North manchester motorway network (M62/M60) has a 50 MPH limit at the moment, upgrading to so called smart motorways. The worst bottle neck normally is westbound from the M62 in the morning, but eastbound generally runs a little better but does have it’s moments. But since the 50 MPH limit come in I think it runs better, well at least from the perspective of a truck driver. A lot less stop start traffic and more trundling along at 40 MPH or so. Me thinks the 50 MPH limit stops the knob jockeys in the outside pushing across at the last minute, everyone hits the brakes and you end up with the domino effect and traffic come to a halt.
Not saying it is perfect, just better with the limit imposed, perhaps a 7am to 7pm weekday speed limit?
I know they have overhead speed limits, Birmingham is the one I have the pleasure of using, but that seems to be run by complete and utter idiots on drugs, where they throw a dice to decide on the speed limit, IE a 40 MPH limit on a more or less clear carriageway causing the traffic slam the brakes on, an accident waiting to happen with these clowns in charge.
But the blanket ban in Manchester just seems to work better, not perfect I agree just better, if your a knob jockey in his Range Rover might not agree.
Am sure on your local patch you have motorway bottlenecks, if and when or have slamed a 50 MPH limit on it it might run better.
Are you sure you actually drive?
My experience and opinion of ‘average speed camera enforced 50mph zones’ is this:
Everyone bunched together, FAR too close.
Cars will go at 55mph to get in front of you, pull in then slow down to 35mph.
Car will do 55mph to get next to you, see previous car slowing to 35mph in front of you, so will then slow to 35mph next to you.
Car will drive into another car just because the day ends in a y and cause mayhem, nobody will give an inch because they’ve already lost 45 seconds due to the reduced speeds.
You ease down to 32mph to create a bigger gap between you and mr 35mph guy and 2nd 35mph guy dives in that gap only to be replaced by another 35mph guy next to you.
If ANYTHING were to happen in these places, where everyone is bunched up and going the same speed, instead of getting past, a decent gust of wind, a tyre blow out etc, then there will be carnage.
In my opinion, 50mph average speed areas are THE MOST DANGEROUS stretches of our motorway network
waynedl:
In my opinion, 50mph average speed areas are THE MOST DANGEROUS stretches of our motorway network
+1
tommie1shunt:
Birmingham is the one I have the pleasure of using, but that seems to be run by complete and utter idiots on drugs, where they throw a dice to decide on the speed limit, IE a 40 MPH limit on a more or less clear carriageway causing the traffic slam the brakes on, an accident waiting to happen with these clowns in charge.
The ‘problem’ I have with these managed motorway sections especially on the section between Cannock and Birmingham on the M6, is not just that the speeds keep continually changing from gantry to gantry, but also the fact that most of those gantries have speed cameras attached to them and calibration markings on the motorway. Like very other motorist, I have to keep ‘taking my eye off the ball’ to keep looking up at these gantries, then keep looking down at my speedo all the while, instead of watching what is happening around me on the carriageway.
When the works are done, the westbound stretch towards the Eccles interchange will almost permanently have the hard shoulder open and a 40/50mph in force on weekdays given the weight of traffic, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Things should flow much better anyway because M61 traffic merging will effectively have a lane gain when the hard shoulders open.
Pimpdaddy:
waynedl:
In my opinion, 50mph average speed areas are THE MOST DANGEROUS stretches of our motorway network+1
+2 just look at the number of accidents in the M1 J28-32 roadworks.
in my limited experience the managed motorway thing creates more problems than it solves. Sometimes i think they just put the limits and “incident” messages randomly across the sections of M25 - you can travel 10 miles under “incident” sign and 40mph and see nothing at all. bloody ridiculous
A better idea would be to do away with the junction that links the 580 what ever number it is I can’t remember ,then have 3 Lanes to join the 62 / 602 and 3 to carry on m60 job done.
Pimpdaddy:
waynedl:
In my opinion, 50mph average speed areas are THE MOST DANGEROUS stretches of our motorway network+1
I will always avoid them where feasible even late at night the idiots are still out on the roads
waynedl:
Are you sure you actually drive?My experience and opinion of ‘average speed camera enforced 50mph zones’ is this:
Everyone bunched together, FAR too close.
Cars will go at 55mph to get in front of you, pull in then slow down to 35mph.
Car will do 55mph to get next to you, see previous car slowing to 35mph in front of you, so will then slow to 35mph next to you.
Car will drive into another car just because the day ends in a y and cause mayhem, nobody will give an inch because they’ve already lost 45 seconds due to the reduced speeds.
You ease down to 32mph to create a bigger gap between you and mr 35mph guy and 2nd 35mph guy dives in that gap only to be replaced by another 35mph guy next to you.
If ANYTHING were to happen in these places, where everyone is bunched up and going the same speed, instead of getting past, a decent gust of wind, a tyre blow out etc, then there will be carnage.In my opinion, 50mph average speed areas are THE MOST DANGEROUS stretches of our motorway network
Spot on.
You must live a charmed life if you can get through that M62/M60 stretch without stopping. I go through it a few times a week, usually around 0615-0645, and get at least 3 stops every time. I’ve not noticed any discernible improvement in driving standards either, you still get the tools hopping from one lane to another, without indicating, as soon as they see a gap. As others have pointed out, you can drive along at full whack with relative ease & safety when there’s no restriction, as soon as you’re in the roadwork zone it’s full concentration.
As waynedl says
My issue is also the cars in the 2nd + 3rd lane before the 50mph limit throwing an anchor out of the passenger window when they get to the 50mph limit so they all get dragged into the 1st + 2nd lane (Might also be to do with bad tracking under braking■■? 
). So the lorries/coaches that have to stay in lane 1 are then going 35mph looking over at the now empty lane 3 wishing we were there.