Highway Code

[rustytoba]

Hi All,

I was in the possition to be browsing through the latest revision of the highway code as I plan to take my driving test again but thats another story.

Now I'm not sure if anyone has noticed or not, but in the speed limit section there are two seperate ranges of speed limit for vehicles with max gvw of over 7.5t, apparently in Scotland the speed on a single and duel carriageway is 10mph lower than the south of the border.

Following poorly pasted from https://www.gov.uk/speed-limits

Goods vehicles (more than 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight) in England and Wales 30 (48) 50 (80) 60 (96) 60 (96)
Goods vehicles (more than 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight) in Scotland 30 (48) 40 (64) 50 (80) 60 (96)

Did anybody know about this?

Just wondered.

Scott

[Dibble]

Yes I knew about it. HGV's are permitted to do 50mph on single stretches of the A9 but this is only a trial which has been ongoing for about 4 years. Perhaps at some stage this useless Scottish Assembly will get round to accepting and confirming this.
This is one of my pet subjects and one which those in authority refuse to look into and it was only because of the number of fatal and serious road accidents that they acceded to this trial. And statistics have now shown a considerable drop in fatal and serious injuries and so it shows that the increase in speed is to the advantage of all. Although restricted to 50mph, the maximum a truck can do is 56mph, motorists at least feel now that they are making progress. Long overdue.
But what about the A75, A1, A92, A96, where I got caught for speeding! 54.3mph in my 38tonne Artic. Travelling at 40 mph on modern roads in this day and age is archaic and pathetic and holding the world up.The supermarket drivers are happy to stick to 40mph because they are paid by the hour. They used to get 10 hours to go from Livingstone to Inverness!
So well done England where all 'A' Class roads are at least 50mph. And the next move is that in all towns and villages in Scotland the standard speed is to be reduced to 20mph. A speed that is currently covering most of Edinburgh and is being totally ignored by the motorists and is not being policed. Millions being spent on road signs but we can't fix the potholes. We will soon be following behind the chap with the red flag!

[rustytoba]

I hear you, the way things are going it wont be long till they bring back rationing as well!

Scott

[green van man]

I knew the other way round. The new limit came in in England and Wales and at that time it was announced it did not apply in Scotland.

Driving a 5.5 tonne cherry picker with speed limiter I was always on the 50 limit, however overtaking lorries even at the old limit was a rarety except on a few of the many hills as there was just not enough speed differential to do so safely on our local A and Trunk roads. Ceredigion has no motorways and dual carriageway.

Paul.

[Baxlin]

Seeing the speeds some Transit type vans travel at it seems the drivers don’t know that the speed limits for these vehicles on many roads in England, such as 2 lane dual carriageways, are 10 mph lower than for cars. (Unless it’s changed since I took my speed awareness course!!)

[morsing]

Allowing lorries to go at 50mph is far too fast and I have seen lots of lorries not being able to safely handle this on Britain's poor single carriageway road here.

I constantly see lorries that go at 50mph when it is rarely safe, and I think they either do it because they feel car drivers will be annoyed if they don't or because of their targets and a lack of understanding of how dangerous it is.

50mph is just not safe on single carriageway road, absolutely shcoking it's been allowed. Hopefully it will soon be reversed when the death toll rises.

[DaveNP]

Unfortunately responses like that from Morsing is what will keep the Scottish Assembly from following the enlightened approach in the rest of Britain. If you can remove the mobile chicane which a lorry at 40mph on a single carriageway represents, then the muppet car driver don't get themselves into so much trouble making up for the lost milliseconds on their journey. Given that the new limits have been in place for just over three years is there any evidence of increased carnage?

[e123]

The Scottish assembly would have you believe it's the introduction of average speed cameras on the A9 which have reduced the accidents (done at the same time as the HGV speed limit increase). You can't attribute it solely to one or the other.