Nick Leverton wrote:

Steve Firth wrote:
Nick Leverton wrote:

AIUI motorways don't come under the ordinary traffic regulations but have
their own special legal status, which at the time didn't allow traffic to
be excluded from particular lanes.

Really? So how come trucks were banned from using the outside lane on
motorways with three or more lanes?

Not my area of expertise nor of interest, sorry. I'm sure you can look
the regs up if you're interested to know what the precise reason was ...

The reason it was done*, in this context, isn't as important as how it
was done. Either there there were regulations allowing it in the early
sixties**, or there weren't.

[* To prevent large and/or slow-moving vehicles from clogging all the
lanes at once - which was starting to happen.]

[** For that is when the third lane ban for lorries came in - 1960s.]