Studies have been made of the delays caused to other traffic by the movement of abnormanl indivisible loads. This report gives results for eleven load movements which were observed over a total distance of 1264 miles on all-purpose, most by single carriageway, roads. Average delays are given in terms of minutes per vehicle to the overtaking and to the opposing traffic, and also in terms of vehicle-hours of delay per mile travelled by the load. For both traffic streams together the latter figure ranged from 2 to 16 vehicle-hours for the different loads. The cost, per mile traveled by the load, to other traffic and to the police is also estimated. Six of these loads were observed over a total distance of 219 miles on 4-lane motorways and dual- carriageway trunk roads approximating motorway standards. On such roads they caused only very slight delays. The delay to other traffic was influenced largely by the speed of the load, the traffic flow and the width of road available for other traffic. There was insufficient evidence to show any influence of the length, height or weight of the load. /Author/
Abstract