Not quite about cycling but nearly.....

[Red Light]

Lots of discussions here about cycling two abreast and whether its inconsiderate to do so and hold motorists up. Well today I was driving down a single carriageway A-road and was held up for 10, yes 10 miles because I couldn't overtake (thanks to poor sight lines and on-coming traffic. When I eventually turned off I could see a queue of cars stretching back into the distance. Were they being inconsiderate for not pulling over at regular intervals to let people pass?

Oh, I forgot to mention, it was an HGV that held me up. The road is good for a national speed limit 60mph but HGVs are limited by law to 40mph and speed governed not to exceed it. So for ten miles I could have been going at 60mph but had to "dawdle" along at 40mph.

 

[tigger]

Must be downhill

 

[Keith Oates]

If it has an infernal combustion engine then it's OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TheDoctor]

10 miles at 40 mph instead of 60 mph?
That's a delay of, oooh, nearly 4 minutes!!!

 

[Dogberry]

[QUOTE 1618517, member: 3143"]No, they're not.

And the reason why no one argues is that lorries are bigger then bikes...[/quote]

Yes they are.....Goods vehicles (exceeding 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight) 40mph on single carriageway roads that are signed as National Speed limit.

The vehicles themselves have a limiter fitted that 'limits' them to 56mph or 90kph.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/schedule/6

 

[Bicycle]

Out here in the Marches it is not uncommon for a car to be held up by an HGV because of the single-carriageway 40 limit.

As my children keep telling me, 60 is the limit, not the target speed.

I've never been behind an HGV for ten miles in those circumstances, but two or three miles is a regular thing.

Two or three miles at forty instead of sixty is not the biggest of big deals, as someone has already said.

Also, it's often hard for an HGV to find somewhere to pull over on these roads.

The reason no-one argues is (I suspect) because there's not much the lorry can do to help.

The key point for me is that it's very simple for a cyclist to pull over to let motor traffic past. That's why I do it when I'm holding up a line of cars (not every time, but often).

It all comes down to courtesy for me. It's tough for a truck to pull over; it's jolly easy for a bicycle to do so.

Having frequently driven a tractor down the A40 in Carmarthenshire (where weekend bikers often ride in treble figures) I know a little about being perceived as someone who gets in the way...

Sometimes you can do something about it; sometimes you can't. Where you can, it's polite to do so.

 

[Red Light]

@User: That's the first time I've been described as "well fit"

My point was though that a whole long line of traffic dutifully followed the HGV at 20mph less than it could have been going. Had it been two cyclists doing 20mph in a 30mph limit you can bet there would be all sorts of horn sounding, engine revving unsafe overtaking attempts, shouted abuse etc. It seems that motorists don't mind being delayed by their own, only by cyclists.

 

[Bicycle]

Red Light: "It seems that motorists don't mind being delayed by their own, only by cyclists."

It may seem like that, but I don't find it likely.

There is not some sort of Fraternity of the Exhaust Pipe whose members think "That thing delaying me up is belching fumes. Hooray! It's one of us, so I won't get in a lather about this."

There are road users (four wheels and two) who get jolly impatient and there are those who just rub along.

People who get impatient will get impatient with anything. They do not discriminate. Their contempt for anything slower is often universal.

Cyclists can move over with ease; lorries cannot.

I do take your point and see how we might sense some incongruity in the apparent difference of reaction to bicycles and lorries, but I do not think there is one. I may be wrong.

 

[dellzeqq]

I'll see your four miles and raise you 100 miles - Thurso to Dingwall.

 

[CopperCyclist]

I live and work eighty miles away from my home town where my parents still live. Every time I visit them, you can guarantee I'll be held up at some section for a good ten to twenty miles by a driver (usually not a HGV) not confident enough to do more than forty five in the NSL - and yes, I can promise it would be safe to travel at the sixty limit!

They have no requirement to stop, And I don't expect them to. When safe to do so, I can and will overtake. When I see a long line of cars behind them though, that's the point where I start to think 'If that was me, I'd pull in at the next lay by/garage and let them past'. Strangely enough though, it never happens.

 

[Bromptonaut]

Usually it's not the HGV itself that's a problem but rather cars at #2-4 in the queue that lack either (a) desire or (b) aptitude to get past.

The A5 from Kilsby to Weedon is a bit of road I do regularly as it gets me off the M1 sooner coming home from the 'north'. Usually it's pretty easy to keep to NSL but on Sunday I was caught the whoe distance behind transit minibus keeping to 45 and three more cars glued to it's bumper. Maybe they were together but the train was too long to overtake in one and there was no space left to 'loopstitch' down the line.

 

[fimm]

There are signs on the A9 (Perth to Inverness - some of it is dualed but a lot is not) asking slower vehicles to pull over and let faster ones through.

As someone who sometimes holds traffic up by driving at less than the NSL, I do try and pull over - sometimes the problem is that as well as dealing with driving as fast as you can on an unfamiliar, twisty road, trying to spot somewhere to pull over is yet another thing to think about. If I am doing the NSL then people "stuck" behind me can just stay there, regardless of what speed they want to do, until it is safe for them to overtake. I'm not stopping to let them past.

 

[theclaud]

Red Light: "It seems that motorists don't mind being delayed by their own, only by cyclists."

It may seem like that, but I don't find it likely.

There is not some sort of Fraternity of the Exhaust Pipe whose members think "That thing delaying me up is belching fumes. Hooray! It's one of us, so I won't get in a lather about this."

There are road users (four wheels and two) who get jolly impatient and there are those who just rub along.

People who get impatient will get impatient with anything. They do not discriminate. Their contempt for anything slower is often universal.

Cyclists can move over with ease; lorries cannot.

I do take your point and see how we might sense some incongruity in the apparent difference of reaction to bicycles and lorries, but I do not think there is one. I may be wrong.

Any chance of your figuring out how to use the quote function?

 

[Dan_h]

Even if the drivers of the cars are angry with the HGV driver, how would they tell them so? Shout and rev at a cyclist and they will hear you, in an HGV the driver wont. Also when you DO get alongside you can shout all you like, up there in the cab you are still unlikely to be heard. You could try cutting in on the truck or perhaps slowly moving left as you pass it to make it get out of the way but good luck with this when the truck weighs 10 times what your car does.

In short I think drivers do get angry when held up behind trucks, it is just that there is not much they can do about this, except store it up and release it on the next infuriating cyclist who holds them up for a few seconds!

 

[Dan_h]

Try 40x heavier

You would be very surprised at how HGVs are treated, you do get the same type of punishment pass that cyclists complain of, you will get cut up by tiny little cars, some will overtake then brake violently. I haven't been a lorry driver for over 25 years and they were just a mere 32 tons then. However i doubt things have changed, may be one of our resident HGV drivers on the forum could comment on the situation now.

If we truly new how mentally unstable people become when driving we would never venture out there on two wheels.

Blimey, I don't have any experience of driving a HGV but I am surprised to learn that they get punishment passes and cut-ups as well. I suppose this does go to show that it is not necessarily aimed especially at cyclists but anyone who is percieved to have held up an impatient driver.

You are right that driving does seem to have an odd effect on people and they do seem to become quite irrational