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news
Buncefield Lane 2New quietway that replaced lorry-parking laybys being used as ... lorry park
A new ‘quietway’ in Hertfordshire aimed at encouraging more people to walk and cycle, including through removing laybys to prevent lorry drivers from parking there is still being used as … you guessed it … a lorry park.
The above photo, was taken by road.cc reader Moray on Friday morning “on the nice shiny new cycle/foot-path, the ‘Buncefield Lane Quietway’ in Hemel Hempstead.”
Moray told us he is now trying to work out exactly where he should report it for enforcement.
In its public consultation on the quietway, published last October, Hertfordshire County Council said in its list of benefits for pedestrians that “Layby lanes by the service stations will be converted to verge and footpath so they can no longer be used as kerbside parking for lorries.
“This will improve inter-visibility and make the environment safer.”
The first phase of the quietway, which is being built in four phases, opened recently, with one of the county council’s main aims being to remove rat-running traffic from the route, which lies on the A414.
While Buncefield Lane will remain open to motor vehicles for local access, only people on bikes or on foot will be able to undertake through journeys.
One explanation for the lorry parking there could be that the driver’s sat-nav still shows it as a layby – although of course the double yellow lines and the shared-use path are a very big clue that it’s no longer a place to park, so even at our most charitable, that wouldn’t wash as an excuse.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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30 comments
So. Did all the lorries that deliver your bicycles, all their parts your clothes,tyres etc. disapear into a puff of smoke? Magically obeying all the driving hours requirements and parking in some sort of third dimension?
As it is the S.E. is absolutely packed with parked lorries in every available space after about 17.00hrs. You just have to stop buying bikes or eating - or anything to obviate this.
Judging by the illegal number plate, I don't think this driver is one to bother with details like whether he is parked up legally...
According to my brother who is an HGV "tramper" ie one who lives in his truck, a lot of HGV drivers are told to park in areas like this because the employers don't want to pay for Lorry Parks in order to keep costs down. He also informed me that he went back "tramping" because it was better pay than normal 9-5 HGV work.
There is a bit of a misunderstanding here; this path was a rather delapdated bollarded off (no vehicles) part of the lane, and which has recently beeen widened into an access road for a new business park, including a separate cycle/foot path for the new "Quietway". Where this truck is parked has never been a truck layby, so won't be in SatNavs as one. Picking your viewpoint carefully you can actually currently see before and after on Google Street View!.There has been action (i.e. obstables) on other roads nearby to prevent trucks parking and chewing up the verges. Don't/shouldn't the massive distribution centres nearby (e.g. Amazon, 100m away) provide apppriate space for drivers to rest ?
What are you? Some sort of communist!
That's a wierd reaction to a simple request for information. What's so abhorent about distribution centres taking care of truckers ?
Did you miss the emoji?
The technical agreement between many reputable shippers and their transport provider will require them to stop only at authorised secure parking. Contracts can be terminated for the haulier's failure to keep a load secure when parked. Not all companies are so particular though.
You are totally mis-understanding the practicalities and vagaries of time scheduling in variable "customer reception" and traffic situations. Also there is only one legally binding contract for ALL international freight - the CMR contract. Which easily accounts for the situations you refer to. There are different security strategies and "security" parks are often the least secure. Unless of course the customer is specifically hiring the vehicle to be under there instruction, then subject to vehicle operating law it is at their own risk.
I have some sympathy with the truck drivers. My company recently decided to prohibit delivery drivers from using our toilet facilities. I spoke out against it, we rely on our couriers and they work hard, it seemed really demeaning to tell them they couldn't even take a leak. Fortunately it seems that HSE are now requiring businesses to make their facilities available, so the restriction has gone.
As for the truck drivers still using the layby, I wonder what alternatives are available? How easy is finding somewhere to park up a truck when the tacho says you need to take a break?
Luckily, both the RHA and CMR contracts require customers to provide facilities to visiting drivers and also canteen facilities on the same terms as company employees.
I think & say fair play my mate!
we are doing everything for you lot In lockdown!
stopping away from your family & homes for weeks & weeks just because people need food, drink & everything else! Don't kick off and have ago about him parking there, and maybe the layby should still be there! Lorry drivers only have Certain amount of driving time and hoir to work in a day 👌🏼💪🏼
You make it sound like sacrificial altruism. There was I thinking it was paid employment.
Paid employment with a heap of red-tape on top. If the driver is having to park up at night he isn't going home to a comfy bed and all the things we take for granted at home.
If stopped by the Police or VOSA the driver has to show that he has driven no more than his allotted hours. If the next nearest lorry park is, say 30 minutes away, he leaves himself wide open to a hefty fine, something any key worker would be p****d off about collecting.
The driver and their employer have to make sure the job can be done without breaking the law.
In this case they have failed.
Driving on the pavement is against the law though isn't it.
And I suppose if your route was being blocked by an inconsiderate, I mean valient individual, stopping you doing your vital work that would be fine too.
As I understand it driving on the pavemet is against the law but parking on the pavement isn't - you'd have to catch them in the act - and the yellow lines most likely don't count either as they aren't actually parked on them.
Different legislation for HGVs applies. Parking a HGV on a footway or a verge is an offence under Section 19 of the Road Traffic Act.
^This
1 post.
Have we found the truck driver?
No, they're hiding under the mountain of junk on the illegal tray table they fitted
Great! So if I'm doing a job, that I voluntarily signed up for, that is the least bit inconvenient, I can park anywhere?
You might want to check the law on that one.
Quite right. Laws intended to keep everyone safe aren't for professional drivers afterall
Hasn't that been the atitude of the London taxi drivers for many years...?
If councils are going to re-appropriate space for cycling and walking, the last place I'd start with is space previously provided for lorry parking. Drivers are limited to the hours they can drive per day by law so could have gone to the site in question in perfectly good faith if it was previously used for overnight stops. It's pointless circling a small sign if it isn't visible in the middle of the night when many drivers are parking up.
The real problem is that the council are too scared to take away roadspace from the actual highway, so will feel they have met their obligation, even though the likelyhood is the last people to know about the change of use is the lorry drivers who have always used it before.
I don't agree that lorry parking space should be treated as special and never reallocated.
Councils' unwillingness to reallocate space, including parking space, is a problem; here they have reallocated space and they should be congratulated.
I do agree with you, but seeing as any lorry driver who has done his allotted hours and needs somewhere to park up for the night will usually go to a site that they know, I can see that a lone trucker turning up in the dark having used up his hours might believe that parking where he's likely to have parked before is the right thing to do. How is the driver to know in advance that the site is no longer a parking spot? Do councils have the ability to inform the 100,000 different trucks on our roads? It's easy to pick fault and solely blame the driver, but for a newly built facility I think some leeway should be expected, it's common sense
Whatever it is actually used for, it still counts towards the local council's targets.
I guess the double yellows say to most people, "no parking on the road", whereas this lorry is parked the other side of the lines on the pavement, not on the road. It would not require many bollards or heavy boulders/ concrete blocks placed along the periphery to make it impossible for artics to get by. A decently raised kerb would prevent all cars as well.
But it is a parking bay, every driver knows shared use path is just a other name for one.
The path would be governed by the double yellows, its part of the highway, so that's probably the local council, good luck getting them to act on a photo, and of course driving on a footway gets you a fixed penalty notice from the police, again good luck with that