Motorway survival tactics

[DSdriver]

Keep reading about horrendous accidents where people in cars get crushed by trucks. I thought it would be a good idea to share what we think might make our lives safer. Lets try and keep this sensible - no "stay in the outside lane away from the trucks" type stuff.

 

When travelling at similar speeds never stay alongside a truck, always try and be behind or in front. The truck may be LHD and the driver might not be aware of your presence.

[Inspector Morose]

Drive something bigger than them.

 

 

 

And arm yourself with a rocket.

[dieselnutjob]

Being in the slow lane gives you an escape route down the hard shoulder if things go bad.  My old school friend who became an AA patrol man saved himself once by heading for the embankment when he could see that a truck behind him wasn't going to stop.

 

It also puts you further from a truck coming the other way that manages to break through the central reservation and more time to react to it.

[Junkman]

Three times more lethal accidents happen in Britain's homes, than on it's roads.

Sounds like I should jump into one of my cars and take it for a spin, to vastly reduce the risk of being killed.

Then again, the sky could fall onto my head...

[DSdriver]

Not wishing to be confrontational or anything FPB7, we have lots of fun threads but I was hoping this one would be an educational one. Please feel free to delete your post.

[oldcars]

I like to keep a big gap between traveling cars etc.

[Twiggy]

Diesel nut job is right - it`s what I do so that I always have an escape route.

[Inspector Morose]

Not being retaliatory but that IS what I drive most on the motorways. I'll find another pic without the rocket if you wish.

 

Singling out lorry drivers as being a danger on British roads and motorways could be seen as insulting to the many in this difficult profession. 

 

My advice. Drive within your and your cars capabilities.

[Justin Case]

Keep reading about horrendous accidents where people in cars get crushed by trucks. I thought it would be a good idea to share what we think might make our lives safer. Lets try and keep this sensible - no "stay in the outside lane away from the trucks" type stuff.

 

When travelling at similar speeds never stay alongside a truck, always try and be behind or in front. The truck may be LHD and the driver might not be aware of your presence.

I'm not so sure about that. On a busy M6 yesterday, I felt safer in the outside lane, a safe distance behind the car in front at a steady 70-75 mph, than I would have felt in the inner or middle lanes, mixing it with the heavies. My advice: relax and go with the flow. Thre horrific accidents make the news, otherwise the journalists get the sack, but motorways are in fact the safest of all roads.

[CreepingJesus]

Where to start...?

Do not sit at 55mph. Ever. 50 or 60, fine. If I'm in a hurry (and I usually am), I will overtake, however many miles it takes. And a flash of the lights to let me know I'm clear will be appreciated. If I coast past you on a long downhill, don't get butthurt about that either.

Never be between unit and trailer when I'm turning. Either side. I might well not see you, and while the side fences are designed to deform, I don't think either of us fancies testing them.

It's your responsibility to get you from the slip road to the inside lane, not mine. I'll help you if I can, but if I can't, you'll just have to simmer down. If it's 50/50 going for a gap in front of me, consider whether the traffic ahead is slowing or not. If it's risky, brake and fall in behind me. For both our sakes.

Cars can make up a minute or two's lost time much more easily than I can.

If I'm weaving across the Forth Rope Bridge at 40, in a high wind, you overtake at your own risk. Again, I'm not going to risk either of us, but you never know the day.

If I'm braking hard with my four ways on, IT'S BECAUSE THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING AHEAD, WHICH WE SHOULD ALL AVOID. My eyeline is 8-9ft up, I can see much further ahead.

And quite simply, remember that everything takes longer. Accelerating, braking, all of it. I'm also most likely second-guessing an 'intelligent' semi-auto gearbox that hasn't the faintest idea what it's doing. Sliproads are a particular bugbear for me.

 

In the end, we all want to get home safe and sound: let's give each other some room, breathe deeply and live to see another day. If Quaker Oats are your thing, then that's almost certainly your breakfast I've got back there! 52 pallets of the stuff.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I do a LOT of motorway driving, and feel that trucks are generally much better driven than passenger cars !

 

Dangerous situations are usually caused by imbeciles who pay little attention to the road and rely far too much on their car's (finite) ability to compensate for their particularly poor driving.

[DSdriver]

Not being retaliatory but that IS what I drive most on the motorways. I'll find another pic without the rocket if you wish.

 

Singling out lorry drivers as being a danger on British roads and motorways could be seen as insulting to the many in this difficult profession. 

 

My advice. Drive within your and your cars capabilities.

No, I suppose education should be fun.

Not singling out the lorry drivers, just trying to pass advice onto less experienced drivers on here about the fact that the HGV drivers can be unaware that you are there. I count this as bad driving on the car driver's part.

Increasing capabilities is what I am try to achieve.

[sierraman]

Avoid Latvian HGVs weaving in and out of lanes. At all costs.

[BavarianRetro]

I do a LOT of motorway driving, and feel that trucks are generally much better driven than passenger cars ! 

You certainly see a lot more badly driven cars than trucks.

[DSdriver]

Avoid Latvian HGVs weaving in and out of lanes. At all costs.

Discriminatory, better to say all ex-communist-block countries where drivers need to express their new found freedom to be total divs.

[oman5]

Simplest advice? Go with the flow. Don't attempt to be in a rush, veering from lane to lane, tailgating people when you're in a hurry when the motorway is clearly too busy to allow it. Above all maintain a CONSTANT speed.

 

I can't really add much to what creepingjesus said, but I echo his sentiments on speed. Don't sit at 55. Just don't. Everyone hates elephant racing, why would you deliberately force all the trucks into lane 2 to go around you, slowing down the whole motorway? Ditto people who sit at 55, then speed up when the truck is alongside.

[CreepingJesus]

In defense of E European drivers, the ones I've worked with (with one notable exception) have been perfectly good.

Dutch and Irish drivers however...Jesus effing Christ. I had a Dutch driver swipe me on the M6 near Leyland one night. He was watching porn on his laptop. Woke me up, I can tell you. No sympathy either for the Irish driver who lost his nearside mirror on my trailer, trying to race me into roadworks on the A90. I was on the anchors then, it could've been a lot worse.

Do watch for the big fleets (esp Royal Mail) who are staffed with farmers and builders through agencies. Some of these guys only drive artics 6 weeks of the year. Some are good, but others are positively dangerous.

[John F]

Burn middle-lane hoggers to a crisp with roof-mounted flamethrowers.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

This should be my specialist subject as I probably do more miles on motorways than most people out there. I'm not restricted by drivers hours or speed limiters, so 500 mile days are quite normal for me and have been for nearly 20 years. I first drove illegally on the M1 on a Honda RS250 with covered L plates in 1981 and since then probably most days of my life, although now legally of course .

 

Here is my wisdom* - may contain bollocks and prejudice.

Keep out of the way of;

1. Young Asian men in new BMWs and Audis , especially at night . Chances are there will be another one racing it 2 seconds behind.

2. LHD lorries WILL pull out ,sometimes even when they don't need to ,nothing to do with blind spots, they're too busy cooking dinner,pouring beer or knocking one out to porn on dash top lap top.

3. Builders Transits and Sprinters, every * accident or near miss I've ever seen between 05.00 and 07.00 has

been caused or involves one.

4. London minicabs,especially Addison Lee. The drivers don't seem to understand lane discipline at all.

5. Geniuses on sports bikes that think filtering at 100 through traffic that's moving at a steady 70/80 is perfectly safe.

There don't appear to be any particular makes that attract wankers any more,you're as likely to be tailgated by a Volvo,Kia or Land Rover as an Audi or BMW.

The most important thing is visibility, I d rather pull into another lane and have to slow down than drive blind behind a bus,lorry or tall van especially in the 3rd or 4th lane at high speed.

Always have an escape route, if a lorry comes through the central reservation it might not help, but knowing what's to your left and where the gaps are is never a bad thing.

[Cavcraft]

Two things that get on my tits the most on motorways:

 

centre and right hand lane hogs.

 

Those fucking morons in cars who use the near side lane and drive right up to the back of other vehicles (usually trucks) then slam the brakes on and spend the next fifteen fucking minutes indicating and trying to get into the centre lane.

USE YOUR FUCKING MIRRORS AND PLAN THE OVERTAKING EXERCISE WELL IN ADVANCE YOU FUCKING IMBECILE.

 

Thank you, that is all for now.

[DS20]

Every so often, check the functioning of the lights on your vehicle.  The last thing I nearly crashed into was a Polish-registered lorry doing about 25mph on the A46, in the dark, with no working taillights.  If I'd hit, it'd have been my fault, but it really doesn't help matters to have more blown bulbs than working ones.  

[forddeliveryboy]

I avoid busy motorways where practical, preferring the vastly (statistically) more dangerous single-carriageway A and B roads, even using them at night if I know them. There are miles and miles of quiet, normal roads which aren't full of roundabouts and traffic lights, where average speeds (when driving totally legally) are within a whisker of a clogged motorway with the outside lane accelerating and braking between 40 and 65. You're not breathing the fumes, your mind stays awake, there are lots interesting things to see and your blood pressure is halved. I suppose this isn't possible if you're within smelling distance of London.

 

Motorways are working in ways they were never designed to, particularly the huge amount of freight carried which should be on the railways. It's amazing there aren't more fatal accidents.  M6/M74 from Kendal to Glasgow is how all motorways should be.

[rml2345]

Just about everything that will help you on motorways will help you in general driving too. Giving HGVs plenty of room to manoeuvre is perfectly sensible as the chances are that if you can't see the mirrors then the driver can't see you either. Coaches/buses should similarly be given plenty of room for the same reason.

Being observant, checking mirrors  and driving to the conditions rather than the speed limit is probably teaching granny how to suck eggs but  it will also help greatly. If you can't see what's happening at 45mph then the chances that the road warrior in the Audi/Beemer/Transit/etc can't see at 70+ either. 

Whoever keeps driving down motorways with their main beam on can FRO too as it's really REALLY annoying. 

[Steviemillar]

It is sometimes ok to travel in the centre lane when lane 1 is empty.....

 

For example I find that the road surface on lane 1 on busy motorways like the M6 can be hazardous especially due to the sunken ruts made by heavier vehicles that have a wider track than my own vehicle (car usually). This hazard is further compounded when it's raining as the ruts fill with water. Where it is safe to do so and other traffic progress is not being impeded, I believe it's safer under these circumstances. If the roads get busier, back to lane 1 I go.

[Asimo]

Stay awake.

 

Nodding off is a big killer. I have learned not to eat or drink any kind of carbohydrate before or during a drive because carbs. do make me drowsy.

 

If you are late for an exit, well just go past, go around at the next junction and concentrate next time. Don't plunge across inside lanes in a panic attempt to make it. Just don't.

[Pete-M]

Watch what's going on, never tailgate, indicate, he who brakes, fails*

 

 

 

*In a keep your distance kinda way.

[John F]

Steviemillar, on 10 Dec 2014 - 5:16 PM, said:

It is sometimes ok to travel in the centre lane when lane 1 is empty.....

 

For example I find that the road surface on lane 1 on busy motorways like the M6 can be hazardous especially due to the sunken ruts made by heavier vehicles that have a wider track than my own vehicle (car usually). This hazard is further compounded when it's raining as the ruts fill with water. Where it is safe to do so and other traffic progress is not being impeded, I believe it's safer under these circumstances. If the roads get busier, back to lane 1 I go.

 

That isn't the problem.

 

The problem is those selfish and/or utterly ignorant twats that deliberately stay in the middle lane at all times. They either respond angrily to being flashed and waved over, or are so oblivious to where they are that they don't even notice.

 

They're as dangerous as they are stupid. Surely this constitutes "Driving without due care and attention"? Get these bastards banned.

[HH-R]

Don't sit in the outside lane overtaking everyone when it's busy until 50 yards before you have an exit to take, then cut in to someone's braking distance and lob the anchors on, positioning yourself 5 inches off the bumper of the person in front.

 

If I had a pound, etc etc

[richardmorris]

Being in the slow lane gives you an escape route down the hard shoulder if things go bad.  My old school friend who became an AA patrol man saved himself once by heading for the embankment when he could see that a truck behind him wasn't going to stop.

 

It also puts you further from a truck coming the other way that manages to break through the central reservation and more time to react to it.

 

 

I agree - if you see a pile up in front and cars not slowing down from behind head for the hills and drive up the embankment. I've thought about this ever since the horrendous pile up on the M42 in the 1990s in thick fog.

[catsinthewelder]

. Above all maintain a CONSTANT speed.

 

 

 

I'm not sure about constant speed, If I'm heading down the motorway at 70 and I catch up with someone doing 68 then I'll accelerate up to 75-80 to overtake them quicker.  It means that I'm clogging up the outside lane for less time and if the slower vehicle that I'm overtaking needs to pull out too then they aren't waiting as long.