Excessive braking.....

[Scania]

rant

As you can probably guess, I spend a lot of time on the M25 (and most other motorways for that matter!) and I am sick of the traffic jams caused for no other reason than people braking when ,frankly, its not needed.....

Ask any muppet motorist what's the first thing they do to slow down and they will invariably tell you "Brake" - Wrong!

I so wish they'd simply take their foot off the throttle, plan ahead, anticipate, leave a decent distance between you & the vehicle in front and the anchors may well not be needed.

Don't get me wrong, certain steering wheel attendant & brain-dead truck drivers could do with observing this "rule" too!!!

Alas, people are like lemmings - they see a brake light and without reading the situation, follow suit. This imo results in a "ripple effect"; traffic decelerates too quickly, bunches up and before you know it everybody has ground to a halt. Smooth the flow; take your foot off the gas, let friction & hills slow you naturally. Think of the fuel savings not to mention less wear & tear on the brake pads.

FAT CHANCE!

/rant

 

[Scania]

Phantom Jams?

Yes mate, that's pretty much what I think I'm trying to describe.... (Its been a long night!)

 

[Scania]

Yea they suck. Highly annoying especially when you get to the end of the jam and there is nothing at all in sight which looks to have caused the problem and for all you know the person that caused the problem could be well on their way!

Indeed mate, especially when your vehicle is knocking on the door of 44tons!

 

[Scania]

the problem with the m25, more than any other motorway i drive on, is that people are used to driving up the rear end of the person in front. if you leave a gap it will be filled immediately by someone who thinks you should all be within 2' of each other.

So very true.

 

[Scania]

This winds me up as much as lorries trying to overtake each other on a dual carriageway

To Vans & the many others that have mentioned truckers overtaking, I fully agree, especially on dual's, it can be very frustrating.

Alas, we (truckers) are usually given tight if not impossible delivery schedules, combined with restrictions on our driving time which is all recorded by tachograph so we simply have to try to get from a to b as fast as possible.

Sure, trucks that take miles to pass are idiots, if the margin of speed difference is that small, then I simply set my speed limit to say 55 rather than 56 MPH and sit behind until I can use a hill to gain momentum to pass relatively quickly.

My biggest gripe is the trucker who tries to overtake, fully freighted, on a hill. Unless he's driving something like a Scania R620 he's going to lose speed hand over fist and not be able to complete the pass, the other truck (the one he's trying to overtake) will invariably keep his foot down trying to maintain speed whilst climbing said hill.

As ever it comes down to planning ahead (or sheer lack of it)

On behalf of my comrades in HGV's, I sincerely apologise.

 

[Scania]

Well the middle lane lorry is almost twice the length of the lorry on the inside lane if that helps and both lorries were still next to each other when I overtook them and looked in the rearview. The van on the right was going slow so I had to undertake him to get into the outside lane then pass the lorries and then move into the inside lane.

*shakes head*

The white Pug driver had moved into the outside lane just fine, he left enough room to move into the lane so the lorry driver could at least see him moving out into that lane (that's if the lorry driver was paying attention) and I followed shortly after.

You shake your head?

Your picture shows two trucks overtaking, on the middle & near side lane. The outside lane is out of bounds for HGV's and thus is your passing route.

You HAD to undertake the van? I'm sorry but I really don't think so.

What on earth prevented you from pulling out behind the van until he's passed the two HGV's? - I'm sure you'd be the first to cry if the van driver had ,for whatever reason, decided to swing back into the middle lane as you were being "forced" to undertake?
People often forget to check their nearside mirror prior to changing lane, had that van driver done so as you were passing.... Well, I'm sure you can guess the rest. (alas I see this all the time)

To be quite frank mate,If I were you, I'd stop getting mad at other drivers and look at your own driving style!

 

[Scania]

What are you on about? the van was doing less than 70 and I was doing just under 70 so naturally was undertaking but LEGALLY, your mistake was assuming I was undertaking illegally at which point all further assumptions fail to make any sense.

The lorry drivers were NOT over taking anything, they were at the same distance apart from the position in the pic to when I was in front of them looking back in the rear view mirror and it's been the same many times before I have seen them do exacly *** same thing hogging the middlelane as they motorway-chat to one another however they do it side by side slowing traffic down behind them.

There are ZERO things wrong with my driving style on the motorway and my daily commute is motorway driving anyway so I am well aware of how certain vehicle drivers tend to use the motorway and there's certainly some things wrong with many lorry driver's driving styles and I fail to see how you can pass judgement on the desires and actions of drivers in a picture when you were not even there and it's also impossible to tell what's going on without background from someone who was

No mate, my gripe is you say your forced to undertake, which I disagree with.

Or let me put it another way, I did a near identical thing a good while back whilst on a driving assessment (part of the job) and was severely marked down for doing so despite , from what I read of your situation, being in a near identical situation myself.

You won't like this, but anybody who thinks there is ZERO wrong with their driving style is kidding themselves, we can all improve and I certainly include myself in that statement.

And as for passing judgement, your happy to pass judgement on HGV drivers it appears but hey, so are most drivers, your opinion would perhaps change if you had any experience of driving one on roads full of drivers who think their driving style is faultless!

 

[Scania]

Give me a break, in all 5 years of driving

Why should we? - You wonder why I & others jump down your throat yet imo ,with the greatest respect, you appear to lecture people in something you clearly are quite inexperienced at.

I don't see what the problem is here.

I refer the honourable Gentleman to the reply I gave a moment ago.

 

[Scania]

M roads

Perfect for M Cars?