M1 works speed cameras will stay
The M1 through Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire is to get permanent speed cameras to enforce variable limits.
Temporary cameras installed for widening road works between junctions 25 and 28 have proved so effective they will stay, it has been confirmed.
Once the work finishes the stretch will become a “managed motorway” with speed limits changing to suit conditions.
Police said matrix boards would display the chosen limit and these would be enforced by the cameras.
Completion date
Ch Insp Andy Charlton, of Nottinghamshire police, said: "When the project finishes, that stretch of motorway will become a managed stretch of motorway where the cameras will be used to enforce variable speed limits.
“While they are there temporarily at the moment as a time distance section, in the future when the M1 [widening] is finished there will be variable speed limits, up on the matrix boards, and they will have camera support”.
Between May 2008 to October 2009, 5,084 vehicles were recorded as breaking the 50 mph limit, on a stretch used by about 131,000 vehicles daily.
Work began to widen the 14-mile stretch of the motorway in November 2008 and the project is due to finish this autumn - but the highways agency has said it could now be earlier.
I guess it was enevitable the M1 was going to get M42 style cameras, especially once the overhead gantries where in place months ago. Several other sections styled on the M42 will no doubt get them too
chaversdad:
5084 were recorded breaking the speed limit, doesnt say they were prosecuted though
if only a small percentage of those figures are TN Uk members, thats going to be a hell of a lot of rounds of drinks someones buying at the TN xmas doo
Hang on…131.000 use it daily and only…5,084 recorded speeding in a year and a half…sounds like those camera’s have more tea breaks than the road workers
SuperSmiley:
Hang on…131.000 use it daily and only…5,084 recorded speeding in a year and a half…sounds like those camera’s have more tea breaks than the road workers
i have to admit though since day 1 of those roadworks if its in the middle of the night i,ve just gone straight through the full stretch at 56mph, if you notice as well there is only cameras covering lane 2 and 3, so straight through flat out in lane 1 you will have no probs
If it helps traffic flow better (as the variable speed limits have on the M42) then it will be a good thing imo. Friday’s are shocking on that patch of the M1. There are always going to be occasions when the day is shiny and there is not much traffic about yet the limit will be set too low, however overall it’s got to be a positive move.
The motorways are all so busy now that getting the traffic moving and keeping it moving (by lowering the speed limit if necessary) has got to be applauded. Lower speed limits on busy bits of road lessen the domino effect caused by d1ckheads racing up the outside lane at 85mph and slamming on when they encounter slower moving traffic in front.
The authorities should introduce more of these variable speed limits.
Simon71:
If it helps traffic flow better (as the variable speed limits have on the M42) then it will be a good thing imo. Friday’s are shocking on that patch of the M1. There are always going to be occasions when the day is shiny and there is not much traffic about yet the limit will be set too low, however overall it’s got to be a positive move.
The motorways are all so busy now that getting the traffic moving and keeping it moving (by lowering the speed limit if necessary) has got to be applauded. Lower speed limits on busy bits of road lessen the domino effect caused by d1ckheads racing up the outside lane at 85mph and slamming on when they encounter slower moving traffic in front.
The authorities should introduce more of these variable speed limits.
Total bollox.Why not speed up the idiots at the front who are slowing everything down who are acting as mobile roadblocks instead of slowing down the traffic at the back which is catching up those idiots at the front.But why bother using a ‘managed’ motorway anyway as it’s just the government spending millions of pounds of our money to put in more overtaking lanes which they’ll then nick us all for using.
Carryfast:
Total bollox.Why not speed up the idiots at the front who are slowing everything down who are acting as mobile roadblocks
In most cases in situations where say 5 lanes go into 3 - example A42N joing M1N at J23A - then it would require a significant increase in speed to keep things moving at the same pace - like water going through a narrow section where it speed up to keep the same volumes moving - but this significant increase would most likely be more unforgiving when an error by just one driver is made.
As someone who has been driving up and down the M42 almost every day for the last ten years (several times on some days) I can confirm that the introduction of the managed traffic system has improved traffic flows hugely. Of course it may be that the recession has made less traffic, but now everyone has got used to the idea it works really well.
At first it was often possible to sail up the hard shoulder past the jams because many drivers just didn’t believe you could. The big problem was the (usually) car drivers who were so afraid of being flashed that they drove in the middle lane at 10mph under; but they seem to have woken up now and are actually quite rare. (I suspect that the 50mph artics going past them on the inside may have had something to do with that).
When it’s quiet and the overhead says 40mph I find that you can see if the next one, and it says 60mph then you can safely ignore it. Most of the time you can see two or even three gantries ahead so it pays to look.
Carryfast:
Total bollox.Why not speed up the idiots at the front who are slowing everything down who are acting as mobile roadblocks
In most cases in situations where say 5 lanes go into 3 - example A42N joing M1N at J23A - then it would require a significant increase in speed to keep things moving at the same pace - like water going through a narrow section where it speed up to keep the same volumes moving - but this significant increase would most likely be more unforgiving when an error by just one driver is made.
But if they did’nt bother wasting money to build more lanes in some places not others we would’nt get those bottlenecks?.But how does your argument stand in places where there are no lane reductions and what’s the point in wasting millions of pounds to put in more overtaking lanes if the speed limit stays the same or even less?.Why do we need four lanes or more just to travel at 70 mph and sometimes as low 50 mph?.To put it simply traffic in each lane should only be using the lane to the right to travel faster than the traffic in each lane to the left.Therefore more lanes should mean more speed in each lane not less or there’s no point in building them.Just how many overtaking lanes does it take to overtake something travelling at 50 mph in lane 1 if all the lanes are subject to a 70 mph overall limit or even less ? and how can a single blanket limit be applied on all lanes when every lane except lane 1 can/should only be used to travel at a higher speed than each one to the left of it IF we’re using correct lane discipline of course.As it stands we’ve got motorways being designed with 1 running lane and up to 4 overtaking lanes subject to one overall limit which means virtually no speed differential between lanes at all to allow the 3 or 4 overtaking lanes to be used as they should be.
Carryfast:
But how does your argument stand in places where there are no lane reductions
On a busy motorway, many things can cause a little blip in the traffic flow which, in turn, causes each vehicle behind to slow that little bit more until the wave effect gets so far back that it grinds to a halt.
Those blips can be anything from one truck slowly passing another to a vehicle slowing on the carriageway before entering an empty slip road or a vehicle not entering from a slip road at an apropriate speed.
In the truck overtaking another senario that may leave only the third lane free and if those vehicles using it are already doing 70+ and as close as they dare be then how do you add volume to that? - well, it could be done if they follow the water going through a tight space sybdrome as I described before but the increase in potential danger is massively increased!!
There are solutions but they are expensive and not politically good -
Increase for more lanes and use up more green belt or knock down more buildings
Double deck them
I’m sure there are more of the same…
Carryfast:
But how does your argument stand in places where there are no lane reductions
On a busy motorway, many things can cause a little blip in the traffic flow which, in turn, causes each vehicle behind to slow that little bit more until the wave effect gets so far back that it grinds to a halt.
Those blips can be anything from one truck slowly passing another to a vehicle slowing on the carriageway before entering an empty slip road or a vehicle not entering from a slip road at an apropriate speed.
In the truck overtaking another senario that may leave only the third lane free and if those vehicles using it are already doing 70+ and as close as they dare be then how do you add volume to that? - well, it could be done if they follow the water going through a tight space sybdrome as I described before but the increase in potential danger is massively increased!!
For the ripple effect theory to stand you’d need to have a total motorway network full of traffic from one end of the country to the other.It’s no good trying to cure the symptoms of bad motorway driving by imposing a blanket lower speed limit because if that’s taken to it’s logical conclusion you’ll just have to keep lowering the limit to cater for the slowest driver using the road at any one time in any one place in which case it’s possible that we’ll end up having a multi lane road costing billions which is subject to a lower speed limit than a single carriage way A road just like the A25 can often be in places compared to the M25.The question still remains why bother using it and why bother building it in that case?.
Carryfast:
It’s no good trying to cure the symptoms of bad motorway driving by imposing a blanket lower speed limit
Now we get back to the choices I mentioned earlier in another thread…
Lower speed limits to accomodate the worst drivers
OR
Have regular driver assessments and, if necessary, further training and testing for those that need it
Which choice do you want?
Politically, the second choice will be suicide for the Govt in power
Carryfast:
It’s no good trying to cure the symptoms of bad motorway driving by imposing a blanket lower speed limit
Now we get back to the choices I mentioned earlier in another thread…
Lower speed limits to accomodate the worst drivers
OR
Have regular driver assessments and, if necessary, further training and testing for those that need it
Which choice do you want?
Politically, the second choice will be suicide for the Govt in power
At present we’ve got decent drivers losing their licences for being caught driving above those abitrary and often unrealistic limits which make a mockery of the money being spent on motorways designed for running safely at 100 mph + for cars and 60 mph +for trucks so that the worst drivers can carry on grinding that expensive road down to ever lower limits just for political correctness.I’d say that it’s the worst drivers who are in the minority not the reasonable ones.So let’s have the choice and see which way the vote goes.But I think that you’d hear the biggest resistance from the rail transport interests not the worst drivers.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think a lot of the problems on the motorways are caused by the drivers who stick in the middle lane even when the m/way is virtually empty. If they learned to drive correctly and used the lanes as they were intended then there should be no real need for variable speed limits. I do agree it seems stupid to build more lanes to ease traffic flow and then ‘blanket’ lower the speed limits. I don’t think we have a legal minimum limit alongside the legal maximum limit for motorways,but if we did it should get rid of the ‘Sunday afternoon’ drivers. At the same time there should be a higher limit for the new 4th lane in my opinion. It’s about time the m/way police sorted out the middle lane drivers who cause many accidents instead of hounding those who are just above the current limit.
