Aibu to not understand why people drive like this?

[HarryPotterISreal]

Why the fuck do people drive like this?

1. It’s rush hour. You’re driving your lorry. Fine, you need to get places too. You are going 40 on a 60 road. Fine, your engine can’t manage the hills. The unreasonable bit: there is a queue behind you going back 5 fucking miles. You know no one can overtake as it is a narrow road with blind corners and rises.

There are places he can pull over. If he did that every five miles or so he wouldn’t be responsible for adding 15 minutes to the journeys of 50 people. But HE would be 5 minutes later so no way, just cause a fucking traffic jam.

At least twice a week.

1. Four lane motorway.

Lane closest to the hard shoulder: Slow moving truck going 55 or whatever. Fine. Lane 2. Another lorry trying to overtake the slow one. It takes a while to build up speed so it is going about 60. Third lane: someone who doesn’t want to be behind trucks. Going 60.

Fast lane: I know it’s not meant to be the ‘fast lane’ but face it, it is. Someone going 65. Behind them someone going 60.
Behind them someone trying to keep distance so going 57.

So between them four selfish twats manage to clog up the whole fucking motorway and cause a traffic jam. And this happens every fucking day.

When you overtake (and continue at a cruising speed of 70 ) the road is clear. The whole traffic jam was caused by a truck that wanted to overtake, a twat who didn’t want to go behind a truck but also did not want to go above 60, then the third dick who wanted to be in the fast lane but to go about 65.

Those three selfish people inconvenienced dozens, even hundreds.

Ffs.

Aibu to hate those people?

Lorries going up hills, yes you are being unreasonable... the time it would take them to build up speed after getting out of wherever they have pulled into, would slow down traffic even more..

Also they HAVE to get to where they are going inside their driving time allowance - you don't you do actually have ten or fifteen minutes spare and its not going to cost you your licence and your job if you go on a bit longer than you planned.

A lorry driver who can't stop when he's over his allotted driving time, because he wasted an hour stopping every five miles for 10 minutes to let folk past, then another ten minutes to get out and then another 10minutes getting back up to speed.. he will.

As for overtaking one another on motorways, again, it is necessary (taking it in turns to slip stream the other saving fuel for example), and if others used the motorway properly it wouldn't be an issue except on those rare, two lane motorways which really need updating anyway.

Hardly the truckers fault no one else can use the motorway properly!

I suggest that you read up on speed limits for lorries before ranting at them doing the legal speed limit for lorries 40 on a 60 Road or 60 on the motorway. smile

If you read my posts that’s not the problem.

Lorry going 55 or whatever in the slow lane. Fine

Second lorry going 59 in lane 2 trying to overtake [hmm

Lane 3 has a car going 59 because she doesn’t want to be behind a lorry

Lane 4 - some dickhead being selfish and going 62 or something so that the 4 of them have created a wall.

To leave space, the cars behind will go even slower, so the effect is the whole motorway is going between 50 and 57 or so.

That is unreasonable.

Yes I understand that the lorries have to go below the speed limit, but pull over every 10 15 minutes to let the rest of us pass.

It’s as if they get off on having the power to disrupt so many peoples journeys.

To those saying it makes no real difference. An hour on the motorway going 50 and an hour going 70 gets you to different cities ...

Yes I understand that the lorries have to go below the speed limit, but pull over every 10 15 minutes to let the rest of us pass. It’s as if they get off on having the power to disrupt so many peoples journeys.

Ummm nope. They are just trying to get where they are going, at the speed they are allowed to use, just like everybody else! Why on earth should they have to pull over? And why on earth shouldn't they be able to overtake a vehicle going more slowly than them, just like everybody else is allowed to? Why is your journey more important than theirs? The time you lose by being behind them is no more precious than the time they would lose by pulling over every 15 minutes. I just can't understand why some people are so selfish and entitled.

Although you can't please everyone. Yesterday I was driving along a bendy country road (it's national speed limit by default but even a boy racer wouldn't get above 30 as it's narrow and windy). I wasn't familiar with the road and was doing about 20. Some idiot behind me was driving right up to me flashing his lights (there was no space to pull in and let him pass) went round a corner a guy coming the other way shouts at me to slow the f**@k* down (I stopped in plenty of time - wasn't an emergency stop).

Why on earth should they have to pull over?

Because the Highway Code states that they should! If you are driving a heavy goods vehicle or a slow moving vehicle, you should pull over regularly to allow traffic to pass.

The Highway Code asks slow moving vehicles to pull in when safe to allow traffic to pass. Rule 169: “Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle.“ Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass.”

I just can't understand why some people are so selfish and entitled.

What, selfish and entitled to expect other road users to follow the rules of the road? If I was holding up traffic (like I did often as a learner on windy roads) I pulled over to allow other cars to pass and to let other people get to where they needed to be.

Why on earth should they have to pull over? And why on earth shouldn't they be able to overtake a vehicle going more slowly than them, just like everybody else is allowed to? Why is your journey more important than theirs

Because the Highway Code says that they should. And actually when I am cycling I DO often get out of someone's way because I am out for a leisure ride and I don't know if they are trying to get to work or are visiting an aged relative or similar. It could be that their journey IS more important than mine.

And come on, how many times do lorries doing 58 mph overtake a lorry doing 57 mph. It is absolutely ludicrous. And I have no doubt that they do enjoy getting in the way at times. Take the A9 in Scotland as an example. Two way traffic for much of its length, lorries can only do 50mph so you're behind them for ages. First bit of dual carriageway? They crawl past the lorry in front of them so nobody else can get past.

And it's not as easy as going out earlier. If eg you have to drop your kids off at school/nursery before work you can only drop them from a certain time. Work starts at a certain time and there may be no flexibility in the schedule. Therefore it helps if people don't faff around on the roads and get on with their journeys. I am firmly convinced that at least 50% of traffic jams are caused by faffing around.

The issue is this - what actually counts as a slow moving vehicle, @runningkeenster? I don’t think that 40mph in a 60 zone or 56 on a motorway would count as being slow moving.

But if a lorry pulls in on a hill, because there is a queue of traffic behind them, that lorry will then struggle to get back to 40mph, and may well not manage to get back to that speed, because they are starting from zero, laden, on a hill - so they will hold up even the people behind them even more. Plus the lorry will be less fuel,efficient and more polluting, and the driver may end up in trouble for failing to meet their target delivery times.

And their target fuel efficiency too.

Nobody is expecting anyone to pull in on a steep hill, though, are they? Just for them to pull in when it's safe or convenient to do so, which it will be at some point.

And yes, I would argue that 40mph in 60 zone IS slow when it's holding up a queue of traffic. Some posters appear to be ignoring the fact that the Highway Code states that slow moving vehicles should be pulling over. It's not something we've made up completely or have just decided for ourselves - it's what's expected!

In any case, the OP seemed to be talking about a motorway - where there shouldn't be any need for a lorry to pull over, because there is an overtaking lane. Ok, it might occasionally happen that at the same time as a lorry is in the middle lane overtaking another lorry, another car is passing both of them in the overtaking lane and is not going as fast as you want them to. But that's brief.

The OP’s first example was a lorry doing only 40 in a 60 zone because it couldn’t go any faster uphill, so she must have wanted it to pull in on the hill - once it got up the hill, it would be able to get back to the speed limit, so wouldn’t be causing the delay that she was complaining about, and would no longer be a ‘slow moving’ vehicle, so there would be no need for it to pull over.

My example is of a lorry doing 40 on a 60 for miles and miles. I understand they can’t go as fast due to hills etc but there ARE places to pull over where it is not a hill start.

HarryPotterISreal

If you read my posts that’s not the problem.
Lorry going 55 or whatever in the slow lane. Fine
Second lorry going 59 in lane 2 trying to overtake
Lane 3 has a car going 59 because she doesn’t want to be behind a lorry
Lane 4 - some dickhead being selfish and going 62 or something so that the 4 of them have created a wall.

Your problem is the people in lanes 3 and 4. Not lanes 1 and 2

HarryPotterISreal

Drivers have set hours, if they pulled over like you want them to they wouldn't be able to do the job properly.

adaline

In what way are you defining slow?

*M3, yesterday. Junction 1 going towards M25 mid morning. Not a soul on the road. I'm doing 70 in left lane. Suddenly spot a Fiesta in middle lane doing about 50. I have to pull over all the lanes to overtake and then move back into left lane.

I checked my mirror afterwards and they're still pootling down the middle lane. Why?*

I think I came across this driver heading back the other way in the evening! I find the M3 terrible for people sitting in lanes 2 and 3.

In what way are you defining slow?

Slow as in, holding up traffic unnecessarily. I'm not going to say a specific speed because it depends on the vehicles involved, the road type, weather conditions etc.

But my bugbear is not with lorry drivers or slow/heavy goods vehicles. They can't help it and that's fine, it doesn't bother me too much. But it is frustrating to be stuck behind a regular car driver on a road where you can't safely overtake. Especially when you can see in YOUR mirror that there's a queue of several cars that keeps growing as other cars are forced to slow down when they reach the car at the back.

It's common decency (and part of the Highway Code) to pull over if you're holding up a queue of traffic. But people seem to think they have the right to drive along at whatever speed they fancy, regardless of the impact on other road users. It's illegal to speed and it should be illegal to unnecessarily hold up traffic as well. If you can't keep up with the flow of traffic, pull in and let other people pass you!

Chill.