If a lorry takes a mile to pass a slightly slower one, so what.

There are far more annoying and dangerous things to worry about on our motorways and dual carriageways. Tailgating, for example.

My pet hate on motorways when you're going down a sliproad to join a motoway or dual carriagway and a following driver decides to overtake you just as you're about to join, forcing you to give way to them, since they got on the motorway before you. In my book that's dangerous driving.

QUOTE:..""Perhaps you're not going fast enough? I've undertaken on a slip road before now, because the mimser in front has hogged the outer lane of the slip road at 50MPH (or less).""

50-60 mph is a sensible speed for a slip road when joining a busy motorway as you want to be travelling at about the same speed as traffic on the inside lane.

Overtaking on the slip road itself is OK, it's the people who decide to overtake just as you're about to ease onto the motorway, and then force you to give way to them as they pass you.

QUOTE:..""What I didn't understand is why the overtakee doesn't just drop a couple of mph for half a minute""

Because dropping a couple of mph means losing momentum on a gradient, and possibly having to drop a gear or two, losing more momentum, and dropping back more and more compared to the vehicle that would have been overtaken - all to do with different power outputs, torque curves and gear ratios on different lorries.

However, a bit of background thinking might conclude that drivers can save a fair bit of fuel over time by making a habit 'slipstreaming' lorries in front of them on motorways (obviously not too close, though), even at 40-56 mph.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 19/06/2014 at 12:32

This subject has been done to death many times, i don't think i elephant race, but no doubt still manage to upset mr or mrs more important by daring to use an overtaking lane correctly.

Enjoy your time of freedom of speed choice, lorry drivers didn't ask for speed restrictors but they got them, cars will do so too in time, then the experts can show us how to not small elephant race correctly.

I hope i'm not right MT, i drive a car (albeit an old one) too.

When lorry speed limiters came in they had to be retro fitted to vehicles registered from a certain date, if you had an E prefix you got a retro fitted limiter, if you had a D reg you looked after it and made it last as long as possible.

I'm hoping my cars are too old for retro fitting, but i suspect it won't actually be speed restrictors as such i think it will be linked in with satellite controlled road pricing, and your overspeeds automatically calculated alongside your road use bill.

As you rightly say, truly depressing but i wouldn't put anything past the blighters.

As an aside i drove down the A43 early thismorning and opposite the Green Man pub near Silverstone there is a Truvelo camera, well a chap in a car timed it perfectly to use me as a shield from the camera, he must have been doing 100+ as he overtook me exactly at the camera wires, though for some reason it didn't trigger the camera flash, if a picture was taken its going to be an interesting but short discussion with my boss as to how i managed to get the lorry to over a ton fully loaded..:-)

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/06/2014 at 18:19

I don't think those forward facing Truvelos produce a visible flash, so you'll have to wait and see!

The ones Geddington Northants do, i've seen them flash at night but not me fortunately, thismornings incident it was daylight so probably no need.

Absolutely Ben, best of luck entering and exiting the road unless you're going to beam yourself directly into your very own outside cruising lane.

The problem with your theory is that restricted max speed isn't a target or set figure its a maximum.

All cars are limited to the same speed by law also, so you won't need to overtake another one either.

The problem isn't lorries or cars or buses or anything else, its massive overcrowding of the country and thats only going to get worse, its what people voted for in their millions, so sit back and enjoy the crawl.

If elephant racing results in 0.5 mile tail back in lane 2, and no traffic in lane one behind elephant being overtaken, I now just amble up lane one until I reach the elephant. Then I await an appropriate moment to overtake. I've cleared this technique with local traffic police.

If all lorries are restricted to the same maximum speed then there's no need to overtake. They should all be in lane 1 leaving the rest of us to have enough space to get on.

But they aren't - some companies voluntarily fit limiters set to less than 90kph (56mph), eg 80 kph (50 mph) in order to save fuel - and remember, speed limits are not a target, they're a maximum.