Comment

First published April 25, 2008

I FELT a pang of guilt reading about the idea of banning lorries from overtaking on parts of the A12.

Sympathy, you might say, for the Devil - at least in the eyes of car drivers who regularly get caught behind one HGV apparently crawling past another HGV.

The proposal to put an end to all that on certain stretches of the road comes from the Essex County Council inquiry into how the A12 could be improved.

I have written in the past about how annoying getting stuck behind an overtaking lorry can be, but I must have mellowed, because now my first thought now is: Those poor long-distance drivers.

They're going to end up stuck in a convoy, staring at the back of another lorry trailer, for miles on end.

Some will be driving at their maximum speed, others will be horribly frustrated.

And sometimes this will be going on while the road to the right of them is totally traffic-free.

It's pretty unenforceable, too, unless you cover the area in cameras which cross-reference numberplates.

That's possible, but guaranteed to be a) expensive and b) bring the average motorist's respect for authority and those "controlling" the roads network to a new low.

The chance of the police catching many rogue overtakers is slim given how much stupid, dangerous law-breaking goes unpunished, day in, day out, on the A12.

So, ultimately, it's a bad idea - which probably means the authorities will jump at the chance to bring it in.

They may even take the chance to look green, grab really big headlines and risk starting a civil war by banning 4x4s and White Van Man from overtaking, too.

12:03pm Friday 25th April 2008

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