Road User Voice – December 2015 – Keep on trucking!
30 November 2015
We will soon be publishing our heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers’ priorities for improvement on England’s Strategic Road Network (SRN) research. The aspect of the SRN that HGV drivers most wish to see improved is ‘quality of road surfaces’. This is also the top priority for car and van drivers, as well as for motorcyclists.
However, there are key differences. The issue is still top priority for improvement among HGV drivers, but it’s not as far out in front as among car/van drivers and motorcyclists. While ‘improved quality of road surfaces’ is the top priority for improvement across all the road user groups surveyed, it is over three times as important as the average priority for HGV drivers, compared with almost five times as important as the average priority for car/van users and over six times as important for motorcyclists.
For all groups of road users concerns about road surfaces were not confined to potholes. Drivers also want surfaces that give a more comfortable ride, produce less noise and are safe even in poor weather.
The next priorities for improvement among HGV drivers are ‘better management of unplanned delays such as accidents and breakdowns’, (ranked second), and ‘better management of roadworks’ (ranked third). This differs from both car and van drivers and motorcyclists who ranked ‘safer design and upkeep of roads’ (ranked second) for car/van drivers and third for motorcyclists and ‘better behaved drivers’ (ranked 3rd for car/van drivers and second for motorcyclists) within their top three priorities.
The variation in results shows that the impact of delays, both planned and unplanned, is of even greater importance to HGV drivers. This makes sense given their journey purpose, (work schedules and fixed delivery slots) on the SRN. The focus for HGV drivers then shifts to factors which affect road safety with ‘safer design and upkeep of roads’ ranked fourth and ‘better behaved drivers’ ranked fifth.
