I saw an agricultural tractor on the A1(M) in County Durham today.
Can't be legal, can it?
The road is not strictly a motorway because the 'M' is in brackets, but it has a hard shoulder and the signs are blue.
The tractor was not one of the fast-moving ones, it was a traditional 'big wheels at the back, small wheels at the front' farm tractor.
I doubt it was doing more than 20mph, but that was hard to judge when the traffic was bunching, braking, indicating and swerving to pass it.
And it was raining.
Have you and stories of slow vehicles on the motorway?
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>> The road is not strictly a motorway because the 'M' is in brackets, but it
>> has a hard shoulder and the signs are blue.
>>
I thought that any AXX (M) road were treated as motorways and had the same use and rules applied to them.
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Rule 227 used to cover prohibited traffic on motorways. It used to include Agricultural Vehicles - not sure about the A1(M) though has it got prohibition notices - Arguably it's primarily an A road otherwise it would be the M1(A) presumably. Very strange that.
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My belief is that we have a road called the A1. The sections of this road that are motorway are the A1(M) and have full motorway status. A1 is used throughout as it is the same road, the (M) signifies it's status as a motorway.
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There is a 15 mile stretch of NSL two lane dual carriageway near here, It only has slip road access and is a motorway in all but name and hard shoulder. Its most dangerous feature is speed differentials. A driver was killed a while back when two lanes of traffic came up to a tractor and the only escape route for the lorry driver killed (who I assume saw the tractor late) was off a well disguised viaduct.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 23 Nov 10 at 18:20
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>> Have you and stories of slow vehicles on the motorway?
Mine. An hour to get home tonight :-(
I like a bit of space around me. Nothing too greedy, a car length or 2 at the rear is greatly appreciated though.
Had someone welded to my bumper for 15 mins in 10-15 mph traffic. Grrrr. Nowt can be done though.
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AFAIR minimum speed is 30 mph on UK motorways.
But anything less than 56 is pretty dangerous as you'll eventually get run down by something heavy.
ISTR that a few classic cars have been destroyed that way.
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>> AFAIR minimum speed is 30 mph on UK motorways.
Nope. No minimum speed limit unless signposted.
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I would've thought the 'M' in A1(M) denotes it's a motorway.
Agricultural vehicles are prohibited on motorways.
!
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I think the A1(M) is, legally, an A road brought up to a Motorway standard without being deignated as one. The A makes it an A road and the (M) means it is motorway standard - best guess. What does the Highway Code say on the subject? If it was a motorway there would be signs telling unentitled drivers to turn off?
Last edited by: Perky Penguin (p) on Tue 23 Nov 10 at 20:46
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That's what I was suggesting earlier - I'll try to find a reference to it in the HC
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If it has blue signs and an "(M)" after the road designation, then it IS a motorway. No "motorway standard" or "similar to" about it. The tractor was in the wrong.
>> If it was a motorway there would be signs telling unentitled drivers to turn off?
Like this one:
bit.ly/h70S9B
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Tue 23 Nov 10 at 20:58
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>> If it was a motorway there would be signs telling unentitled drivers to
>> turn off?
>>
Don't often see those signs nowdays.
who remembers the 'no learner drivers, mopeds......' signs at the start of all motorways?
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>> >> If it was a motorway there would be signs telling unentitled drivers to
>> >> turn off?
>> >>
>> Don't often see those signs nowdays.
>> who remembers the 'no learner drivers, mopeds......' signs at the start of all motorways?
>>
Yes, we (here or BR, not sure which) tried to work out when they disappeared; late eighties I reckon.
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>> Don't often see those signs nowdays.
>> who remembers the 'no learner drivers, mopeds......' signs at the start of all motorways?
>>
maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&layer=c&cbll=54.461028,-1.669032&panoid=h3NxSwLSnpVEPsqDIasKbQ&cbp=12,354.08,,0,10.18&ll=54.46089,-1.669042&spn=0.001537,0.003449&z=18
And
maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=54.468616,-1.674771&spn=0.012196,0.043945&z=15&layer=c&cbll=54.468581,-1.666749&panoid=5nwDl4GfKOOoOaeu_PoyEQ&cbp=12,47.4,,1,3.15
You might have to zoom in a bit
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>>
>> maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=54.468616,-1.674771&spn=0.012196,0.043945&z=15&layer=c&cbll=54.468581,-1.666749&panoid=5nwDl4GfKOOoOaeu_PoyEQ&cbp=12,47.4,,1,3.15
>>
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>> You might have to zoom in a bit
>>
Cheers, that's the sort of sign I'm thinking of, I can't understand why they've pretty much disappeared (at least from the M3/M27/M1) when surely they are as relevant now as ever.
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A oversight or to much expense to instal perhaps
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>> A oversight or to much expense to instal perhaps
>>
Or stolen for scrap value.
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>> Had someone welded to my bumper for 15 mins in 10-15 mph traffic. Grrrr. Nowt
>> can be done though.
>>
When idiots do that to me, I leave more space in front, if nothing else I feel safer knowing I have a 'buffer' in which I can reduce speed more slowly.
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I seem to recall that some sections of what were once regular A-roads but are now (M) status have historical exemptions for agricultural traffic.
ie. If the only reasonable access from one piece of farmland to another is via the (M) road then the farmer is allowed to use it. I have a foggy recollection of parts of the A1 having warning signs.
Last edited by: Kevin on Tue 23 Nov 10 at 21:00
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There's something in the back of my mind about the M1 being called that because it was the first motorway in the UK (I know the Preston by-pass pre-dated it), but by the road numbering convention it should really be the M5.
The A1 should then be the M1 on motorway standard sections, but can't, so it's called the A1(M).
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The A1(M) is so called because there was already an M1 and you can't have two.
If you travel west from Doncaster you will cross the A1(M) and a few miles later you will ctross the M1.
It is a motorway and AFAIK motorways prohibit agricultrual vehicles.
See rule 253
www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069862
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In the Reading/Bracknell area there is a conventional A329 and a newly built dual carriageway designated A329(M)
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...The A1(M) is so called because there was already an M1 and you can't have two..
The simplest explanations often turn out to be the correct ones.
The tractor had a front bucket and may well have had a rear one as well.
I wonder if a 'tractor-like' digger is not classed as an agricultural vehicle on the basis it is used by a builder, even though it's no more than an agricultural tractor with a couple of hydraulic arms bolted on.
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>> but by the road numbering convention it should really be the M5.
As far as I know the motorways followed the main roads and thus got their designation - M1 follows A1, M6 follows route of A6, etc.... though I suppose they got confused when they designated the M5!
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Except the MI does not follow the AI it runs roughly parallel but a long way apart in places for 180miles or so then the A1 goes on upto Edinburgh (dogs dinner of a road) whereas the M1 stops just below Whetherby with the noisiest section of concrete road I have heard for along time were it passes north leeds.
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Doesn't seem to matter what the rules say anyway. The Western Bypass ( the most inappropriate name ever!) of the A1 is supposedly banned to 'slow moving vehicles' between 7am and 7pm. I regularly get stuck behind a crane or similar moving at a crawl along there.
A bit like the 'no wagons in the outside lane' rule further along - no one pays any attention to it because theres no one to enforce it.
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>> Except the MI does not follow the AI it runs roughly parallel but a long
>> way apart
It goes from London to Scotland (nearly) on the East coast which is the same route as the A1, just as the M6 does the west coast route as does the A6 and the M4/A4 London to the west... I hadn't realised this was the pedant thread! ;-)
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Not actually a motorway, but the A14 past Huntingdon regularly had milk floats ambling down it @ 10mph heading back to a local dairy - during the morning peak period!
Truly scary at times.
I believe it is a sackable offence for the drivers to attempt this now (though possibly not illegal as such) :-)
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Rule 46 is scary: www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069852
Would you want to come across one of them?
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Was it a tractor, Iffy, or one of those "Fastrac" jobs which are capable of higher speeds?
AFAIK the limit for tractors is 20mph, unless they have all-wheel brakes and other equipment like front-wheel mudguards and a speedometer. I think that some of them are allowed on motorways if certain conditions are met.
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I believe that agricultural tractors are geared for a maximum speed of 25mph.
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>> I believe that agricultural tractors are geared for a maximum speed of 25mph.
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Not all of them, as I've indicated above.
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I said tractors, not Fastracs.
At least all the ones I have driven have been geared for 25mph.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 24 Nov 10 at 22:08
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...Was it a tractor, Iffy, or one of those "Fastrac" jobs which are capable of higher speeds?...
I reckon it was an ordinary tractor.
Two big wheels at the back, two smaller wheels at the front, although I think they were 'V'-treaded which indicates four-wheel drive.
It was blue, and while I'm no expert, I reckon it was a New Holland.
Something this: tinyurl.com/32n6xq7 or maybe a shade bigger.
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Slow moving vehicles on the motorway - a900ss
