For decades motorways have had marker sticks every 100 yards with a unique location identifier on them which the emergency and recovery services have maps of, so why spend £££££££s putting a load of extra ones in that do the exact same job? Typical Labour thinking.
You mean before everyone had mobiles and doesn’t use an ETB to give a specific location ,
There is nothing whatsover unique about the Hundred yard marker (Possibly M6 into the 300 and 400 hundreds) if you are a typical numpty and don’t even know which motorway your on Never mind which c/way or direction
I agree it’s prob a waste of money because most people even stand next to an ETB for hours after ringing recovery on the mobile and giving the wrong Motorway or junctions
speedyguy:
There is nothing whatsover unique about the Hundred yard marker (Possibly M6 into the 300 and 400 hundreds) if you are a typical numpty and don’t even know which motorway your on Never mind which c/way or direction
I agree it’s prob a waste of money because most people even stand next to an ETB for hours after ringing recovery on the mobile and giving the wrong Motorway or junctions
So true. A friend used to live at a house right on M55 (Preston → Blackpool) J3 roundabout. Once had a middle aged couple pull up outside, the guy got out and walked into the garden to speak to my friend. Asked if they were near London yet? They’d come from…
For decades motorways have had marker sticks every 100 yards with a unique location identifier on them which the emergency and recovery services have maps of, so why spend £££££££s putting a load of extra ones in that do the exact same job? Typical Labour thinking.
Try reading the small marker-post when you’re doing 120mph in lane 3 (police) or over 70 mph for other services. That’s why they were put up to be easily read at speed from a different lane than lane 1.
I agree it’s prob a waste of money because most people even stand next to an ETB for hours after ringing recovery on the mobile and giving the wrong Motorway or junctions
Even better than that, the very same night as the incident that primed me to originally post. A MOP called up on the ERT as his recovery couldn’t find him, they’d told him to call on the ERT to find out where he was. (Now remember, the ERT has the marker-post location, A or B for the c/way, and the Motorway on the side of it) I asked him where did he think he was? his reply was “Between J25 & J26 of the M1.” He thought I was kidding when I told him that he was between J18 - J19 on the M6. Anyway I sorted his recovery out for him and he got taken home. This sort of thing does happen all to often.
The real Biffo:
If you do stop, then you can tie it down even further by the small marker-posts previously mentioned by others.
These give the same “numbers” but are every 100 meters (yds for old folk) they don’t however tell you which c/w you are on.
Good post Biffo, just to add to this, the marker posts on the new M6 extension between Carlisle and Gretna now display the motorway and carriageway as well as the number. This is in addition to the new marker boards.
The real Biffo:
If you do stop, then you can tie it down even further by the small marker-posts previously mentioned by others.
These give the same “numbers” but are every 100 meters (yds for old folk) they don’t however tell you which c/w you are on.
Are you sure about that? From what I’ve seen they have different numbers on each side of the carriageway and I imagine that the emergency/recovery services will have a database of them all showing their exact location and whether it’s n/b s/b etc. If they don’t then that would have been a severe oversight by whoever invented them and I can’t imagine anyone being that stupid.
As a rule the marker posts on opposite sides of the carriageway tend to match, unless the carriageway splits, for instance, Tebay, Shap, M62 over the top. The old posts dont have the carriageway identifier on whereas the new posts do.
should be part of driving test LGV if not car
and part of Dcpc
put this in your personal and works phone
HA national number 0121 335 8300 (avoids time wasted with network telling you the cal may be charged with 0845 number)
this number is good for the whole of England
hitch:
should be part of driving test LGV if not car
and part of Dcpc
put this in your personal and works phone
HA national number 0121 335 8300 (avoids time wasted with network telling you the cal may be charged with 0845 number)
this number is good for the whole of England
The 0845 number has changed, it’s now 0300 123 5000. You can now call from mobiles as it’s now classed as a land line so free if you have inclusive minutes.
It says ERF not RAF:
When I’ve phoned the ‘Old Bill’ from the motorway I just give the number on the side of the nearest emergency phone.
That’s some time ago! the motorway phones now come through to us in the HA control rooms, and we can set signals straight away whilst you’re on the phone.
If you phone 999, it goes to the 999 call takers in the police control room that your mobile operator thinks is responsible for that patch of motorway. (In the old days, at one point in our patch, a 10 mile stretch of motorway was covered by 4 different police forces)
Also with the 999 police operators, it’s hit and miss if they understand anything at all about the motorway, we regularly get incidents from some of them like:---- Highway Disruption, M6
We found that sending it back with “Give us a clue!” didn’t get any response, so we now recall the informant ourselves and get the correct information that should have been obtained initially.
It says ERF not RAF:
When I’ve phoned the ‘Old Bill’ from the motorway I just give the number on the side of the nearest emergency phone.
That’s some time ago! for the last 5 years the motorway phones have come through to us in the HA control rooms, and we can set signals straight away whilst you’re on the phone.
If you phone 999, it goes to the 999 call takers in the police control room that your mobile operator thinks is responsible for that patch of motorway. (In the old days, at one point in our patch, a 10 mile stretch of motorway was covered by 4 different police forces)
Also with the 999 police operators, it’s hit and miss if they understand anything at all about the motorway, we regularly get incidents from some of them like:---- Highway Disruption, M6
We found that sending it back with “Give us a clue!” didn’t get any response, so we now recall the informant ourselves and get the correct information that should have been obtained initially.
alamcculloch:
I phoned in an incident once. I was connected to a call centre in Wales had to spend time phoneticaly spelling out place names like Forgandenny and Forteviot.Great fun why cant a 999 call go to some place local?
I think i’m right in thinking that if you use a landline (no 999 landlines by the side of a motorway I know) it will go straight to the local 999 operator and police comtrol room, but a mobile call can go anywhere in the country.
Think it is because the mobile signal will go to the nearest mast and work it’s way to a call centre as my call went to Northamptonshire whereas Kidlington HQ would only be about 3-4 miles as the crow flies if a land-line were used so i think it may be better (if poss) to use the roadside phone
yes chris mc i totally agree adverts re driving should be once again shown on tv esp. telling the stupid idiots what lane to be in when approaching a juction that they will be exiting at. surprising how many idiots hog lane3 to the very last second then shoot across all lanes making the exit with inches to spare. causing all to brake hard .
I was travelling on the M6 a couple of days ago, on the hard shoulder a car was broken down with what I asume to be the driver was trying to flag down traffic for whatever reason, there was one of these signs behind him and I thought I’ll be clever and gave someone a call just to say there is a distressed looking person on the hard shoulder as now know what this sign means, but WHO should I of rang? didn’t seem right dailing 999 for that as at glace nothing seem life threating but he defo wanted some sort of help/assistance, it wasn’t a UK plate on the car btw
ebabes:
I thought I’ll be clever and gave someone a call just to say there is a distressed looking person on the hard shoulder as now know what this sign means, but WHO should I of rang? didn’t seem right dailing 999 for that as at glace nothing seem life threating but he defo wanted some sort of help/assistance
Highways Agency control centre 0121 33 58 300 manned 24/7
papermonkey:
A useful post. I’m sure it will save someones life one day soon. Surely information like this should be on TV commercials??
Then they would have every Tom, ■■■■ & Harry member of the public phoning in every 5 minutes with such as:
a) I’m lost.
b) It’s raining, should i switch on my high intensity rear fog lights?
c) It was raining and I switched on my rear fog lights, how do I switch them off?
e) A big bad lorry driver got mad at me because I was only doing 48mph in lane 2 when there was nothing in lane 1.
,
(avoids time wasted with network telling you the cal may be charged with 0845 number)