Why Lorry drivers do this?

[NotTheFordType]

I do a lot of motorway miles. I've noticed recently in a few tailbacks I've got caught in, Lorry drivers pulling out from lane 1 to lane 2. Not just a few individuals, but what looked like 40% of the hgvs that were originally in lane 1.

Is there some sort of secret or widely held belief that lane 2 always moves faster?!

It's because they you hundreds of hours of driving a month. That 5 mph difference an hour cumulatively makes a real difference. They really should be banned from overtaking on two mile roads though. Extremely dangerous.

Whilst they do an essential job, lorries are disproportionately involved in accidents, they make up 10% of vehicles but are involved in 20% of accidents.
Why a lorry driver thinks its his right to Police the outside lane traffic flow going into roadworks is a mystery, he is a lorry driver not a fcuking traffic copper, stick to your job!
Pissing in bottles and throwing out the window? surely, if stopped, you d just stand by a wheel and have a pee? the only reason you d pee in a bottle is if on the move.... no doubt drinking a coffee and on the phone all at the same time?????

@forallthesaints those lane hogging types cause far more traffic flow issues than the overtaking lorries. The sheer number of people on the road with no commonsense is apalling. Let's not forget the people who sit in the left lane 20mph under the speed limit.

notesfromthedrivingseat.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/on-why-lorry-drivers-overtake-each.html

This might be of interest..

Let's not forget the people who sit in the left lane 20mph under the speed limit

Yes! These people drive me crazy! If you can't or won't drive the speed limit on the motorway, you have no business being on there in the first place. Same with A roads, gives me the absolute rage when its a 60/70 mph road and people are doing 55 😱

I often wonder why people insist on driving/cycling into a lorries blind spot. It's like a magnet for idiots.

I think lorry drivers are generally a lot better than others on the road. If you see something wrong that they do, take a mental note of the name of the company and the time , and report them to the company they drive for. I've done that in the past and the company seem keen to address the issue. After all, it reflects badly on then.

bunty I have on more than one occasion been beeped by a car driver when I have held back at a roundabout rather than trying to drive alongside a lorry - call be daft but I would rather not get into a lorry’s turning path!

BuntyII
I often wonder why people insist on driving/cycling into a lorries blind spot. It's like a magnet for idiots.

Lack of awareness and understanding of other vehicles.

blindspots

@Psychobabble123

Same with A roads, gives me the absolute rage when its a 60/70 mph road and people are doing 55

Well, hopefully you don't kill anyone else when you crash. You don't drive with children in the car, do you?

It's more dangerous to drive when angry or in a rage than to drive slightly about the drink drive limit. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3458656/Calm-dear-Driving-angry-dangerous-using-phone-makes-10-times-likely-crash.html read this]] and read this too and calm down.

@DisgraceToTheYChromosome and @SeamstressfromTreacleMineRoad, thanks for explaining that.

In my Op scenario I was thinking of tailbacks on 3 or 4-lane motorways where all lanes are open but the variable limit flashes up at 50, then 40, then we gradually come to a standstill. As soon as the 50 limit goes overhead, I see lorries pulling into lane 2.

I was hoping there was some arcane driver knowledge that lane 2 moves more quickly, so I could drop into it myself in future and sit there all smug

In general I think the vast majority of lorry drivers are courteous and sensible. Yes you do get some pricks but as a proportion I see far far more cars being driven stupidly and discourteously. For example I've never had a lorry not move into lane 2 to let me off the slip road unless it's heavy traffic and lane 2 is pretty full. But I've had cars do this several times, seemingly for no reason than they can. It happened to me three separate times in Northampton. I was only there 3 days!

I've been known to let out the odd "Awwwww" as a lorry driver pulls into lane 2 to overtake another lorry, causing lane 2 traffic to suddenly pile into my lane, but that's usually because the car drivers in lane 2 haven't been driving mindfully and watching the traffic in ALL the lanes and several vehicles ahead. If they had, they would have seen the lorry indicating and either dropped their speed gradually without braking, or had time to move into lane 3 in a controlled fashion.

@Psychobabble123

I don't understand why you are so upset about people driving 5-15 miles under the speed limit. It's the speed limit not the speed you MUST drive at. You are supposed to moderate your speed according to the conditions/traffic not hammer along as fast as possible at all times.

People doing 55 in a 70 when there is no good reason to is ridiculous. Driving so slowly is dangerous imo.

www.saga.co.uk/magazine/motoring/cars/using/why-driving-too-slowly-is-dangerous

I would love to drive on these motorways where all the traffic whizzes along at the speed limit. envy

Come to northern Maine. Our biggest worry on the freeway is hitting a moose or an eagle, or forgetting to get off at Houlton and accidentally ending up in Canada.

*Apple juice".

It took me far longer than it should have done to work that out. That must be truck drivers, surely. How gross!!*

I've seen more car and van drivers chucking piss bottles out of their windows than truck drivers - despite truck drivers having fewer options for stopping (not all petrol stations and services have any/enough lorry spaces) - usually repmobiles with a driver eating or using the phone with the other hand and steering with his knees

Mind you, I'm still mystified by the constant central reservation population of abandoned single boots

Never post on Facebook about this sort of thing as you get outrage!

I asked why lorries, as in huge HGV's instead of driving down the A1 and onto a dual carriageway tl get to their depot, instead take the junction before go up a huge 60mph hill at 20mph and through housing estates and block the roads as with parked cars people cant get through and was told they could go where they wanted and that they know way more than car drivers!

I do know they go in the outside lane to overtake other lorries, sometimes its quick other times it produces a huge tailback and is immensely frustrating. I dont see why they need to overtake as they all have speed limiters anyway.

I dont see why they need to overtake as they all have speed limiters anyway.

But they don’t always drive at their limit so that’s a mute point really.

Oh don't get me started on this it's my #1 motorway driving pet peeve!!

I dont see why they need to overtake as they all have speed limiters anyway.

It's probably something to do with the fact that the limiters are not all the same.

It's the arrogance of some lorry drivers than causes accidents. They seem to think that if they indicate everyone should just move out of their way.

I once asked a lorry driver this. Apparently when they indicate even though you're right there it's (usually...obviously there are some twats who just pull out) because they can see space for you in the outside lane and are basically asking if you could pull into it so they can move into the middle lane. IME most of the time that all works out.

One nearly took us out a couple of months ago. We had begun to overtake him when he just indicated and began to pull out. Cars at speed behind us and in lane 3 and nowhere for us to go. DH blasted the horn which brought the driver to his senses and he pulled back in

You must have been (unknowingly) in a blind spot. Never allow yourself to get boxed in on a motorway up the side of a lorry so you have nowhere to go. If there is traffic on both sides then hang back slightly until there is ‘escape’ space one side or the other (usually the outside lane).

Apparently when they indicate even though you're right there it's (usually...obviously there are some twats who just pull out) because they can see space for you in the outside lane and are basically asking if you could pull into it so they can move into the middle lane.

Well you are supposed to do that. The whole point of indicators (the clue being in the name) is that they indicate your intention.