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[Andy H]

So - the plan is to go from two to three now but in the future we can expect a train of tailgating HGVs filling the nearside line doing 56mph. Me (or any other law abiding car driver) in the middle lane doing 69mph and looking for the next exit. What am I meant to do? 

[2boxerdogs]

So - the plan is to go from two to three now but in the future we can expect a train of tailgating HGVs filling the nearside line doing 56mph. Me (or any other law abiding car driver) in the middle lane doing 69mph and looking for the next exit. What am I meant to do? 

     






Really do not like the way the world is going now , the daft things they call technology, must be my age.

[Nick W]

A disaster waiting to happen, imagine terrorists getting their hands on them.

Terrorists, meh. They want you to see who is doing the crime(because that's what it actually is)


Imagine what will happen when half a dozen spotty 15 year-old geeks hack a few strings of trucks from their bedrooms, and race them on a motorway 100 miles away. Then imagine how much worse it will be if those geeks are boys!

[TheBoy]

So - the plan is to go from two to three now but in the future we can expect a train of tailgating HGVs filling the nearside line doing 56mph. Me (or any other law abiding car driver) in the middle lane doing 69mph and looking for the next exit. What am I meant to do? 

Who cares about that, as long as the tree huggers are happy.

And, of course, the trailing drivers are going to be fully alert, what with having nothing to do, so no chance of falling asleep or otherwise drifting off course.

[aaronjb]

So - the plan is to go from two to three now but in the future we can expect a train of tailgating HGVs filling the nearside line doing 56mph. Me (or any other law abiding car driver) in the middle lane doing 69mph and looking for the next exit. What am I meant to do? 

Your autonomous car will communicate with the truck that it needs to exit and they will part to allow it.

Oh.. you think you'll still be driving? 

[Sir Tigger KC]

So - the plan is to go from two to three now but in the future we can expect a train of tailgating HGVs filling the nearside line doing 56mph. Me (or any other law abiding car driver) in the middle lane doing 69mph and looking for the next exit. What am I meant to do? 

Who cares about that, as long as the tree huggers are happy.

And, of course, the trailing drivers are going to be fully alert, what with having nothing to do, so no chance of falling asleep or otherwise drifting off course.

This is the thing.  I guess for any benefit with this scheme the following trucks will have to be very close, so pretty much all the drivers behind will see is the back of the trailer in front. 

The other thing is, will the truck convoys be able to overtake?    It's all very well chugging along in the inside lane at 56mph, but then you come up behind a Tesco's wagon that's limited to 50mph..... 

They'd also have work out the weight distribution quite carefully as well.  It's no good having the lead truck with a load of bog roll, the middle truck with a load of wood and the last truck with a load of baked beans as when you come to a hill they'd get split up, as they'd all be able to climb the hill at different speeds.   

[Lizzie Zoom]

So you have 3 trucks in line, with their loads, travelling along, then another 3 behind, with another 3 behind them. Hey, I've just had a brain wave; you call it a train and you place it on rails. Euricka a railway!!  

But my genius does not stop there. You build HS2, HS3, HS4, etc,etc.....(you've got the picture) and run super fast freight system, with rail links to the major distribution centres all over the country, with a law passed that all future road distribution centres MUST be rail connected and companies to pay for that.

This way we solve the congested roads problem, cut air pollution (that will shut the environmentalists up) and stop the inherent risks we ALREADY face with conveys of lorries travelling in convey and blocking off exists for other drivers, which will only get much worse if truck haulage continues to breed and these stupid IT conveys are allowed to travel on our heavily congested roads.

In addition I would ask what happens if the leading truck crashes, with the following trucks being hit by the debris? what happens if one of the trucks has a mechanic failure, or tyre blowout?;
what happens at traffic lights when the No1 truck just passes a green light but the others continue to follow over ambers/red as the lead truck cannot, presumably, cannot slam on his breaks to stop?; how will these beasts manage to travel through our heavily contested towns and cities without blocking junctions?  In the event of an accident or traffic law violation, is the lead driver held to account, or one of the other two; how will the law / insurance companies decide? Oh, so many questions.  Driverless cars are one thing, but a 3 lorry IT controlled convoy is quite another!

[Doctor Gollum]

Be cheaper and easier to allow super b's... without limiters.

Two trailers on one truck and half the emmissions per load.

Done

[BazaJT]

They must have anticipated Lizzie's post[at least in part]about convoys as they've for some obscure reason decided to call them platoons

[TheBoy]

LZ - you must have worked out by now that railways do not work. We've flogged away at them for probably 150yrs, and they still don't work.

Beeching was right, just not radical enough.

[Lizzie Zoom]

LZ - you must have worked out by now that railways do not work. We've flogged away at them for probably 150yrs, and they still don't work.

Beeching was right, just not radical enough.

No, passenger journeys have doubled since 1997 from 800 million to 1.6 billion. Freight has increased by 66% since the mid 1990s and this is expected to rise by another 30% over the next 10 years.  Every container freight train takes 50 lorries off our roads. This is not a success?

If the High Speed lines were all directly connected for through running fast freight just imagine how this could clear our roads.

No, Beeching was an accountant who did make good decisions, but also was very short sighted going along with his political masters wishes/lack of imagination in certain aspects of his cuts to the rail system. 2017 is vastly different to 1957, with now the clamour of the populous no longer aimed at the motor car, but longing for a fast, efficient, cost effective, public transport system that has its heart in the railways.

Putting more trucks on the road, platoons or not, is NOT the way to go (just witness the number of trucks on the M roads, especially the M1, M6, the M25, and especially the M20 down our way with continental traffic coming and going to the Channel ports and Chunnel.

No, railways are not only the right way to go, but the only way to go for long distance passenger and freight traffic, with hopefully an improvement in local public transport.

[Doctor Gollum]

If you don't like the traffic, you can always move

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Railways would work perfectly well for freight needing to travel outside the production locality. They just don't work (in this country) for transporting people.

[Nick W]

Railways would work perfectly well for freight needing to travel outside the production locality. They just don't work (in this country) for transporting people.

I think you have that backwards: railways don't work for freight in this country because the distances between loading and unloading aren't great enough to make the handling costs affordable or even worthwhile. Especially when it will have to be distributed to other locations. When the freight - sorry, passengers - can unload itself, that limitation doesn't apply. Now that the hidden costs of personal mobility are becoming obvious we are going to have go do some joined-up thinking about transport and the way we use it. This is will probably become the biggest social/political issue of the next 20 to 30 years.

[TheBoy]

None of the planned high speed rail links will be taking freight.  They won't be taking many passengers either, but that's another debate entirely.

As NickW says, its not cost effective for freight anyway. There are 2 ways to make it more attractive to transporters, subsidise those that use it, and penalise those that don't.  To me, that simply proves that it doesn't work.

Its not cost effective for passengers either. Hence the routes at the busiest times are subsidised by those who don't use the system, to the tune of 40%, give or take.  And look at the outrage that has caused, as the government (rightly) try to lift the burden off those that do not use the system and on to those who benefit from it.