h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

 A 75 HAVOC Stranraer - Gretna - Stranraer.
THE LORRY DRIVERS NIGHTMARE.
A major trunk road from Gretna to the ports of Stranraer and Cairnryan; two busy ports ferrying freight and passengers to Larne and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
As a lorry driver myself, who uses this route twice a night and five nights a week finds it a nightmare: Mainly because for a LGV, the speed limit is a ludicrous 40 mph.
Can you imagine doing forty mph in a go-cart, with only a matter of inches from the ground? that 40mph would feel more like 60mph.
The scenario for a LGV is the exact opposite when you are a few feet from the ground, it feels more like 20mph, and when you have to drive a total of 200 miles at that speed, believe me it can be very trying and tiring.
The A75 is heavily policed and they tell us drivers, that the 40mph speed limit is in place for safety, I can testify that 40mph causes a lot more hazards. I have proved over and over again that driving at 40mph is far more dangerous than, lets say a more realistic 50mph. One example of this, which is the most frequent is this. In certain areas on the A75 there are a number places were there are a series of bends, and to make matters worse there are junctions also off some of the bends, it is at these points that you may have a number of cars following you, I would estimate that 50% of those are not prepared to wait for a safe passing point, and they blatantly overtake totally blind to oncoming traffic. When on several occasions that they have met other traffic coming towards them, it is always the lorry that gets cut up, or the lorry driver has been one step ahead and slowed down further still in order to avoid a collision. I have found that when driving at 50mph the drivers ARE prepared to wait for a safe place to pass, It seems that the extra ten mph, gives them a sense of progress and they do not feel the need to take any chances. And I can also say that an extra ten mph for the lorry driver gives them that same sense of progress which in turn helps stop fatigue. Any regular traveller on the A75 could most probably tell you how many lorries they have seen stuck on the soft verges were the driver has momentarily nodded of at the wheel, through pure boredom.
Truck Drivers, are we being persecuted? I think I'm beginning to get paranoid. The fact is after thirty eight years on the road, and the first thirty I had never even had a parking ticket, then suddenly after trucking up and down the A75 for the last six years I have been the recipient of twelve points on my licence, all received on the A75, I still have six. The thing is I'm like a sitting duck, I travel at night in between the boat traffic from the ports, It is usually very quite on the roads and I suppose I stick out like a sore thumb, because I have been told by the police that they will treat truck drivers, driving under fifty with leniency, or even let them off, I tend to set my cruise control at about 46mph, but unlike cruise control on a car, when a lorry is going down hill the weight tends to push them on and it overrides the cruise control. On every occasion that I was stopped for speeding that is what had happened, the spooky think about that is I always seem to get caught, I know some drivers who just drive on the speed limiter, usually set at 56mph, and have done so for years and have never been caught. Is there any justice?
When is this major trunk road going to be improved?