M25 tonight, 8 miles of “INCIDENT” signs complete with exclamation mark and 50 mph logo, not forgetting the speed cameras on the overhead gantries flashing away like a disco strobe copping the cars only for it to end with no incident to be seen or even any trace of one and a return to the national speed limit.
Surely there must be some person sitting at a desk somewhere watching the cameras with the authority to turn the bloody signs off?
That’s it, rant over, feel better now, off to find me trailer, thanks all
It really does my head in when driving down the motorway and you see 50 then 50, 40. 60, 50 then national speed limit signs and with nothing in front of you.
i know I haven’t the balls to do it on purpose but to just ignore the signs if I feel there wrong and argue it out in court. I know if ever I did get cought I’d argue it as I’ve always been told to admit to nothing n to get them to prove it and take it from there. I would take my dash cam in with me n show the judge the road n let them explain as to why there always wrong.
Coming over the m62 other day 40 then nothing. No other signs on the next lot of matrix signs
yorkielee:
i know I haven’t the balls to do it on purpose but to just ignore the signs if I feel there wrong and argue it out in court.
From a Yorkshireman - thad loise!! an itl cost thi sum munny anall. forgerrit an jus obey signs. Speed nowt an gi’em nowt that’ll do em an thayl get nowt.
yorkielee:
i know I haven’t the balls to do it on purpose but to just ignore the signs if I feel there wrong and argue it out in court.
From a Yorkshireman - thad loise!! an itl cost thi sum munny anall. forgerrit an jus obey signs. Speed nowt an gi’em nowt that’ll do em an thayl get nowt.
Your probably right as the courts don’t like to lose but it’s a great feeling when they do. I’ve personally won more than I’ve losted but that’s not to say I’m going to drive faster than the signs just to test it out but I would be interested to know if anyone does get cought to take it to court armed with video evidence that the matrix signs are sometimes wrong and up for no reason.
In a magistrate court it’s the court official who is the legally trained one and the magistrates just give out the guilty or not guilty. They don’t have much power to use there discretion and so even if they think it’s wrong they would have to find me guilty. If it was a jury then people could say I’m guilty but put a not guilty forward and so the judge would have to find me not guilty even if I was.
Look up jury nullification. That’s why most stuff goes to magistrates as so not to let the person off.
yorkielee:
It really does my head in when driving down the motorway and you see 50 then 50, 40. 60, 50 then national speed limit signs and with nothing in front of you.
i know I haven’t the balls to do it on purpose but to just ignore the signs if I feel there wrong and argue it out in court. I know if ever I did get cought I’d argue it as I’ve always been told to admit to nothing n to get them to prove it and take it from there. I would take my dash cam in with me n show the judge the road n let them explain as to why there always wrong.
Coming over the m62 other day 40 then nothing. No other signs on the next lot of matrix signs
M1 last night, accident in the roadworks. Some numpty put their car on the side but for about 7 miles past that point there were 50 mph limits and as it turns out the cameras were active too. Saw in the my mirrors a few getting flashed.
This morning on the M1 @ Trowell, 60 / 50 /40 in quick succession, this was on both sides, nothing whatsoever to call an “incident”, but those pesky cameras were having a field day
A Womble will awaken from his slumber soon, or get tired comparing his new phone with his womble colleague, and be here to explain that there are very sound reasons behind creating 30 miles of roadworks in traffic bottle necks, for up to two years, to create ‘smart motorways’ where, despite there being a camera every hundred or so yards, any reported ‘incident’ has to be verified in person by aforementioned wombles, or a police patrol car (remember those?)…
I noticed at night when they close the M25 at junction 29 the speed limit on the matrix signs drops down to 40 then to 20 then back up to 40 as you approach the junction, I’m all for keeping safe but 20 on a motorway seems a bit stupid to me - especially when nothing is happening within the 20 MPH zone.
i find it annoying on the M25 clockwise when you’re coming up to the junction for the M3 and they slow all the lanes down on the first 2 gantries, but then once you get to the junction they put the m25 lanes back to national and the M3 is then still reduced. Why slow everyone down who isn’t turning off for the M3?
Also had it last week around the top of the M25, “HEAVY CONGESTION STAY IN LANE” reduced to 40mph. There was literally myself and two other trucks on the road, around 2:30am. Such a joke, but while they’re raking in money with the smart cameras they won’t sort it out in a rush.
if you feel its wrong pull into the next services and phone highways and ask them to explain why these signs are showing when there is nothing happening,the classic one is allways membury services,one mile before the services a 50 mph saying queue ahead,go past the services and nothing,this has happened many times and is bloody annoying
womble on nightshift…womble bored to tears with his mundane existance…womble plays with gantry signs…wombles in jeeps do as the are instructed as they are paid from the neck down with no initiative whatsoever other than to plob along in the most drawn out h&s shambles.then they report to nightshift womble,and repeat.
I’m afraid to say no one controls physically the smart motorways although they have control rooms to oversee them most likely to intervene when required, the people who control them are the people on the motorway at the time. They use sensors to measure the amount of traffic and the flow along with the cameras and adjust the speeds of the traffic to suit the volume of traffic and slowing traffic, the theory is “slow to flow”, this works to a point except in rush hour as they show speeds that are often unobtainable. At least that is what we were told on a SAC the other day. Whether this is true for sure or not I can’t say but it makes sense that is it done automatically.
simcor:
I’m afraid to say no one controls physically the smart motorways although they have control rooms to oversee them most likely to intervene when required, the people who control them are the people on the motorway at the time. They use sensors to measure the amount of traffic and the flow along with the cameras and adjust the speeds of the traffic to suit the volume of traffic and slowing traffic, the theory is “slow to flow”, this works to a point except in rush hour as they show speeds that are often unobtainable. At least that is what we were told on a SAC the other day. Whether this is true for sure or not I can’t say but it makes sense that is it done automatically.
Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
So at 4 am when nobody is out and about the signs should not be on making it national speed limit or indeed showing national speed limit unless there is a incident. I can assure you this isn’t true as I have seen many times different signs for no apparent reason being shown.
I’m just saying what we were told and that info should be pretty accurate. The systems measure the flow of traffic and also slow moving vehicles or sections if you like and vary the speed accordingly, so in theory yes it can look like the motorway is quiet but further up the volume of traffic means the limit is places, by vehicles slowing down the cause of the trigger of the lower limit has moved on and therefore when you get there it seems like there has been nothing there at all. That’s how it was explained to us via AA Drive Tech who should have up to date info from proper sources. As I say though should being the operative word.
Image courtesy of Highways England Flickr account.
Variable Mandatory Speed Limits are applied to all types of Smart Motorways. A Mandatory Speed Restriction refers to the uses of a red ring speed restriction which is legally enforceable.
Traffic conditions are monitored using vehicle detection equipment installed in or adjacent to the motorway at strategic locations. The vehicle detection equipment is linked to a Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling (MIDAS) system which analyses the data and recognises two differing traffic conditions – Queuing Traffic or Congestion.
Queue Protection and Congestion Monitoring algorithms within the MIDAS system recognise differing traffic conditions and automatically set appropriate signs and mandatory speed restrictions on signals to actively manage traffic conditions. Safety specific intervention is provided by the Queue Protection algorithm which protects the back of queueing traffic and Congestion is managed by introducing reduced speed limits to increase traffic throughput.
