Advanced Driving Hub

Horse wrote:Perhaps that magic of which you speak is strong in this part of the UK?

I think it might be.

A34 around the Ilsleys, c2013 iirc. Joined a queue that turned out to be stationary for over two hours thanks to an HGV having left the road about a mile ahead. As the first blue light appeared from behind everybody parted, pretty much text-book. Interestingly, a small minority then pulled back into lane again as soon as the blue light had passed, leaving themselves very little room to pull aside for the next blue light. But they all managed it and, after maybe a half dozen blue lights, everybody seemed to have figured out it was best to stay put and keep the ‘extra lane’ clear.

Not sure I’d expect it to work so well on a 3 lane road though, maybe not quite as obvious?

I recently enjoyed the great experience of a shift in a roads policing car. I saw 130 mph on the M25 and was most impressed at how smoothly we moved to the hard shoulder when traffic slowed and were able to continue at 50 to 60 mph. We might have been able to continue had there been no hard shoulder but we would certainly have been much slower.

Another Bill wrote:Not sure I’d expect it to work so well on a 3 lane road though, maybe not quite as obvious?

Or more room to move aside?

Horse wrote:

Another Bill wrote:Not sure I’d expect it to work so well on a 3 lane road though, maybe not quite as obvious?

Or more room to move aside?

It just seems, to me, more ‘elegant’ with two lanes. In my own recounted incident, lane 1 traffic pulled over towards the verge, lane 2 towards the central reserve, it was pretty obvious to everybody how to participate. This conjured up an extra lane but that lane very conspicuously straddled a white line, reducing any temptation for pushy drivers to assume the clear lane was for their own benefit (though one or two were looking tempted).

All of the sign images have ridiculous URLs, so have a look here at examples of how European drivers are informed about creating a 'Rettungsgasse' on larger roads:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Rettung ... =612&dpr=3

Horse wrote:All of the sign images have ridiculous URLs, so have a look here at examples of how European drivers are informed about creating a 'Rettungsgasse' on larger roads:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Rettung ... =612&dpr=3

Interesting that, in some of these pictures, it looks like people are pulling onto a hard shoulder to create the corridor. That wouldn’t come naturally to a lot of people in UK.

In at least one link (with ‘ADAC’ in the title) a few vehicles seem to be showing brake lights, suggesting that the situation is fluid rather than static. Do they sustain the formation, even in a crawling jam? Or maybe they’re deliberately keeping brake lights lit to confirm they’re not about to move, which I sometimes do myself when being passed by a blue light.

I'd guess 'artistic licence'.

Another Bill wrote:A34 around the Ilsleys ... thanks to an HGV having left the road about a mile ahead.

Doing well this week. One overturned truck yesterday, on the Newbury bypass, today an artic got tired and fell over just north of J13.

But if something is going to happen on the 34, a truck around the Ilsley turns is odds-on.

My own monster jam coincided with one of the laybys, which often seem a little perilous. It looked like the truck had probably had to swerve to accommodate traffic rejoining the flow, and then bumped into several other vehicles before leaving the road. I don’t think it made the news so hopefully, nobody hurt badly.


Recalling that led me to have a look at street view of A34 laybys in the area, noticed an interesting camera shot. Hope the link works, should be dated “seven months ago”.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/qR5sQP4wASm7wQVHA?g_st=im

Who’d want to be that breakdown guy?

There’s not much behind the Google camera car, but the camera car was still driving and traffic ahead of it, so maybe the road was in the process of being closed.

On the A34 there is quite often a lay-by shortly before an off-slip, and I think there has been occasions where people have gone into the lay-by thinking it was the off-slip and come to a sticky end plastered over the back of an HGV. And some of the A34 off-slips are ridiculous. If you go A34 North to the A4 West, many people have visited the Armco ...