motorway driving

Picture the scene (we know you’ve all been there). You’re on the road. On the motorway, to be exact. It’s busy, but its okay. Things are moving. Then, all of a sudden, things start to look busier ahead. You start to slow. You see the familiar yellow signs of roadworks ahead. You groan to yourself. Roadworks for how long? 10 miles? You’ve got to be joking. You’ve places to go and people to see. This is not what you need. But, you do what you need to do, you slow down. Right down. (You’ve clocked the speed cameras there, you can’t afford to get 3 points on your license). And through you drive. Past the road cones, closing one lane… for seemingly nothing. There’re no crews, there’s no lorries, there’s no sign that anyone has done any work here at all. Or looks likely to. What was the point?

Agh! Infuriating, right?

Well, while there isn’t much we can say to make that better, the good news is that Highways England has announce that the typical speed limits imposed at the sites of those repairs is being increased from 50mph, to 60mph. This should lead to a time saving of somewhere between 8%-14%, meaning you will get to where you are going faster as a result.

While Highways England are saying that this will not apply to all roadwork sites, you can expect to see the increase in many sites, especially those on large stretches of motorway

But of course, what they give with one hand, they take with another. In some areas of high traffic pollution, they are cutting speed limits, in a bid to minimise emissions from vehicles. While they are also looking for other ways to do so, that do not mean a cut in speeds, there are targets that they need to meet, which they have not found other solutions to, despite only using half of their allocated budget on discovering better ways to fight pollution. We hope that these are only temporary and that they can discover some measure that do not mean a reduction, in speed, which, by our logic, can only lead to more congestion as things slow down (otherwise why would they be increasing the roadworks limits)?

But if the last few months have shown us anything, it’s that nothing makes sense any more, really. At least one thing is unchanged – that if you are on the hunt for the best van insurance deals around, you’re in the right place.

News this week is a study that has been done into Britain’s motorways and how long you’ll have to wait between rest stops.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for those of us down south, it’s the dreaded M25 that tops the poll, with a huge 43-mile gap, between Cobham services in the south-west, to South Mimms, Hertfordshire in the north. Given how terrible traffic usually is, given that the stretch in between includes the exits for Heathrow, the M3, M4 and M40, that could be the longest 43 miles of your life, if you need to pay a visit. Bear in mind too, that Cobham is one of the newest additions to motorway services, and what those poor drivers had to endure previously, when the gap spanned between Westerham in Kent almost half way around the motorway.

The Midlands too, does not escape the agony of busting for a pee on the road. The gap from Warwick to Telford covers a long gap along the M40 and M54. It’s a huge 63 miles to wait, although thankfully, with less traffic than the M25, you may just make it in time.

Back down south, the dreaded M4 between Reading and Membury also has a long wait of 39 miles between services.

Of course, being busting for a pee and safe driving are not natural bedfellows. You can get easily distracted and find yourself concentrating on that moment of blessed relief, not what is going on the road. And it is never advised that you use the hard shoulder to go – over 100 people a year are killed on the roadside and you don’t want to be part of that statistic. If you really do have to go and there are no services in sight, it’s always recommended that you pull off the motorway and find yourself a pub or petrol station off the busy road and go there. Many sat navs now can be programmed to find your nearest, so use it!

Just one more word of caution. With the increase of coronavirus that we are seeing, take extra care in keeping your hygiene at its best. If you need to open doors when you get to the services, use your elbows, not your hands, wash your hands thoroughly before and after you go and try and wear gloves when making deliveries. If you have hand sanitizer, use it. A service station could be a prime breeding ground and van drivers will make the perfect super-spreader of the virus, so do your bit to keep yourself and the public safe.

You may be getting anxious about needing a pee and coronavirus, but at least with Cheap Van Insurance, you don’t need to break a sweat about getting the best renewal price this year. That’s one less thing to worry about.

Tag: motorway driving

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