Government raises speed limit for lorries on dual carriageways

I drive wagons (part time) and cycle and this is really nothing of an increase in 6 mph for HGV,s on the biggest roads will make no difference to cyclists. It may actually improve it. By that I mean the difference in speed between cars and HGV won't quite be as big. hopefully less cars swerving etc.
Personally on SOME single lane roads it would be safe as well but it would be complicated and confusing for the drivers, so it should not happen.

Its blatantly obvious to even the most ardent tory voters that this govt only bows to money and no matter what we, as a cycling community, say or do they wont give 2 hoots about us as there is no profit to be made.

80% breaking the law, someone's been missing out on a potential pot of gold, err, perhaps not, far easier to collect parking fines.

I think my main issue with it is that the haulage association can motivate government to change speed limits UP as it makes them cash whilst acknowledging with the middle finger firmly extended that vulnerable lives will defnitely, not might be, taken.

To my mind this is no better than selling matches to children for £30 a box knowing a fire will result but claiming complete ignorance as the party responsible. Would society and a court not anticipate a level of duty from the supposed authority figure towards the less able?!!

Reason given = modern 'A' roads are safer so Claire Perry ticks their little box.

In contrast we have 5 deaths a day average and multiple serious injuries across the board and all manner of campaigns pleading for speed reductions on other roads (with particular emphasis on lethal rural roads) less able to support high speed Imprezas, sorry traffic, is firmly ignored.

You can only conclude that lives are less valuable than supposed monetary return and arguments of road safety are akin to trying to win an arse kicking contest with one leg.

IT SEEMS QUITE CLEAR, GIVEN PREVIOUS INACTION, THAT GOVERNMENT HAS A PRICE FOR YOU AND CONSIDERS YOU ENTIRELY DISPENSIBLE.

I IMAGINE SUCH AN OBVIOUS & WILLFULLY NEGLIGENT DISREGARD FOR LIFE AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS WILL FORM NUMEROUS CLAIMS IN THE HIGH COURT FOR UNLIMITED DAMAGES AS OPPOSED TO THE PRE-DETERMINED PITTANCE CURRENTLY ALLOCATED?

How will this possibly improve things for hauliers if almost all of them break the current limit anyway? Are they assuming they'll just add another 10mph onto the limit i.e. now they'll travel at 70mph???

And are HGV brakes so much better than the 1980's? What about the driver reaction times? They better too?

Trucks on the A14 all do 60mph, some, generally the foreign ones, do 65mph.

I thought lorries above 7.5t were speed limited to 56mph, or is that only the big artics? Most of the ones I see on the roads seem to have a 56 limiter sign on the back.
So this will allow a lorry to run at it's speed limiter rather than just off it which will make it more efficient.

I don't ride a bike on A roads anyway.

I have always found it weird that two roads that are of very similiar construction and layout indeed maybe even identical, the only difference one has a blue sign so lorries can do 60mph the other has green so can only do 50mph. Similiarly, with towing vehicles.

I think that this is somewhat a sensible measure. In reality a dual carriageway A road, is often indestinguishable to a two lane motorway. Both will have a central barrier both may have a hardshoulder but it is not compulsory.
I have always found it weird that two roads that are of very similiar construction and layout indeed maybe even identical, the only difference one has a blue sign so lorries can do 60mph the other has green so can only do 50mph. Similiarly, with towing vehicles.
Similiarly, I find it strange that just because one road has been labelled a motorway a cyclist can't ride it, yet if it were just an A road then we can, despite that it could be more busy than a motorway.
Regardless, given the desire to reduce emissions I am not sure how allowing lorries to go faster because they do so anyway is a good thing. It does seem quite a poor arguement. Surely a better one is that lorries speeds should be enforced better.
It also seems to be counter intuitative to allow lorries to go faster and then produce more CO2.

“The national speed limit increase on dual carriageways will modernise an outdated regulation dating from the 1980s, better reflecting the capabilities of modern HGVs. It will help to free professional hauliers from unnecessary regulation.

very odd comment, it doesn't reduce regulation on iota. It simply changes it from one number to another.
More bullshit from the "War against the Motorist" dung heap

Surely if 80% break the law, you enforce the law. You don't change to law to permit the law breaking.

"80 per cent of the vehicles concerned already break the speed limit"

Yep. Most HGV drivers already travel at 55mph+ (or on the limiter) everywhere, whatever the conditions.

If 80 % of cyclists broke the law all the time...

This in any sensible world is going to end in more deaths...how can it not?

Given the number of HGVs regularly found in unworthy condition, tacho tampering with magnets, distractions such as watching movies as they look to relieve the inane boredom of driving endless miles, the obligatory drink and drug specialists and the fact they're typically morbidly obese makes throwing more speed in an act of complete stupidity.

Presumably the association of hauliers have found some way of persuading Claire Perry this was needed? If there is expected to be no perceivable difference in speed why the increase?

We then have the ever present left hand drive trucks (who according to a highways officer attending my wife who had been sideswiped by a foreign lorry on the motorway before driving off 'do this all the time') to contend with. Hey, why not, more the merrier.

Another step backwards, given the ample evidence to the contrary that motorists are incapable of playing nicely we should be looking to slow everything down...not throwing petrol on the bonfire.

How come the HGV drivers didn't have to prove they can 'behave' before getting their new speed limits? That's what was said to cyclists in order to get improved cycling facilities

Anyway, I personally don't have problems with HGVs and their drivers, it's the smaller but much less regulated and qualified tipper truck drivers I worry about.

So then they'll drive at 70 because they get away with it, and in a year's time they'll be bleating for an increase in the speed limit to reflrct their need for legality. Pity they can't campaign for proper retesting and responsibility to go with the leniency they are allowed.

By this logic i look forward to RLJ-ing and riding on the pavement to be legalised sometime soon.

By this logic i look forward to RLJ-ing and riding on the pavement to be legalised sometime soon.