Did anyone else northbound on the M61 last night see this completely retarded message : “A66 closed after M6”. 
It makes no grammatical or geographical sense. 
Must be a new guessing game east or west, who knows till it’s too late and you’re on the arse end of a massive queue.
Left hand down!:
Did anyone else northbound on the M61 last night see this completely retarded message : “A66 closed after M6”.
it could mean the a66 east or a66 west ■■ or it could mean the slip rd /roundabout is closed ■■ on the other hand it could mean someone got bored on nightshift and decided to have a bit of fun confusing drivers ■■ 
They managed to get something more useful up on the M6 itself : “A66 eastbound closed”. Why couldn’t they have said that in the first place instead of the cryptic “A66 closed after M6” ? Furthermore, why not tell us WHERE exactly it’s closed? Eg. “A66 eastbound closed at Penrith/Brough/Bowes” etc. Just “closed” is no help whatsoever if you’re in a car as you don’t know how far down the back roads you need to divert for before getting back on it.
Left hand down!:
Why couldn’t they have said that in the first place instead of the cryptic “A66 closed after M6” ? Furthermore, why not tell us WHERE exactly it’s closed? Eg. “A66 eastbound closed at Penrith/Brough/Bowes” etc. Just “closed” is no help whatsoever if you’re in a car as you don’t know how far down the back roads you need to divert for before getting back on it.
If you’re in a car the likelihood is you won’t knnow where Brough or Bowes is anyway and as everyone uses Satnav nowadays it takes a lot longer to find it.
When they do tell you its something like:
“A45 closed after A509” which was the one on the boards yesterday and had my arse nipping a bit as I was going down the A45. That’s fine if you know where the A509 is which I couldn’t recall and as it turns out I only pass the A508 so was good to go.
‘A1 closed at A638’ caught me out a couple of times over the last few years. Don’t think Highways Agency realise that A1 & A638 meet at two points some distance apart, Retford south (Markham Moor) & Doncaster north (Redhouse).
I often wonder why these warnings have flashing yellow lights when they’re about roads that are hundreds of miles away and only a minority of drivers at that point will be affected. A couple of weeks ago I saw flashing warnings on the M25 that the entrance to the M18 from the M1 was closed - surely, it should only merit flashing lights if the problem is nearby. And the location is not helpful, given that one of the road numbers is often obscure and that the two roads meet more than once. I’ve seen warnings that say “A40 closed after M40”, without specifying if that’s the Western Avenue or the road into Oxford. However, the small size of the matrix screens has something to do with why they’re not more detailed, but “E.OF M40” would fit.
M61 northnound is at least before you get to problem area. Normally the matrix sign AFTER penrith southbound tells you that the a66 is shut! Great load a good that is.
I seen a sign on the m1 the other night that said “animals on road, slow down” I couldnt help but wonder how decking fast were these animals going. Surely slow moving animals would be dangerous on any motorway
I can help a little here. We have different types of signs and they are listed as 2x16 or 3x18 which basically means 2 lines with 16 characters or 3 lines with 18 characters on each line. What you may have seen is a sign that can ONLY show 2 lines hence A66 Closed after M6. Take a closer look next time you are out.
The other comment about roadworks miles away is for this reason, say you are travelling from Leeds to Gatwick and the M23 is closed and we KNOW it will be closed for say 4 hours and we know it’ll take you 4 hours to get there from Leeds then we will display that sign, of course, you might not be going to Gatwick but some people are so it’s helpful to them but not you. If the road will be open in 2 hours, it’ll be set around perhaps Peterborough.
There are preset signs that can be set by RCC’s but Quinton can set free text but they generally don’t write where a road is exactly closed as it can be confusing for some. Sayin "M25 closed between 13 and 14 is easy but on A and B roads, not so. As far as telling you which way to go, we’d never do that as if there is a queue on the road we send you on or roadworks or whatever and you don’t get to your destination, you’ll try and sue us and we don’t need that so sadly you are responsible for the route you take.
I once came down the A11 and got on the A14 Westbound, matrix sign flashed up “M3 J6-J7 LONG DELAYS” is that really the best bit of traffic news they can offer to the folk of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire? A delay in Hampshire. I actually chuckled out loud at that one.