Driving through road repairs can be very disturbing. Narrow paths, slow traffic, and increasingly heated emotions add to the challenge. But as long as you drive carefully and at a steady pace, your trip doesn’t need to be stressful. Here are some suggestions about how to drive through and around roadworks to ensure your motorway or road journey through road repairs is as comfortable and stress-free as possible.
Ideally, you should check the status of each road you plan to use beforehand. If there is a large amount of repair work and you think you might be stuck in traffic, consider taking a different route, even if it means taking a few more miles.
If there are no alternative routes, give yourself more time to travel and make sure you have plenty of fuel. Running out of fuel is one of the most common reasons for a breakdown on the motorway, so don’t risk running in a low tank.
Maintain a safe follow-up distance of at least 2 seconds and if other traffic moves into your gap adjust by slowing down a little. You will not add more than a few seconds to your trip.
Try and see as far as possible in the future. There may be lines that are restricted and marked by cones. If it’s safe to do so, join if the vehicle is driving at low speed.
Watch for road repair signs that give you specific instructions. There could quite possibly be a temporary maximum speed limit that you must obey. Always look out for the presence of roadworkers. Road working vehicles should be marked with highly visible Chevron Kits. For more information, visit https://www.vehiclechevrons.com
The presence of speed cameras is also common where long-term road repairs are in effect – be prepared to slow down overall. They are there for your safety and the safety of the workforce.
If you can see more traffic accumulating, then avoid moving into different lanes too often. Swapping lanes on very congested roads will up your chances of getting involved in collisions and also slowing down the flow of traffic.
Many jobs involve working on or near the road such as:
Service Engineer
Emergency Service Workers (eg fire engines, ambulance personnel)
Enforcement Agency (eg HSA, Customs and Excise)
Local Authority Staff (eg School Guards, garbage collectors)
Vehicle Recovery Staff
Construction Personnel
Utility installation and repair staff
In the 2003-2008 period:
9 people were killed while working on or near the road.
One third of these deaths involve vehicles that were reversing.
All the deaths involved men.
The main work activities carried out at that time were garbage collection, road re-lining, cone laying / retrieval and presence at the site of an accident.