Just seen this petition which is to raise the speed limit for commercial vehicles on A roads to 50mph. I think this is an excellent idea as the death rate on A roads has climbed significantly since the HGV40 limit has been more heavily enforced.
petitions.pm.gov.uk/antislow/
teabelly
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Not likely you'll find me signing that. I've had enough experience of approaching a blind corner only to find an HGV barreling around it on my side of the road and barely in control. Around here in Oxford they're particularly bad since traffic was diverted for bridge reconstruction, approaching in narrow roads at a speed where they could not stop and expecting oncoming drivers to get out of the way.
Regularly I'll be in bunch of cars which are all braking hard and have one wheel on the grass as a lorry thunders past. Limit 'em to 30 on A-roads, I don't mind being delayed a bit and if someone tries to overtake and splats themselves into a tree, so be it.
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I`m OK with it. Have seen too many suicidal overtaking moves by cars on the newer road designs, where overtaking has been restricted for miles in the middle of nowhere.
(Cue the East Riding of Yorkshire)
Edited by oilrag on 13/01/2008 at 12:34
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Can't see 10mph making all that much difference, especially as most HGVs I see on A and B roads are travelling at nearer 50 already - all you are doing is legalising what already happens - rather like increasing the Motorway limit to 80 in fact.....
Perhaps increasing the capacity of the rail network and getting freight onto that may be a better idea to cut the deaths?
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Not likely you'll find me signing that. I've had enough experience of approaching a blind corner only to find an HGV barreling around it on my side of the road and barely in control.
So what's the chances of them doing the prescribed 40mph rather than whatever speed they want?
Why penalise those who aren't morons?
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I know I'm stereotyping, so I apologise in advance to the minority of HGV drivers that do slow down for speed limits but in reality the vast majority of them drive to the limiter, ie 56mph, rather than any lower posted limit - unless they're from Ireland and have no limiter.
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Whilst I think that used to be the case Ruperts Trooper, It is very different now, too much chance of drivers loosing their licence or getting hefty fines, that coupled with the Traffic Commissioners adding on bans to drivers on top of those given my magistrates. It really is not in a drivers interests to speed any more. There are still some who do but the majority do not - well not round here anyway!
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They still do round here (Midlands)
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It's only through websites that I realised that HGVs are limited to 40mph on single carriageway roads - I've NEVER seen any evidence of them at that speed, other than accelerating up to 56mph.
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In Scotland, traffic police generally turn a blind eye to HGV speed limits.
I started my driving career at a time when truck braking systems were not to be relied upon too heavily to stop the vehicle. On downhill runs you would slow yourself with the gears and just occasionally dab the brakes. Things are much different today.
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The vast majority of UK HGVs stick to 40 mph. All the big companies do. I only ever see odd ones going faster and that is usually on large, wide roads where 40mph is ridiculously slow. If they are on tight schedules then it encourages them to drive at 40mph everywhere without even slowing for villages and towns. It is far worse that they do 40mph in built up areas than 55mph on long stretches of wide A roads.
The most important thing is that they can stop in the distance they can see to be clear.
teabelly
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On the A9 trunk road in Scotland, most of the big supermarket HGV's are now doing 40 mph. They have to because of their tachographs and GPS systems - the 'big brother' effect has meant they trundle down this road at 40 causing enormous tailbacks, especially in summer. Their jobs and licences depend on compliance. As a truck driver myself, I think it was safer when we all sat at 50 because the traffic passed more easily. Instead of car drivers braking down to 35-40 and having to accelerate hard to get past, they just backed off gently to wait for a gap in the traffic and then breezed by and back up to 60.
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