I’ve covered this so many times! Yes you may come across lane closures then find that there is nothing there, especially during the night when roadworks are being put on / taken off, The signals go up as they start to put out their signage etc, they come off when ALL the cones & signage is cleared, we only know when the foreman of the roadworks crew calls us.
During the day, lane closures are only set for a definite reason, they are only set when it’s confirmed they are required by either police / HATO / ISU. They are cleared when the patrol on road tells us to do so, it does however take approx 2 mins for the system to do it, also the HATO / Police may still be a bit busy to get on the radio straight away…
The LAW states that if you go through any signal with either RED flashing lights, RED circle around it, or a RED ‘X’ then it must be obeyed.
Amber lights with signals are advisory, but anyone causing an RTC etc by not complying, leave themselves open to a Dangerous driving offence.
As for red 'X’s and roadworks, I do know that the police around 1 part of our network are keen on booking anyone not complying.
Only the other day, I watched on CCTV as HATO’s cleared a 4 car RTC from lane 2 of the motorway (4 lanes) signals were set on 2 gantries prior (close together) for lanes 1 & 2 closure (Red x’s), with the VMS “LANES 1 & 2 CLOSED” so lanes 3 & 4 were still running, I watched in amazement as a car drove up lane 1, then chicaned through the wrecked cars & HATO’s that were clearing them to the H/S.
It’s only a few weeks ago that someone did similar and took out one of the HATO’s, bouncing him off the car bonnet.
As you say, it is mostly car drivers that ignore the signals, but there are a growing number of professional drivers that will also.
It’s a simple case of mission creep HATO where set up as a cheap complimentary service to the police. I won’t criticise the value of your role but according to your plan you’d be sat at the side of the road deciding people’s guilt rather than you intended role of help the traffic flow better. Surely you can see the problem there.
If the highways agency, or whomever it is that switches those motorway signs on, want drivers to comply with those signs, they’d employ staff competent enough to switch the things off once whatever no longer applies.
How many times have these signs still been flashing up hours, if not DAYS after the event has cleared up?
Bright sunny afternoon and still those things are reporting fog.
Personally I don’t take a lot of notice anymore. If there’s something in the road, break lights will be flashing up all over the place.
I’m not slowing down just so some poorly trained monkey back at the office can sit watching his monitor while having a good laugh.
Mr B:
It’s a simple case of mission creep HATO where set up as a cheap complimentary service to the police. I won’t criticise the value of your role but according to your plan you’d be sat at the side of the road deciding people’s guilt rather than you intended role of help the traffic flow better. Surely you can see the problem there.
Is it, the HA TMD role is to prevent ‘incident’ related congestion, it’s interesting reading the ‘intelligence’ reports on how many times the same truck or company is involved in accidents, breakdown (poor maintenence regime ?) Out of fuel, shed loads etc.
That info is being passed to the relevant peeps for them to look at so the better hauliers don’t keep getting held up where pos,
Anyway talk about mission creep this is thread creep because it has sh@g all to do with red x’s
Whirlwind:
The problem is and always has been…Car drivers are not taught to drive on motorways
Just as many crap lorry drivers on the motorway…
Just imagine a driver(any driver) ignoring the red X and smashing into someone/something, the scream up on here would be huge.
You can’t ignore warning signs just because it suits you.
extrucker:
The signals on M1 J10-6A both directions are being looked into after the issue was raised by ourselves numerous times. The MIDAS settings are wrong causing signs to show speed signals for no reason. Again, we are as much frustrated as you are.
i witnessed an accident caused by those gantrys last year when for no apparent reason, 40 mph with red circle flashed up and a tanker breaked to avoid running the cameras.
a car following the tanker swerved to avoid it and ended up bouncing off the concrete central barrier and finished up on the hard shoulder.
it was totally the car drivers fault and how it didn’t hit anything else was a miracle,but my first thought was, is there a chimp loose in the control room.
i didn’t stop because there were about 20 other cars already pulled up.
p.s. no problem with the 4x4 guys cause i’ve probably shared a h/s with most of them.
extrucker:
I expect professional drivers to set the example for the car drivers as red X’s are sometimes in place to protect road workers as well as the emergency services.
they was a time when going down the m42 heading to the m40 in the night they were red x’s on the only lanes yet they wasnt even anything going on… problem is most the time these signs display wrong info…
extrucker:
I expect professional drivers to set the example for the car drivers as red X’s are sometimes in place to protect road workers as well as the emergency services.
they was a time when going down the m42 heading to the m40 in the night they were red x’s on the only lanes yet they wasnt even anything going on… problem is most the time these signs display wrong info…
The signs defalt is off/blank, signs are NEVER set unless information comes in (apart from electronic midas) , you can’t blame the HA if duff info comes in, motorists, contractors etc send the info in & your lucky to get the right location never mind right motorway
Remember the recent case of the truck into the coach ?, if it’s not confirmed by cctv, ‘reliable source’ ie hato, police, isu or multiple calls it’s unlikely the signs go on
extrucker:
The signals on M1 J10-6A both directions are being looked into after the issue was raised by ourselves numerous times. The MIDAS settings are wrong causing signs to show speed signals for no reason. Again, we are as much frustrated as you are.
i witnessed an accident caused by those gantrys last year when for no apparent reason, 40 mph with red circle flashed up and a tanker breaked to avoid running the cameras.
a car following the tanker swerved to avoid it and ended up bouncing off the concrete central barrier and finished up on the hard shoulder.
it was totally the car drivers fault and how it didn’t hit anything else was a miracle,but my first thought was, is there a chimp loose in the control room.
i didn’t stop because there were about 20 other cars already pulled up.
p.s. no problem with the 4x4 guys cause i’ve probably shared a h/s with most of them.
Sorry but that’s a load of ■■■■■■■■!
You can see the signs from 100’s of yards previous, and they wouldn’t step down right to 40 mph, the system will not let you step down more than 20mph at a time, so there would have been a speed setting previous to that, with a message saying why, even if it’s just “queue”
anyone clapping on is because they’re not paying attention, and anyone running into the back of another vehicle is because they’re too close! nothing what-so-ever to do with the signs.
Give over trying to blame bad driving on something else.
The real Biffo:
i witnessed an accident caused by those gantrys last year when for no apparent reason, 40 mph with red circle flashed up and a tanker breaked to avoid running the cameras.
Do the cameras become active as soon as the speed is displayed or do they give you so many seconds/minutes grace do you know?
extrucker:
I expect professional drivers to set the example for the car drivers as red X’s are sometimes in place to protect road workers as well as the emergency services.
they was a time when going down the m42 heading to the m40 in the night they were red x’s on the only lanes yet they wasnt even anything going on… problem is most the time these signs display wrong info…
But that doesn’t give you the freedom to choose whether to obey them or not, refer to the highway code, half the time at night the roads are empty, but you can’t choose to bomb along at 70.
extrucker:
The signals on M1 J10-6A both directions are being looked into after the issue was raised by ourselves numerous times. The MIDAS settings are wrong causing signs to show speed signals for no reason. Again, we are as much frustrated as you are.
i witnessed an accident caused by those gantrys last year when for no apparent reason, 40 mph with red circle flashed up and a tanker breaked to avoid running the cameras.
a car following the tanker swerved to avoid it and ended up bouncing off the concrete central barrier and finished up on the hard shoulder.
it was totally the car drivers fault and how it didn’t hit anything else was a miracle,but my first thought was, is there a chimp loose in the control room.
i didn’t stop because there were about 20 other cars already pulled up.
p.s. no problem with the 4x4 guys cause i’ve probably shared a h/s with most of them.
Sorry but that’s a load of ■■■■■■■■!
You can see the signs from 100’s of yards previous, and they wouldn’t step down right to 40 mph, the system will not let you step down more than 20mph at a time, so there would have been a speed setting previous to that, with a message saying why, even if it’s just “queue”
anyone clapping on is because they’re not paying attention, and anyone running into the back of another vehicle is because they’re too close! nothing what-so-ever to do with the signs.
Give over trying to blame bad driving on something else.
i’m not blaming anyone,just reporting what i saw.
p.s. this was about 2 weeks after the cameras were installed.
The real Biffo:
i witnessed an accident caused by those gantrys last year when for no apparent reason, 40 mph with red circle flashed up and a tanker breaked to avoid running the cameras.
Do the cameras become active as soon as the speed is displayed or do they give you so many seconds/minutes grace do you know?
AFAIK there is a delay between the signs and the cameras becoming active.
Whirlwind:
The problem is and always has been…Car drivers are not taught to drive on motorways
I don’t think car drivers are taught to drive, there just taught to pass there test.
Should be a test for common sense !
Madguy
That is the same for us, unless you went out on HGV L plates, no one had any idea what to expect on a motorway, and we were only taught a test route with variations
Last week I was driving down the M25 anti-clockwise approaching the A3 junction. I felt like a right ■■■ obeying the variable speed limits 50, 40, 40, WARNING QUEUE AHEAD, 40 END .
It was 4:15 in the morning and the motorway was empty, funny how this happened where at least three of the gantries have scameras.
I saw that too,like you said the cameras,but all the cars were doing over 40 mph,and will get a surprise in the post soon,there was no reason for it.No cow,camel,deer,hen,lamb,horse or dog in the road.
sh@g all to do with red x’s
