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Road to understanding
Page 20
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August is Motorway Month, designed to help truckers and other road
users appreciate each other's point of view. Dominic Perry reports.
you may not know it, but this month has been designated Motorway Month by the RAC Foundation. It is partly a celebration of our country' infrastructure and partly designed to educate road users, be they on two wheels or 12. The event was started in 2004; it is supported by the Institute of Advanced Motorists and the Freight Transport Association (ETA).
False perception
Edmund King, the executive director of the RAC Foundation, says: "Although motorways are the safest roads, when accidents do happen they tend to be more serious. There are more fatalities and involve more vehicles, and this affects people's perception of them.
"And because motorway driving isn't an intrinsic part of the driving test. people don't understand how to drive on them."
He points to research conducted by the foundation into tailgating on motorways. It found that 26% of motorists were "an accident waiting to happen" because they drove too close to the vehicle in front-and on the M4 in Wales that proportion rose to over 50%.
Regarding LG-Vs, King says: -We prefer to see lorries on motorways rather than on other roads. They are the most suitable place for the bulk of the journey."
But he points out that for some motorists this can be a problem: "We felt there's a lot of ignorance among car drivers about the limitations that LGVs have.
"They have to remember that a truck isn't like a car. They can't, for example, cut in front of an LGV at a junction and expect it to be able to brake like a Mondeo. It's not done maliciously; it's just ignorance" King stresses that the idea is not to admonish any particular sector of the road-using public but to generate debate hence the involvement of the ETA. Its director of external affairs, Geoff Dossetter, concurs: "We would hope that a better understanding of why lorries are on motorways would be taken away from this.
"We always get complaints that motorways arc full of lorries where else do you want them to be, for goodness' sake? If people understand that they are there delivering the nation's goods then that will be a start."
King adds: -It's about trying to open dialogue. If lorry drivers wrote to us telling us their pet hates, that would be great."
And Dossetter says: -Although the safety record of truck drivers is extremely good, and their tolerance and patience with other road users is firmly in credit, truck drivers still need to respect the needs of other road users."
Well driven?
`Ibis is backed up by the ETA's own data from its Well Driven?' phone lines. Last year it received just over 6,300 calls complaining about trucks, with another 1,200 about vans. The majority of these calls were to do with cutting up other road users (see panel).
King says that ultimately we all have to share the roads: "We need to live together, work together and get on together. That's what we're trying to promote." •