Driving north on the M1 just past Watford Gap a couple of hours ago,an illuminated overhead gantry informed all road users that lane 1 was closed due to an obstruction and that the other 3 lanes had a 40 mph speed restriction in place.And that was it.After a mile or two folk just got back up to speed.what is the point of these things? Do they have an operator?
I hate crap like this. It’s why so many people ignore or even deliberately disobey the signs, because they’ve cried wolf too many times.
Might be that the reason the lane was closed had been attended to,and the matrix was switching off after you had passed each sign.
Bet its a real strain lifting your right boot off the pedal for a few minutes and then having to go through the strain again to get it back down into position again
Not everybody is as perfect as impatient moaning Drivers. 
lolipop:
Might be that the reason the lane was closed had been attended to,and the matrix was switching off after you had passed each sign.
Bet its a real strain lifting your right boot off the pedal for a few minutes and then having to go through the strain again to get it back down into position again
Not everybody is as perfect as impatient moaning Drivers.
Is jumping to conclusions the only exercise you get,lolipop.Read the post again and digest fully what was said.There was no impatience shown by anyone.Everyone respected the info given on the only illuminated sign and continued when it became apparent that it was the only one so illuminated.As referred to by the other poster,incorrect information on these signs promotes a lack of respect for the info provided.It’s not hard work to get it correct with all the technology we have to hand,yet it frequently is incorrect.
The only "impatient and moaning"individual seems to be you.Cheer up,fella.
Yes defo at least a mitigation for why people ignore them so much. If accurate info was shown then there’d be no concern.
And its possible. I remember gantries in Belgium giving accurate information and also managed motorways in Holland actually giving reliable speeds ie if it said 40km/h you’d look at your speedo and you’d be going roughly 40km/h along with the flow of traffic, none of this 40 but you’re actually doing 10mph or less.
On road signs the main road by me is closed a but further down. Really well signposted. As I’m off work with Covid I’ve been able to observe so many just nailing past the signs then watching them a few minutes later coming back up the same way
Twice last week at approximately 03.00 am on the M4 heading east near Chippenham the signs were saying 40 queue ahead !! Obviously there wasn’t a sole about.
I’d say the signals were almost certainly faulty. They are designed such that a driver should never be faced with being required to slow down by more than 20 mph in one hit and should always see an End/National limit sign afterwards. If a 40mph restriction is commanded, the system first of all sets the requested signals and the one before them to 60, then after a minute or so drops the requested signals to 50 and then to 40 but leaves the earlier ones at 60 to provide a “lead-in” to slow traffic. The signals at the end of the restriction are set to “End” (or National Limit). When the restriction is lifted, all the signals are switched to show End/National limit for a couple of minutes before switching off altogether. The issues arise because they are not simple lamps on the ends of long cables, and if the individual control computers out at the roadside lose communication with the network they can and do fail to change aspects when they should. The control room operators will be notified that there’s a problem, and will attempt to recover the situation at their end, but if that doesn’t work it needs a technician to administer some TLC.
Roymondo:
I’d say the signals were almost certainly faulty.
It’s a pity…
That as usual, we’ve ended up with a system that appears to be half-arsed in design and implementation.
yourhavingalarf:
Roymondo:
I’d say the signals were almost certainly faulty.It’s a pity…
That as usual, we’ve ended up with a system that appears to be half-arsed in design and implementation.
Not fit for purpose like the entire road management system in UK. It’s also a problem that nobody complains about things when they come across issues.
If they don’t work , they don’t half seem to flash a lot ( m25 )
There were three options:
The signs were up for a good reasons and it cleared after passing the signs
There was a report of an incident, the signs go up in anticipation of someone attending - so put up with good intent because of a call in.
The signs were faulty.
Gidders:
Driving north on the M1 just past Watford Gap a couple of hours ago,an illuminated overhead gantry informed all road users that lane 1 was closed due to an obstruction and that the other 3 lanes had a 40 mph speed restriction in place.And that was it.After a mile or two folk just got back up to speed.what is the point of these things? Do they have an operator?
One of the reasons you’ll often see apparently pointless Lane 1 closures on Motorways with no hard shoulder (such as the M1 at Watford Gap) is that drivers who wish to emerge from the refuge areas are required to phone in before rejoining the carriageway. If necessary, the operator will put on a lane restriction to assist them. Of course, the driver can’t see the signs from his location, so will simply pull out when it looks safe to do so, even if the closure request has not yet been implemented. It then takes a minute or two for the system to cycle through and clear it down. Meanwhile any number of other drivers will have seen the signs and not noticed anything going on (because it isn’t).
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