Truckers given the green light to drive faster

THERE'S good news for car drivers today as the government has officially increased the single-carriageway speed limit for heavy goods vehicles to 50mph.

Previously, HGVs were limited to 40mph by law, leaving drivers' tempers to boil over in their cars while stuck in a long line of traffic.

AA president Edmund King said: "This seems like a common sense move. Every driver has probably experienced being stuck behind a lorry travelling at their legal 40mph limit on a single carriageway main road with a national default speed limit of 60mph for cars."

He went on: "This 20mph speed differential can lead to bunching and dangerous overtaking manoeuvres. So we welcome the plans to allow trucks to legally travel at 50mph on these roads to end this frustrating, dangerous, historic anomaly."

The Government is also consulting on increasing the speed limit for lorries on dual carriageways from 50mph to 60mph.

Mr King said an AA/Populus survey showed that 81% of drivers did not know the legal national speed limit for lorries on single carriageway main roads.

He went on: "So it is no wonder other drivers get frustrated, perhaps thinking the lorry driver was just being awkward, lost or was trying to save fuel.

"Smoother traffic flow also provides some economic benefit by improving journey times. We do appreciate that some have concerns about letting lorries travel faster but a more realistic limit should lead to better compliance by all."

Mr King said the AA would study the dual carriageway lorry proposal. He went on: "Lorries today are much safer than they were many decades ago and so it should be feasible for them to travel faster to help the economy and smooth traffic flow as well as reducing tailgating and crashes."

By Press Association reporter