Lorrys

[xane]

Interesting article about the toll on Britain's first private road, but it seems lorries are bearing the brunt of the charge (£11 versus £3 for a car).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3002541.stm

Personally I think lorries should be charged a lot extra, after all most public roads are funded and maintained by public taxes and a lot of expense is due to requirements and damage caused by larger vehicles, it's about time the road haulage industry faced up to the "free ride" they've been having for so long.

Also the attitude and behaviour of lorries on motorways winds me up rotten, seeing a lorry overtake another one over a period of several minutes by going about 1 mph faster and causing a huge queue of cars behind is a common sight.

Also, a disturbing thought is how many accidents I hear reported involving a lorry (or coach). And when one does happen it often fouls up the motorway causing a jam.

I don't use motorways that much, but I see incidents of selfish and often irresponsible driving by lorries everytime I do use them, I wonder if anyone hear who uses motorways more regularly suffers the same ?

 

[~YuckFou~]

They are trying to create two routes I think, one for each from of transport.

Good!

Although I can't wait for all the roadworks up and down the M6 to be finished. A journey to London, 210 miles, takes me on average 4.5 hours. Given that all but about 20 miles of that is on the M6/M1 it's pathetic, average speed approx 45mph.

 

[Ash!]

To be honest XANE the British traffic system is completely screwed. Lorry drivers are a nightmare that is for sure but they are the only viable alternative for freight transport. Rail could be used but that is ballsed up as well.. I work for a gases company and the ammount of contracts that we have won with rail contracters is frightening. For them 10 year contracts are the norm.

I dont want it to sound as though I am having a go at the government but in a way it is there fault. Thhey should penalise the thousands upon thousands of drivers who are in the car on there own. They are the ones who are are clogging up the roads.

I know in certain big cities state side, you are restricted to speed and which lane you can go in if you are in the car on your own. The cars with more than one person can go faster and can go into the other lanes. Dont know how succesfull it is but in principal it has goto work. In the long run its got to be cheaper to have more vehicles off the road than on it. Whats the point in having more cars on the road just to build more motorways. It just doesnt make sense. More cars= more motorways(and possibly more car tax if you are somewhat of a cynic)

 

[Testin da Cable]

nobody will think the speed/lane/persons per auto is a good idea imo. it will only work if it gets enforced severely by the police. the sheer number of police on the roads needed to enforce the idea will cause traffic-jams.


on a serious note: over here on the mainland I notice that most lorries try to keep off the motorways when ever possible. I still think that they should utterly be forbidden to overtake other lorries. why? because most lorries over here have limiters built into their engines [by law] that do not allow said engine to go over a certain power output, ie speed. wheelsize comes into the picture here I guess, and the fact that the average lorry driver knows full well how fast his rig goes. their job is to get from point A to point B at best possible speed after all. anyway, if our example can go just a little bit faster than his collegue then he will....

sorry, I'm not making any sense am I? got a fever you know :/

 

[~YuckFou~]

red lorry yellow lorry, red lorry yellow lolly..

b'tard tongue twisters

 

[Gef]

It will all be okay when we invent transporters!

Trains take the piss anyway, cost me £21 for a single from Cheltenham to Telford (about 70 miles) when I was buying the ticket even the guy behind the counter thought it was a mistake and double checked..

I dont need to travel much so dont own a car at the moment, but that seriously made me consider getting one...

 

[nath]

Man, who'd use a teleporter though? I certainly wouldn't. Who's to say that the thing that gets created at the other end is you. Perhaps it'd be a clone, and according to EVERYONE else (including the clone) it'd be you, but your conciousness was destroyed.. i.e. you'd be dead.

There'd be absolutley NO way to tell if your conciousness carries over as the clone would think it had. I'd never do it tbh.

 

[Ash!]

Good call. What happens if a fly gets into it just before yuo vapourise into the ether ??? FFS would you come out like Geoff Goldblum

 

[Lester]

I am a n00b who once dreamt he was a man.

 

[xane]

... and the giant juggernault bearing the name "Xane's Thread Company" swerved to avoid the deliberately placed tangental post obstacle in its path, veering violently to the side, the driver valliantly tried to control the mighty monster whilst sending a text message to his girlfriend, but it crashed and burned on the information super-hard-shoulder until it finally became a heap of twisted irrelevant metal, a testimony to those who dare to challenge the obtuseness that is Game Forum.

 

[Maljonic]

it'll be a moot point in a few years anyway, as soon as the anti-grav motor comes on the market all traffic will go 3 dimentional (in the air) and only pedestrians will use the roads.

 

[lynchet]

And then we will have pile ups in 3D !!

 

[Summo]

 

[Maljonic]

Originally posted by lynchet
And then we will have pile ups in 3D !!

nah, the new engines will also incorporate and EM field that will make it impossible to crash into another, similarly equipped, vehicle.

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by xane

I don't use motorways that much, but I see incidents of selfish and often irresponsible driving by lorries everytime I do use them, I wonder if anyone hear who uses motorways more regularly suffers the same ?

I see this every time, however it is Cars vs Peddle bike and over a five mile distance

You'll find putting costs up too much would kill our transport industry who are disadvantaged already with higher fuel costs compared to the Euros

 

[bodhi]

There would be far less queues on the motorway if it weren't for lorries overtaking each other and fucking police cars sitting in the inside lane at 70mph. What is with the general public, do they not realise if you overtake said police car they probably won't bat an eyelid.

 

[Ash!]

How many times you tried it Bodhi ?

 

[Testin da Cable]

Re: Re: Lorrys

Originally posted by Embattle

higher fuel costs compared to the Euros

lol never filled your car up in holland I take it? cost's enough to turn your hair grey overnight! oh...wait....

 

[bodhi]

Originally posted by Ash!
How many times you tried it Bodhi ?

Five or Six now. Just drove past them doing about 75-80.

 

[~YuckFou~]

Originally posted by bodhi
Five or Six now. Just drove past them doing about 75-80.

Ditto, always overtake them.

 

[Gumbo]

The key is just remembering to not giving them the finger while you do it.

 

[Tom]

Lorries don't cause the problems. The real reasons we have so much congestion on the motorways are:

Sheer weight of traffic

Driving too close to vehicle in front

Innappropriate use of brakes (instead of backing off the accel, they brake, causing vehicle behind to brake, etc, until 1/2 a mile back people are stopping)

Most commuters and regular users of the motorway have a better sense of traffic flow, and can guage how they drive accordingly. Ever been on the motorway on a bank holiday? So many people who don't regularly use the motorways, causing problems for the rest of us.

BTW on a separate line, don't you just hate the wankers who drive fast in a straight line, but slow right down on corners/slip roads/roundabouts? For me, the thrill is in cornering, not cruising.

 

[leggy]

Originally posted by Gumbo
The key is just remembering to not giving them the finger while you do it.

No, the key is not to undertake them.

:/

I found out the hard way.

 

[xane]

Originally posted by Tom[SHOTTEH]
Sheer weight of traffic

This is unlikely, most motorways are fully capable of taking the increased traffic load, it is obstructions, like roadworks, accidents and lorries overtaking at 65 mph that cause bottlenecks and start backing up the traffic.

I can be cruising along at 70-80 mph in quite heavy traffic in all lanes, as soon as there is a slowdown you can bet that about 1/2 mile ahead there will be another snail-like lorry overtaking maneuver.

It ranks with those who don't know about using the outer lane whenever possible, inconsiderate driving, however as you stated, most of the "slow-medium-fast lane speed" biddies only come out on Bank Holiday, whereas lorries are always there.

Lorries do it to as a token of consideration to other lorries, as there is some kind of stigma attached to gaining the mythical fuel economy by trailing another lorry and benefitting from the slipstream effect, meanwhile they totally f*ck up the car users.

 

[Scouse]

Thhey should penalise the thousands upon thousands of drivers who are in the car on there own.

Why the fuck should they??

I used to commute from Bradford to Nottingham every day - 90+ miles each way.

I did this because there was no alternative method PERIOD.

Car tax/petrol levies more than pay for the roads - they also pay for a good chunk of the public services aswell.

Considering car drivers contribute millions to the economy I think they should have a right to go where they want, when they want and how they want.


And this is from a guy with an honours degree in Environmental Management & Technology... (for what it's worth)

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by Scouse

Thhey should penalise the thousands upon thousands of drivers who are in the car on there own.

Why the fuck should they??

Just a wild guess here:

1) Cos there are too many cars on the roads?
2) Air Pollution?
3) Noise Pollution?
4) Too many cars on the road?

 

[~YuckFou~]

Just a wild guess here:

1) Cos there are too many cars on the roads?
2) Air Pollution?
3) Noise Pollution?
4) Too many cars on the road?

...and theres no viable public transport alternative.

 

[Scouse]

Just a wild guess here:

1) Cos there are too many cars on the roads?
2) Air Pollution?
3) Noise Pollution?
4) Too many cars on the road?

It's not the fault of individual drivers that there's too many cars on the road - and they shouldn't be punished for it.

We live in a very densely populated country - it's going to happen.


The government itself only pays lip-service to the pollution issues - it's why I don't work in the environmental sector anymore - waste of fucking time. If the government can't be arsed (and they can't) why should we?



The fact of the matter is - congestion is here to stay. There's fuck all we can do about it. Even if public services were great everyone would still use their cars. (The government already knows this and understands that even if they meet their underblown targets they'll shave less than a minute off an hour-long journey (on average)).


LEAVE EARLIER. Stop expecting a 90-mile trip to take 1.5 hours. Plan ahead. The roads have been congested for years - get fucking used to it and stop whinging.


The environmental solutions will come with time, but not as long as we rely on the oil industry as a primary source of energy....

 

[bodhi]

Best way to avoid jams is simply to travel late at night if at all possible. On the M6 at 1 in the morning a 250 mile trip can be dispatched in just over 2 and a half hours. And it's a lot more fun than getting stuck in traffic.

 

[Scouse]

Kinda missing the point there bodhi. If I worked from 2am-11am that'd be fine by me