The Trans-Africa Highway from Mombasa needs to be a dual-carriageway. Every driver using the road is likely to be forced onto the hard shoulder at least once or several times, to make way for an oncoming truck (or something else) overtaking a nose-to-tail line of lumbering monsters. In the meantime, what should we (drivers) do about it? Srinath.
First and above anything else, do give way – probably by simply slowing down, moving onto the hard shoulder as soon as possible (even further left if necessary), and staying off the traffic lane until the problem is over.
This manoeuvre will usually be quite safe, the shoulder will usually be quite smooth, and while you should slow down, you will probably not have to stop. You will achieve nothing – except perhaps shortening your own lifespan – by doing anything else. And you might get a grateful wave from the drivers heading the other way.
When the crisis is over, and thereafter, spare a thought for the long-haul truck drivers. They are not driving overloaded or underpowered trucks at mkokoteni speeds by choice. It is their job. And the task they are set – in those vehicle and load conditions, in traffic that dense, on that road – is close to a “mission impossible”…without taking at least some liberties.
Second, be grateful that there is a hard shoulder in most places now, and be both ready and willing to use it – not only in emergencies for your own safety but also to help your fellow road users. Truckers themselves often do that, because the majority of them are careful, thoughtful, competent drivers – more considerate than most other road users!
They do it to give vehicles behind them a better view ahead. They do it to leave some “escape” room for swifter vehicles who might have misjudged an overtake plan, or who need to leapfrog up a line that is so long that there will never be an opportunity to overtake the whole line at once.
One “obvious” solution would be for all truck drivers to always leave a gap of several vehicle lengths between themselves and the vehicle they are following, so fast vehicles (cars) would have the opportunity to nip past them one at a time more frequently and promptly.
That would ease the problem for faster vehicles, but it would add to the problem for trucks themselves, because while all are generally “slow”, they are not all equally so. They need to overtake each other… with very little acceleration power, and very little speed differential, hence needing a very long overtaking “gap” for even one pass, all while crunching up and down through 12 gears.
That’s what makes them reluctant to surrender speed to smaller vehicles, especially on hills. Under those circumstances, if they left a big gap they would need twice as long to complete an overtake manoeuvre. What they need to do when possible is accelerate through the “keep-distance” space while there is still oncoming traffic, so they already have a speed differential when they pull out as the road ahead clears. But the gap they leave for that is constantly filled by zippy cars!
The truck you see coming towards you in the distance, on your side while overhauling a long line, might have a potential cruising speed of 60 kph. And it might have been stuck in a line doing 30 kph for the past half-hour!
The “gap” in oncoming traffic he is trying to use might be the first – and the last – he will have for a very long time. Then you appear! Even someone who wears a halo might hope for some tolerance…and some practical help.
On very long and straight stretches of the road, where a lumbering line can be identified in the distance, even if there isn’t an overtaker already in action, some drivers with no traffic behind them pull onto the hard shoulder way in advance and give an encouraging flash of lights, conveying the message: “I know what some of you might be hoping to do. I am ready to help.” They can (and very probably will) take the liberty…by invitation.
That gesture will lengthen the time of the car’s journey by 30 seconds. It will save one or more other drivers 30 minutes!
What car drivers who are alert, aware and experienced enough to do that must remember is that once they have issued the invitation they must honour it. They must stay on the hard shoulder until the deed is done, even if what they thought was going to be smooth and clear run-off turns out to be something else.
Let me stress that there is a difference between commending an action and recommending it.
