HGVs: a reminder.

[asterix]

That may be so from the drivers perspective but it still makes current HGV designs problematic as you say yourself:

it's accepted that there are some roads you just can't go down.

While there are blind spots, it's really just a matter of keeping your wits about you.

it certainly helps if cyclists and pedestrians are aware that there are some places we can't see very easily.

In an artic you're usually doing one or two drops,.. In a Transit, you're usually doing around 15 drops,

I've never driven an HGV and have great respect for those who do it well - most HGV drivers appear to be far and away more competent than any other drivers on the road - but that doesn't mean the vehicles are suitable for certain aspects of the job for which they are used.

In central York I am pleased to say that HGVs are uncommon (IMO buses are our worst problem!) and there are many more cyclists than most British towns and cities. The two may not be just coincidence.

 

[subaqua]

It's actually not that bad. I've driven artics around London quite a lot, and it's not as bad - surprisingly - as driving a Transit sized van. In an artic you're usually doing one or two drops, and it's accepted that there are some roads you just can't go down. In a Transit, you're usually doing around 15 drops, and half of them will be in pedestrian precincts or on Oxford Street, and it's just horrible. Give me a six axle artic any day of the week.
While there are blind spots, it's really just a matter of keeping your wits about you. I find that I watch my mirrors pretty carefully even when I'm waiting at traffic lights or junctions, and I'm religious about checking them before I set off. This way you can spot most things trying to creep up the inside of your trailer. But it certainly helps if cyclists and pedestrians are aware that there are some places we can't see very easily.

agreed . when I used to caome down to London with my dad i expected it to be hellish but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I am terying to remember the name of the very very narrow street in wapping that he managed to reverse the extended trailer into in very few moves of the wheel. Aaaargh gonna have to ring him later.

 

[Arch]

In central York I am pleased to say that HGVs are uncommon (IMO buses are our worst problem!) and there are many more cyclists than most British towns and cities. The two may not be just coincidence.

Coincidentally, I have to hand a book on heavy haulage, and abnormal loads. There is a photo, from the 70's, of an 81 tonne kiln section (think enormous metal tube, bigger than a train carriage) being hauled by a Scammell, through York! It was en route from Hull to Derbyshire. It's shown negociating the corner where the Spurriergate centre is (Coney St, High Ousegate, Ousegate, Nessgate: for non-Yorkies, it's a crossroads in the middle of York with only normal single carriageway road ), turning left from Nessgate into Ousegate. Takes up the entire corner as it turns, and looks as if it's wedged, although apparently all is well. Mind boggling that such a load was once routed through a city!

More mindboggling is where the hell it went on from there. No way it would get through the Bar on Micklegate. Must have turned down Skeldergate and onto Bishopthorpe Road.

Still, on another page there's a load so large being taken through a town that they demolished a shop to let it make it round a corner.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I used to do abnormal load stuff. I once delivered a very large water tank to a Severn Trent compound in the middle of rural Shropshire. The company had to hire some tree surgeons to drastically trim the trees all along the lane in order for me to deliver the thing.