Practically Classics Forum

JPB wrote:You have it easy in the South where motorways are a) available and b) have three lanes in many places, the third of which is out of bounds to wagons.

You should live here, not only are there no motorways, we have tractors. You should see the mayhem that ensues when everyone pulls out to overtake a tractor on a dual carriageway. And the sugar beet season is starting

Plenty of tractors here too, and although their drivers are supposed to use passing places and lay bys to pull in and allow the rest of us to get through, many of them don't and tractors aren't getting any smaller nowadays either, so although they can maintain reasonable cruising speeds, they can also cause horrific tailbacks, even on the A1 which is mostly single carriageway through the county.
Biggest source of delays from harvest time until burning time is the constant presence of the plod and HM Customs, out trying to catch people using cherry on the roads.
In fairness to the farming communities, it's usually taxis, bus operators and school run people carriers' drivers who end up being caught.

Yeah, who doesn't love a great big tractor blocking the road in front of them, eh? But then if you were driving the tractor, I don't suppose there's much choice in what to do, that's how they are forced by the situation, I guess.

As you say, tractor drivers don't usually have the choice - the roads provide access to fields and, as farms are getting larger (and fewer), the distances between fields increases. I used to pull over as soon as I could or slow down enough to let people past safely (I don't take much space now - I'm not on the road very often), but you wouldn't believe the dirty looks I got at times - by those who thought they had the exclusive right to the road. Wagon drivers could be the worst offenders!

One thing that does annoy me are the ones who use the tractor instead of hiring a wagon - eg taking cattle to market 20 miles away or collecting feed or materials over similar distances. Apart from using red diesel (illegally), I read somewhere that they are breaking various other regulations that HGV's would have to follow in the same circumstances. There was a campaign in Cumbria a few years ago by Police, HSE and VOSA etc that caught many by surprise - and raised money for the public purse!

However, it is illegal for a tractor driver to cause an obstruction and I too have seen instances where there are a number of cars being held up when there were plenty of places that the tractor and trailer (etc) could pull in to let us past. There again, it's often a tourist at the front of the queue - who gets past eventually and then holds the tractor up! Yes, even on my old machines, I have caught up with people who have overtaken me and then go slowly to enjoy the view!

As far as the 80 limit goes, I'm in two minds - it will space the traffic a bit more as plenty of folk want to sit at 60 on M-ways. However, when there is a slow section, I suspect the traffic will slow to a crawl or stop more often. What tends to happen is the faster you go towards the obstruction, the more you brake when you see the brake lights in front of you - and that has a cascade effect and eventually traffic slows to a crawl. That's why you never see what caused the hold up!

I'm not saying there aren't HGV wagons who will sit overtaking for hours on end, but there are many who will attempt to get back over asap, even a 1mph difference is annoying when you're sat behind a slower wagon and have to keep slowing down as you constantly catch up, but anyways a distant memory for me, been on the vans for the last year or so, so I get to drive like a loon everywhere and just 1mm awat from your bumper, only too happy to help push you along after you've been held up behind a truck

I'm sure someone mentioned it earlier, speed is NOT the problem, it's idiots that refuse to move to the left because that's the SLOW lane and they're doing 60 so it's not slow! These are also the ones that will sit in the outside lane for mile upon mile at 69.9999mph and also refuse to move over because they're doing the speed limit so you should have no need to go faster than them, sorry, but it's these idiots that the police need to target not those doing 85 on a straight and clear motorway. This is yet another thing that a scamera or talivan can't capture, so when you're caught doing 78 because some idiot has been blocking 3 lanes for the past hour you have no defence and said idiot carries on causing mayhem because there aren't enough coppers out there using common sense to police the roads!