The advice applies to all drivers just more so to drivers of large vehicles. I think an HGV is a large vehicle don't you?.

Any driver with a queue of 50 or 60 vehicles behind them should stop every so often and let the faster traffic past. It's just good manners never mind following the advice of the Highway Code.

Edited by IRC on 29/08/2012 at 23:44

I drive the A9 between Perth and Aviemore at least 4 time a year and like all trunk roads with HGV's it can be a pain at times. BUT there are good stretches of dual carraigeway that allow overtaking unlike many trunk roads and these are being added to on a regular basis.

The main problem I find is drivers of cars that have lost the ability to overtake when the conditions allow. They sit 6 foot behind an HGV with no way of seeing the road ahead and a queue of them builds up all following each other like sheep. If you try and overtake them them they get irratated and flash and honk when you have to pull back in, the worst offenders actually attempt to stop you pulling in.

If these drivers would get a move on or allow others to overtake unimpeded the A9 (or any road) would be a better and safer place.

To add in almost 20 years of using this road I have only seen one really bad accident that I suspect must have been fatal for all concerned. It was at the southern end of the southbound side of the dual carriageway section between Dalnaspidal and Dalnacardoch at about 7.30 am when the roads are pretty much deserted. We were the 4th car on the scene after the crash and it was like a war zone, The only car involved (an Astra think but difficult to tell due to the severity - totally destroyed) was on its roof in lane 2 and the armco was flat for at least 100yds before the car. At this point the northbound and southbound are not visible to each other thus there was no car on the northbound affected. The people from the van and 2 cars that had stopped waved us on and looked shocked to say the least. I would estimate it was 10 minutes later when we saw the emergency services heading northbound from Pitlochry but I suspect there would have been little for them to do. This did not happen on a "dangerous" section at a busy time and was obviously not the roads fault.

As for the slower moving HGVs etc. I would suggest something similar to parts of Germany be done and limit the hours of operation of said vehicles to specific hours. between 19:00 and 08:00 perhaps? Also freight should make better use of the railways and then, by HGV, distribute locally.

Moving HGV traffic off the A9 between Perth and Inverness is a non-starter - the rail line is only single track with little or no spare capacity.

Limiting HGV operating hours will increase costs even further for those in Inverness and further North.

Perhaps more 2+1 carriageway can be built allowing overtaking half the time but the cheap (relatively) cable-type of central barrier is out of favour as it treats bikers very harshly and bigger barriers are expensive.

The plans already exist to create a dual-carriageway with grade-separated juctions all the way - but the big issue is finance as Scotland now has no chance of Westminster contributing a penny.

We live close to the A616 Stocksbridge bypass (just north of Sheffield) and this is notorious for the number of serious accidents and fatalities. For those who do not know the road it has average speed camers for most of its length and on the hilly part is 2 + 1 lanes for safe overtaking. Yet people still drive recklessly and get killed and everytime the headlines in the local free sheet say "Killer Road Strikes Again".

Went to Whitby the other day, on the way home we were in a 40mph queue behind a lorry on the A169 (the road to Pickering). No car showed any interest in overtaking, eventually got behind the lorry by passing 2 or 3 at a time (including a Police Hilux). But in this case it was not the lorry at the front of the queue, in front of the lorry and only noticable when there were bends in the road was a Ford S-Max.

Bet the lorry driver was happy.

I've had that towing a caravan - the impatient drivers hopping past the queue behind me only to realise there's just as much queue in front as behind.

A big part of the issue is that most drivers treat speed limits as average speed targets - they aren't, they're upper limits which automatically means that lower speeds are (or should be) perfectly acceptable.

I've had that towing a caravan - the impatient drivers hopping past the queue behind me only to realise there's just as much queue in front as behind.

I most certainly was not being an impatient driver. If other drivers wanting to overtake safely and get on with the job of getting home so offends you then you should not be on the road. Do you never overtake when you are not towing. Expect you close the gap to prevent other drivers getting into the space in front of you.

I don't mind drivers overtaking safely - why should I?

Yes I do overtake when I'm towing - the HGVs have a lower speed limit than trailers.

My safety gap is always big enough for an overtaking driver to pull into.

There's another question here, not directly related to the A9 - when traffic builds up behind a slower vehicle, just who has the priority to overtake first - the driver immediately behind the slower vehicle or the fastest driver from way back down the queue.