GR8 for slowin' everyone down!

[bigstraight6]

Down here in the wild West there appears to be something very strange happening this morning, in that ALL traffic is travelling at or below the speed limit! not even sharp suited, loud tie and blue tooth wearing young blades in BMW 3 series' are tearing up the outside lanes I'm just on the way out again to witness said chaps staying behind Bert and Aida Nissan Micras Its amazing what a possible shortage of fuel can do!....

[r.welfare]

Noticed this recently on motorways and dual carriageways, since I have imposed a 70mph limit on myself due to being more interested in MPG than average speed statistics!I have noticed that single-carriageway A road speeds have dropped for a good couple of years. Whether this is due to HGVs doing 40, I don't know, but at the weekends it's no longer Sid & Doris holding folk up doing 45-50 - it can be anyone!

[pompei]

Up in these parts I've seen the same, but when I went down to Leicestershire and then on to Tamworth the other Sunday, the further south I went, the faster the traffic seemed to go

[pogweasel]

Not a sausage on the roads this morning, into work in less than 20 minutes. QUAL. Normally if I leave too late I have to queue 10 mins to get on t'A1.I have also noticed a drop in speed generally too, where once I was the 'pootler' doing 70 and being harassed by reps in A4's, now it seems I'm Hurry Up Harry and everyone else is slow-mo. Odd. 40mph lorries boils my piss though. Route to work along the A603 affords zero passing opportunities.

[Milford Cubicle]

Isn't the legal for HGVs on a single carriageway 40MPH pog?When the strike at Grangemouth hit, I noticed everybody ragging their cars about as usual, in spite of local filling stations completely running out of fuel.

[andrew e]

Not sure - I know anything ADR (fuel tankers etc) have to travel 10mph slower though.

[MrRegieRitmo]

Before I was forced the lay the Alfa up till the brakes are sorted, the last day or so I was still driving it, I had to impose a 60mph average speed on myself or the noise & vibration would get unbearable. However, I was still finding plenty of things to overtake & not just lorries & vans either. Odd! It was as if they had spotted hidden police cars & were being over cautious. I hate it when everybody seems to be going unnaturally slow, my suspicious nature makes me worried they know something I don't!

[dean36014]

Legal limit for anything HGV(i.e over 7.5t) on a single carriageway is 40mph. Never heard about a lower limit for ADR vehicles. seen enough tankers with 40mph on single carriageway signs on the back though. Abnormal loads over a certain weight/width I believe are limited to 40mph on motorways.

[dean36014]

Just been looking and found this on a ADR googleVehicles above 12 tonnes maximum weight first registered after 1 January 1998 must be speed-limited to 85 km/h.Still equates to about 52mph though , other hgv's are limited to 56mph.

[andrew e]

Well I was halfway there.... I think on A roads they drop again - when we were delivering gensets it took for bloody ever....

[Torsten2001]

I'm on a self imposed limit of 55mph, having said that I got stopped for doing 59 in a 20 the other night, although the fuzz thought it was a 30. I was also on the phone, no seat belt and not indicating but I got away with it! I am a twat

[wuvvum]

I've taken to taking the bike into work, weather permitting - it does over 50mpg on average on a rush hour commute, which is nearly double what the Saab manages. It's also faster than the Saab and better able to make the most of the few overtaking opportinities that exist on my route into work. Plus I can take it all the way to the office - with the Saab I have to park on the outskirts and then pushbike the rest of the way as I refuse to pay £4.60 a day for parking on top of everything else. Once I manage to find myself a cheap folding pushbike I'll start using a Cinq/pushbike combo to get in when it's wet - should be a lot cheaper than the Saab. I have found myself altering my driving style generally though, much to my surprise. The most obvious thing is that the Cadillac barely gets used now, but I've also taken to overtaking less often and only using as much acceleration as is needed to get past rather than dropping it into third and nailing it. I think it's helped my fuel bills, a bit.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'm on a self imposed limit of 55mph, having said that I got stopped for doing 59 in a 20 the other night, although the fuzz thought it was a 30. I was also on the phone, no seat belt and not indicating but I got away with it! I am a twat

^^^ the coppers let you off, but you bust your own self-imposed limit - I think you should throw the book at yourself! Even 4mph over ANY limit, self-imposed or otherwise, is 76% more likely to end in some children or animals getting maimed.ROADHOG

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I've been cycling to work twice a week to save on fuel costs - only problem is its a fuggin 40-mile round trip to work and back so i dont get home till well late, and will probably get crushed by a wagon on the A47 sooner or later anyway.

[r.welfare]

Excellent Rod Ker-like cycling skillz! GR8 4 THIGHS LIKE TRACTION ENGINESPS It's usually supermarket HGVs that are doing 40mph on single-carriageway round here. I get royally pissed off with HGVs trying to force you off the road in 50mph motorway roadworks though, because they keep to their 56mph/90kph max limit REGARDLESS OF ANYTHING.

[Richard]

Has there always been a lower speed limit for vans or is that a recent thing?

[dean36014]

Commercial vans are different speed limits as well. If they are more than 2 ton gross weight the speed limit for single carriageway is 50 mph same as a 7.5 tonner. Same with a car pulling a trailer, single carriageway 50mph max. However, if you have a 3.5t Transit camper van, registered on the logbook as a motor caravan, then the speed limit is 60mph, single carriageway(where permitted).

[garethj]

Once I manage to find myself a cheap folding pushbike I'll start using a Cinq/pushbike combo to get in when it's wet

Wasn't there a Honda hatchback in the 70s which had a folding motorbike that could fit in the boot? Sure I remember seeing it in a Tamiya catalogue when I was a kid I heard on the news that petrol buying was down by 20% recently because of the rising cost, so if Shell have about 20% of the petrol stations and they all run out, the total amount of fuel should be the same?Ah, but I'm assuming there won't be panic buying

[wuvvum]

Wasn't there a Honda hatchback in the 70s which had a folding motorbike that could fit in the boot? Sure I remember seeing it in a Tamiya catalogue when I was a kid

Yup, that was the Honda City.From what the AA man who towed the ambulance back from Derby was telling me, vans are only limited to 50 on single carriageways (and 60 on dual) if they're being used as commercial vehicles. If you just happen to own a Transit van to use as your own personal transport (as I have done on occasion) and you don't use it for business purposes the speed limits are the same as for a car. Apparently they're trying to limit buses to 56 now too - and that includes anything with over 17 seats.

[Richard]

Commercial vans are different speed limits as well. If they are more than 2 ton gross weight the speed limit for single carriageway is 50 mph same as a 7.5 tonner. Same with a car pulling a trailer, single carriageway 50mph max. However, if you have a 3.5t Transit camper van, registered on the logbook as a motor caravan, then the speed limit is 60mph, single carriageway(where permitted).

It's not 2 tonne any more, it's any van that isn't car-derived.

[dean36014]

Just pulled the 2 ton bit straight off the DFT website, as I knew there was a weight limit at which it changed, but couldn't remember the exact weight.http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/speedmanagement/speedknowyourlimitsMind you on the first page it does say it was printed in 2004, but you would think the goverment would keep such information up to date.Heres a better one on the what van website.http://www.whatvan.co.uk/speed-limits.pdf

[dean36014]

Dragged this one of the current direct gov website, still list as over 2 ton gross weight and lower speed limits.http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070304

[nigel bickle]

Regie- cant leave you 'suffering' -you have 'pm'

[Richard]

I was looking at the same page but I'd only been looking at the vans bit, which doesn't mention a lower weight. It's all a bit ambiguous really. Is a Berlingo or Partner a car derived van? The DFT page doesn't say anything about privately owned vans being exempt. I've heard this theory before and I think it's wrong.

[wuvvum]

I have to confess that I've long since given up trying to keep up with the law on speed limits. I always tend to stick to the car speed limits whatever I've been driving, from the motorbike up to the 7.5-tonner, except when I'm pulling a laden trailer when I drop my speed by 10mph outside of towns - but that's more for safety reasons than because I'm interested in what the law says.I'm wondering whether the 85km/h limit for trucks is going to be legally enforceable - generally anything to do with speed or distance on UK roads has to be in imperial measurements, and there have been several successful court challenges in the past to road signs which used metric measurements. I wonder how long it'll be before a lorry driver stopped for speeding mounts a legal challenge through the courts?

[dean36014]

God knows, i would have said a berlingo is a van derived car I do know a few disgruntled people though who have been done for driving above 50mph in a van on a country road. All of them were totally unaware about the differnet spped limits imposed on their vehicle. maybe they should have a sticker on the dash telling them. i know for a fact that when i've hired vans I've never been told about the lower speed limits.

[dean36014]

You can't get done as far as I know for speeding in a hgv at 60 on a motorway. The limit in the highway code is still 60mph. They do you for a defective speed limiter instead if your tacho shows long spells at this speed. All part of harmonising with europe, 56mph = 90km's, the speed limit abroad. Personally i miss the days of pre speed limiters, nothing like winding a scania up to 70mph on the flat .I had a mate that got done for 92mph in a Scania on the M6, he'd fitted a coach diff to get better mpg, lower engine revs etc, at the time he had a 40"x12" static caravan on the trailer, and it was 2am i the morning P.S, I'm not encouraging speeding, but we were all young and wreckless once