the Commercial Motor news page i thought i would post a related thread on here.
I use this section of the M62 in both directions everyday and the police, with out doubt, should concentrate on the poor standard of car drivers.
It must be some sort of ■■■■■ thing because they just sit there in the middle lane doing around 45 mph enjoying the queue of HGV’S behind them and, as always, once clear of the roadwork’s they then accelerate away far in excess of the 70 mph limit,
Another strange tactic many car drivers seem to do in this long stretch of roadwork’s is pull over in to lane three when you come up behind them in lane two! Why? when there is not a solitary vehicle in lane one do they pull over into the narrow lane three instead of lane one.
Yep I use it everydayand every thing you say is spot on,I was behind a van doing 45mph so I decided to under take so he speeded up and it was like that all the way through the road works
The only thing you can do then is pull over into lane one and leave them on there own trundling along in lane three, like i say its not the lorry drivers the police should be looking at its the car drivers they should be targeting.
The only thing which really winds me up are those who speed up and slow down all the time, average speed camera has not dropped the penny on them yet it seems. Then the ones plodding along at the bottom of the hills which when your heavy mean they rob you of all your momentum and leave you crawling up at 25mph instead of 40mph.
Absolutely no need for enforcement at night IMHO, the road is hardly busy after 10pm through till 4am for example.
