Longer lorries on our roads is not the answer for freight needs - Yorkshire Post Letters

Last week the Government announced new legislation to allow longer lorries to be used on our roads.

The new laws permit vehicles up to 18.55m long to be used across the entire roads network – 2.05m longer than current limits, which is nearly as long as a lorry cab.

The longer lorries have larger blind spots and almost double the ‘tail-swing’ of conventional HGVs, which will pose significant danger to vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians, especially when driven in dense, busy, urban environments and narrow country lanes.

Lorries are already seven times more likely than cars to be involved in cyclist or pedestrian fatalities so this decision represents a serious step backwards for cyclists’ safety, at a time when funding for infrastructure to encourage active travel has been cut.

Rather than longer lorries, the government should be working to encourage more freight on to rail - an efficient, safe and clean alternative with just one freight train capable of removing up to 129 lorries from our roads.

Once again the Government has shown poor judgement in allowing ever larger lorries onto the roads at the expense of the climate, and the safety of vulnerable road users.