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I must say I've long assumed that they also used police cars for flow control - now of course they have the Highways Agency vehicles¹ which look so much like police cars as to cause the same slowing to <70mph from what's often an average in the outer lanes of 85.

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¹ -- I can't see how the Highways Agency are not running fowl of the law against "impersonating a police officer" by the livery of their vehicles.

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Notice how truckers work with highway congestion too. They tend to slow down to allow congestion in front of them to flow. This might look at first to allow braking space for the big trucks but I think it has a lot to do with the traffic flow as well.

Truckers don't like to change gears. It's much more efficient for them to stay in a lower gear and coast at a consistent speed than it is to constantly change gears and brake.

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