Don’t usually have anything to moan about my job, but what is it with Matrix signs. Been on UK work this week, a few times I have been led a merry dance by our HATO friends. Why do they have the signs indicating an " incident" with signs reducing speed to 50, 40 30. Everybody slows down, creating a tailback, then hey ho, nothing ,it all speeds up past the invisible"incident". Again ,same with sign indicating slow lane blocked, red arrow showing get over, the red X over the slow lane. Again massive tailback and delays. Then all GO,nothing to see, everybody drifts back into slow lane and carry on. I await incoming from undercover HATO members.
I think it will boil down to the old garbage in, garbage out saying.
HATO get given duff info, gets fed back as bad info to the drivers, never ending loop
I’d be more concerned by calling a lane a ‘slow’ lane 
Ok anorak , lane one. Regarding duff info, there are plenty of cameras and mobile HATO about. Why rely on second hand info from drivers.
teacher in class at school says to the kids…today were going to find out what your dads work at…1st kids dad ,plumber,2nd kids dad,driver,3rd kid,plasterer,and then its johhnys turn, please miss,my dads a lapdancer in a gay bar,and if the moneys right,he does the bizzo in the toilets with the punter…shaken and agahst,the teacher takes him out to the corridor saying,now johnny,are you telling the truth■■?..he replies,ffs,no,he works for the highways agency,but i couldnt be telling you that in front of the whole school !!!
This issue has been gone over and over on here many times. Signals could be turned off just after you went past them. Signals could have been left on because control room is understaffed and the signals are in a queue to be dealt with. Signals could be set waiting for roadworks to be set up. At night, there could be numerous roadworks going on in a region. With one set of roadworks taking up to 5-6 signals, this takes time and there could be 20-30 roadworks requiring signals. The contractor will call in and request signals, knowing he is in a queue, so signals get set but the traffic management crews sat at side of road, have to wait for traffic count to be low enough to start setting up works. It could be a member of public has called in incorrect location. It could be new member of staff in control room set signals at wrong location. Or it could be incompetence??
We have some very good operators in our control room and not so good. Just like officers on road, just like truck drivers, just like any profession. Good and not so good. Hope this answers your concerns.
OK, I know how this story starts, then I make some assumptions.
I see a car facing the wrong way in lane 3, driver outside the car next to armco, passenger still in car. I am in lane 1, and can’t stop in time. I drive to next blue sign (the ones that say something like M5B 173.5). I then ring HATO control room and report it. So far that’s what I know.
I assume they look at cameras and confirm, then set the signs. If no camera available, I assume they STILL set the signs because information has been given that there is risk to life.
If you had your way, no sign would be set until a womble had been despatched to confirm - I then wonder about the resultant furore when some ■■■■■■■■ drives into said car in the meantime and kills the trapped passenger and the driver who is stood in the central reservation trying to warn traffic.
Which scenario would you prefer?
extrucker:
We have some very good operators in our control room
Pray, tell, which roads do these “very good operators” oversee please? They certainly don’t cover any of the roads I drive on. 
And now I’ll make one up.
The car is facing the right way, with driver still in it. I report it as before. The signs are set.
Unknown to me (because I have passed the scene), the driver manages to move his car off the central reservation. You go past moaning about “bloody HATO idiots! There’s nothing there!”
Who is right there then?
extrucker:
This issue has been gone over and over on here many times. Signals could be turned off just after you went past them. Signals could have been left on because control room is understaffed and the signals are in a queue to be dealt with. Signals could be set waiting for roadworks to be set up. At night, there could be numerous roadworks going on in a region. With one set of roadworks taking up to 5-6 signals, this takes time and there could be 20-30 roadworks requiring signals. The contractor will call in and request signals, knowing he is in a queue, so signals get set but the traffic management crews sat at side of road, have to wait for traffic count to be low enough to start setting up works. It could be a member of public has called in incorrect location. It could be new member of staff in control room set signals at wrong location. Or it could be incompetence??
We have some very good operators in our control room and not so good. Just like officers on road, just like truck drivers, just like any profession. Good and not so good. Hope this answers your concerns.
So all the countrys Matrixs are run from one location, relying on a queuing system from a HQ to confirm and sanction the overhaeds to be switched on!!. Sorry if im being thick and if the subjects been covered before.
Not being thick Mopar, there’s a lot of posts on here. There are 7 regions in England which control signals for incidents in that region, then there is a national control room who set strategic signals like telling you on the M6 that the M25 is closed. Sometimes these are useful, so you can go M40 and anti clockwise instead of your original route of M1 and going clockwise and some are useless. On M1 Southbound at J10, there was a sign saying M5 closed at J21. You would not change your route on the M1. Perhaps that sign needed to be on M25 J16 because then you might go A303 instead of M4. The national control room also set message signs like don’t drink and drive. Some think these are a waste of time. I’m not sure either way. They also set signs for events which I think can be useful. It might be handy to know the grand prix is on for people who don’t know and are going North one weekend and returning the next weekend??
Yeah realise the road closure 200 miles away are a bit out. Its the " local" live warnings that need looking at.
I can give you 2 that happened this very week.
LGV’s driver calls 999 and says I’ve had a blow out and I’m just past ■■■/x Mx, the tyre is still on the truck. Police tell us he has had a blow out but DONT tell us the exact location he gave them nor that his tyre is still on the truck.
The RCC then set signs on the information given to protect all drivers to prevent them running into the tyre (that isn’t there). To all passing motorists, wombles setting signs for 9 miles for a truck behind all the set signs. “A” truck, and I highlight “A” as there could be several not seen on cctv is visible but as we get so many stopping for tacho breaks, we cannot confirm or deny it’s the one. We arrive, yes it’s the one and cancel all the signs.
Second job, police tell us of bikes in the road someone between x and X. Then another report comes in from a car driver who has no idea what the HUGE blue marker posts are for saying it’s actually the 2 junctions BEFORE the location we were given so over twice the distance of signs are set unnecessarilly. I had bikes off a car once, it damaged 14 cars so signs NEED to set to prevent damage or worse. In the mean time, the Police have arrived and dealt but since they don’t care about you or the signs, they don’t tell us, until we pass on the other side, confirm the bikes are cleared and the signs are turned off.
I would absolutely love some high up whingers on here (not you Mopar) to come out with us and hear exactly what goes on, expel the myth we’re all untrained unmotivated monkeys and appreciate that what we do is for all of you.
Big Jase:
and appreciate that what we do is for all of you.
That may be the case with you but unfortunately some of your colleagues who post here don’t give your statement any credibility.
To be fair to BJ (who gets a lot of flack on here but is a crucial member) I was coming south on the A42 / M42 Friday and the matrix signs where showing congestion/long delays M6 J7 - J6, if I was pedantic they should say J6 -J7 but this was vital information for me heading to Wednesbury and seeing everyone going for the A5 I cracked on down the M42 to M5 etc, apart from a bit of heavy traffic to the M40 this proved the correct decision, especially as I was 43 ton + and the last thing I want is to go on an A road and make things worse for every one else. . Now don’t get me wrong if theres been a major incident on the M6 and someone is seriously injured any delay to my journey is insiginificant to say the least, we need to grasp this fact as safety is the primary concern, yes ■■■■ ups happen but bollox to it we have chosen our profession and have to accept that sometimes matrix signs maybe slightly behind reality (not through any fault of the HA), but we can’t ignore them as the risk is too great.
I would much rather look silly in the middle lane going steady obeying a matrix sign than sitting in a lane thats warning of closure and ploughing into the womblets. 
So they do work but there has to be an allowance for human error, especially as one of the signs on the M42 went a bit rogue and informed me that the M25 was busy betweeen J5 & J31 which would no doubt have cleared by the time I got there if I was going in that direction.
Just maybe the HA could issue certain trusted haulage companies with a simple 3 -4 digital number so their drivers could help out now and again (hands free of course), and inform them of errors or problems.
The matrix sign system is only as good as the information given / acted upon.
I couldn’t agree more, there is a human element here, we have a near miss system where if the RCC set the wrong signs, we fill it out and it gets investigated. If the op needs training, they get it but all RCC staff are heavily observed if that’s the right phrase as everything has to be done right and they’re in the doodoo if they get it wrong, as are we on road.
You can always call HAIL (now the CCC, customer contact centre) and they will pass your comments into the relevant RCC to address. Trust me, at the start of a transmision we hear “we’ve had a call from HAIL of a road sign blown over” and such like so it does happen. Most people drive past stuff and either don’t notice it or just don’t give a stuff about anyone else so will tell no one.
So yesterday I am approaching the slip for the Dartford tolls, a overhead sign tells me there is congestion from J3 to J31…so I stayed on the A2 as my intention was to come off at the next junction and go via the roundabout, instead I look at the bridge that goes over the A2 to see it is empty, so I eventually take the original slip road, and it was clear of traffic all the way to the tolls, what it didn’t tell me however was the fact that my turning after the tunnel was the A13, and traffic was queuing from the slip and onto the roundabout where it took me an hour and a half to turn right onto the A13, nothing had happened, except volume of traffic and everyone blocking every junction which is controlled by lights, all of the lights were working as far as I could tell, and I had 3 sets to negotiate, it was an absolute nightmare, what would have made things easier is to paint a yellow box on every junction to stop idiots from blocking them.