Motorway Madness

Jamie_Carter

Azari wrote: »

But he didn't ask if they travelled at 70. He asked if any travelled below 70.

If they are travelling below 70 you should be catching them and overtaking them.

And, anyway, a motorway always has good forward visibility in normal weather so you should be able to see some way ahead and register vehicles that are travelling at a similar speed to yourself.

Yes I know what he said. And my point was that if other vehicles are only travelling slightly slower, then it will take him ages to catch up with them.

This is why traffic police cars often travel at 55 or 60 on motorways. So that without speeding they will get to see far more vehicles as they pass them doing 70. And they will constantly watch their mirrors to look for vehicles that have pulled in a few cars behind them, and won't pass them (probably because they have something to hide. Unfortunately what often happens in practice is that some people are terrified to overtake police cars, so all the traffic ends up slowing down.

smashingyour...

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Yes I know what he said. And my point was that if other vehicles are only travelling slightly slower, then it will take him ages to catch up with them.

This is why traffic police cars often travel at 55 or 60 on motorways. So that without speeding they will get to see far more vehicles as they pass them doing 70. And they will constantly watch their mirrors to look for vehicles that have pulled in a few cars behind them, and won't pass them (probably because they have something to hide. Unfortunately what often happens in practice is that some people are terrified to overtake police cars, so all the traffic ends up slowing down.

What do you know about traffic police then Carter?

Jamie_Carter

smashingyour... wrote: »

What do you know about traffic police then Carter?

More than you, obviously.;)

dktreesea

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

If you were travelling at around 70mph, then you wouldn't see many other cars which were travelling at the same, or similar speed. This is because you either wouldn't catch up with them, or it would take a long time to do so.

Catch up with them? Not one, in over 100 miles. Me and the two trucks were travelling in our own private 73 mph convoy. One thing I will say about the truck who eventually came up and started following us behind me; he does at least understand the concept of keeping at least 2 chevrons between himself and the car in front.

The other thing I saw, in both directions, were heaps of police, especially in Cumbria, sometimes just by the side of the road, sometimes up on bridges, just watching the traffic. Not one of them had a hand held radar gun, or chased any of the traffic overtaking me. It made me wonder if the official speed limit on motorways is 70mph, just to appease the insurance companies, but the unofficial speed limit is 90 mph?

Jamie_Carter

dktreesea wrote: »

Catch up with them? Not one, in over 100 miles. Me and the two trucks were travelling in our own private 73 mph convoy. One thing I will say about the truck who eventually came up and started following us behind me; he does at least understand the concept of keeping at least 2 chevrons between himself and the car in front.

The other thing I saw, in both directions, were heaps of police, especially in Cumbria, sometimes just by the side of the road, sometimes up on bridges, just watching the traffic. Not one of them had a hand held radar gun, or chased any of the traffic overtaking me. It made me wonder if the official speed limit on motorways is 70mph, just to appease the insurance companies, but the unofficial speed limit is 90 mph?

When you say trucks, I take it you don't mean HGVs?

dktreesea

When it comes to lane hogging on the motorway, anyone going at or below 70mph is in for a stressful ride if they want to sit in the middle lane because there would be so many cars travelling much faster coming up behind them.

That's what I don't like about the A1 in and around Newcastle. You don't want to sit in the left lane because it's so busy and there are so many exists and entrances, you don't want to impede traffic getting onto the motorway. But if you sit in the middle lane you dice with death in a different way because everyone in that lane seems to be in training for Formula One.

Maybe it would be better to set the speed limit at 90 mph and then strictly enforce it.

dktreesea

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

When you say trucks, I take it you don't mean HGVs?

No, not HGVs. They were smaller than 7.5 tonners, but not much smaller. I wondered if the guy in front had cruise control, because his speed hardly ever varied.

Jamie_Carter

dktreesea wrote: »

No, not HGVs. They were smaller than 7.5 tonners, but not much smaller. I wondered if the guy in front had cruise control, because his speed hardly ever varied.

Either cruise control, or just driving on their limiter.

I have to say that you were lucky not to come across any HGVs or caravans.

qetu1357

smashingyour... wrote: »

What do you know about traffic police then Carter?

Carter was in the Sweeney so he may have met some traffic cops:rotfl:

NBLondon

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Because you keep changing your version of events.

Nope. Just pointing out that the law is defined imprecisely. I was in a line of traffic in Lane 1 where the vehicles were on average 100yds apart. It's still a line of traffic;) After all aren't we supposed to be a safe stopping distance apart...

BTW, you're right about traffic cars (on the rare occasion I've seen one actually on patrol). A lot of people do seem to think you can't overtake them and then huddle back waiting for them to turn off.