50mph on motorway due to road works

Shaka_Zulu

waamo wrote: »

Trucks aren't allowed in the outside lane.

Really?

Would like to check the veracity of that then amend your post accordingly and also check that in the context of this discussion.

Shaka_Zulu

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

thats really dumb in this case. all 50mph motorways (under roadworks) are congested and when there is congestion that rule is silly to follow.

Another sweeping statement that can only come from someone in the South!!

Keep left unless overtaking really is a simple concept.

Mobeer

waamo wrote: »

Trucks aren't allowed in the outside lane.

Trucks are allowed in both lanes of a 2 lane motorway. They are only restricted from the right-most lane of any motorway with 3 or more lanes.

Richard53

caprikid1 wrote: »

"50mph on your speedometer is not 50mph, probably closer to 45mph."


Really ? maybe on a morris minor but most car Speedo's are very accurate up to 80 at least.


There are lots of "You are doing" "30 / 40 / 50" signs "happy", "sad face" by me and even my old cars are accurate enough that I would never play the dangerous 10% game. What if they are reading 10% under ???

I have checked every car and motorcycle I have owned in the last 10 years and I can state than none was 100% accurate. C&U regs allow speedometers to read up to 10% over, and they must not under-read - usually expressed as -0/+10%. Building an accurate speedometer is expensive, so common sense suggests that manufacturers will aim for the middle of the permitted range to allow for production tolerances. From experience, it is very common for speedos to read over by about 5%. My Mondeo was exactly 5% fast, my Land Rover is about 8% fast, and my 1992 Merc was the most accurate, being within a needle's width of 70 at a GPS 70. None has read under the actual speed.


The signs that show your speed or a happy/sad face are even less likely to be accurate. There are no regulations governing their calibration, and they are there more to persuade and remind than to enforce. I would expect them to be fairly optimistic over a vehicle's speed: telling you 45 when you are doing a genuine 40 , just to 'be on the safe side'.

Strider590

Mobeer wrote: »

Trucks are allowed in both lanes of a 2 lane motorway. They are only restricted from the right-most lane of any motorway with 3 or more lanes.

Which means when they come across a middle lane moron doing 45mph, they're screwed, the whole motorway gets reduced to one lane, traffic tails back and accidents happen.

societys_child

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

. . . in which case you pull to one side and let them through and then go back to the outside lane

If there's room in the other lane, why do you feel the need to "go back to the outside lane" if all lanes are moving at the same speed :huh:

Richard53

societys_child wrote: »

If there's room in the other lane, why do you feel the need to "go back to the outside lane" if all lanes are moving at the same speed :huh:

The language is not very clear here, and we could be talking about different things. To be fair, 'outside' could mean 'furthest away from the nearside kerb' or it could mean 'furthest from the centre of the road'. For me, the outside lane of a motorway and the outside lane of a roundabout are in opposite places - one to the right and one to the left. Far better to do what the police do and talk abut lanes 1, 2 and 3. Clear and unambiguous.

bugslet

Doesn't happen often, but occasionally I've followed one of my trucks after calibration and their speed was 56, mine was reading anything but, and that's happened in varying vehicles.

As far do you speed up or hang back, I use the old school rule of if my 'cab' is ahead of theirs, I'd speed up; if my 'cab' is behind their cab, I let them go, then overtake once they have passed.

Car_54

bugslet wrote: »

As far do you speed up or hang back, I use the old school rule of if my 'cab' is ahead of theirs, I'd speed up; if my 'cab' is behind their cab, I let them go, then overtake once they have passed.

Where does your "old school rule" come from? As Huskydays has already pointed out, the rule is clear and the reason is expilicit:

"Rule 168
.Speeding up or driving unpredictably while someone is overtaking you is dangerous. Drop back to maintain a two-second gap if someone overtakes and pulls into the gap in front of you."

knightstyle

WHY do you call it the outside lane? Surely it should be called an overtaking lane?