Nina's Blog - Friday 11th August 2023

@ArishMell It was accurate to within a minute for the hour's drive through Hamburg's roadworks. It has live traffic information so it can include delays due to congestion.

@ninalanyon That's impressive! Does it work on measuring your average speed, then?

@ArishMell Live traffic information, accurate maps, knowledge of actual and allowed speeds. It usually does pretty well but I was surprised that it was so good today; the traffic around Hamburg is usually horrible stop go through the seemingly permanent road works.

@ninalanyon I see. I don't know if my Tom-Tom device uses that level of data though I think it does warn of long-term temporary speed-restrictions and those on "managed" motorways. I've not really noticed because I drive by the signs and speedometer, but anyway in those situations the whole volume of traffic is usually moving at or slightly below the limit anyway.

There was a 50mph limit on a 20-mile stretch of the M6 in Cheshire for a very long time (road-works) and everyone did obey it. Someone pointed out to me a lot of that was not just drivers sticking to the law but many, especially lorry drivers, reducing the speed to 50 on the cruise-control.

@ArishMell Traffic aware cruise control should be compulsory for lorries on the motorway in my opinion. It's very handy and makes driving much less stressful. I use it all the time on the motorway.

@ninalanyon A traffic aware driver is even better!

I don't know, but it may be most modern lorries have cruise-control anyway.

Cruise control is fine, but while making it respond to speed-limits is one thing, a driver who needs a box of electronics to make the vehicle aware of the traffic, should not be driving.

@ArishMell Modern lorries have conventional cruise control I think but I don't think many have traffic aware cruise control. My car automatically maintains a three second spacing to the vehicle in front regardless of speed. And of course like many modern cars it has automatic emergency braking, something else that should be compulsory, especially for lorries.

@ArishMell
See https://bergencruiseline.no/

There is a freight ferry from Brevik (near Larvik on Oslo fjord) to Immingham, that takes 48 hours, that would be willing to take private cars if only the UK border patrol (or whatever it is called0 would not insist that only professional drivers be allowed through Immingham. I asked DFDS about it a few years ago and they were very apologetic and said that they were perfectly willing to accept private vehicles if they had space but that the UK would not allow them to land private drivers. Perhaps i should set up a transport company (sole trader status doesn't cost anything) here and deliver some Norwegian goods to someone in the UK.