Who is in charge of the information for the signs that are above motorways and the small speed ones that are inbetween the central reservation crash barriers?..a phone number would also be appreciated.
The reason I ask is because everyday (Mon-Fri) I drive from Reading in Berkshire to Thetford in Norfolk. However, when I rejoin the M4 on the way back to Reading, there’s those matrix speed signs and they read 60, 50, 40, 40 40, end…nothing wrong there you may think?..problem is, they’ve been saying that for two weeks now! Also, sometimes on the M4 on my way to Thetford, I notice the overhead signs keep saying “50: Animals on Road-Slow” when in fact there are no animals around!
it’s starting to really annoy me as you start to get little miss “Im about to die of old age so I drive a Micra” sat in the middle lane when she suddenly slams her brakes on to match the new speed limit and the boy racer behind her cuts me up to avoid slamming into the back of her!
Adam_Mc:
Who is in charge of the information for the signs that are above motorways and the small speed ones that are inbetween the central reservation crash barriers?..a phone number would also be appreciated.
The reason I ask is because everyday (Mon-Fri) I drive from Reading in Berkshire to Thetford in Norfolk. However, when I rejoin the M4 on the way back to Reading, there’s those matrix speed signs and they read 60, 50, 40, 40 40, end…nothing wrong there you may think?..problem is, they’ve been saying that for two weeks now! Also, sometimes on the M4 on my way to Thetford, I notice the overhead signs keep saying “50: Animals on Road-Slow” when in fact there are no animals around!
it’s starting to really annoy me as you start to get little miss “Im about to die of old age so I drive a Micra” sat in the middle lane when she suddenly slams her brakes on to match the new speed limit and the boy racer behind her cuts me up to avoid slamming into the back of her!
FOR MATRIX SIGN IN MIDDLE OF CARRIAGEWAY
You need to pull over mate, cross the carriageway carefully knock 3 times on the matrx sign and 3 little green men will peer their heads from inside the matrix sign looking a little sleepy 
they have habit of falling asleep on the job for long periods of time. So wake them up mate and the sign will be turned off
FOR THE GANTRY
Repeat steps for signs in middle of the road but you need to climb the ladder instead then knock on the sign 
well 2 weeks is a long time, so I shall presume they’re dead!..anyone know the number to get the slackers replaced? 
Highways Agency 01213 358300
Highways Agency 08457504030
But dont expect too much as 1 orifice dont know what the other is doing and then it has to go to the road safty manager and then to his boss and by then your well past it…
Had similar thing onm the m42 for weeks so I rung them and e-mailed most weeks
what happened
NOT A FLIPPIN LOT
I don’t take a blind bit of notice, other than heightened awareness. I certainly don’t comply with whatever instruction they are giving. They are advisory only and as far as I’m concerned they are all giving false outdated information. The fat controller in central command puts a fog warning sign up at 4am and leaves it there all day. The fact the sun has been shinning through since 8.30am makes no difference, the warning is still there at 3pm. I can’t think of a time they have ever given real time info.
Typical paper shufflers negligence/incompetence.
Signs are a constant source of frustration for us working on the m/way.Even in the brand new widening scheme,the signs show ‘40 QUEUE AHEAD’ for no reason what so ever.These are triggered by a hgv joining at J9 northbound and building speed up the hill.
Its very dangerous for us because the more signs that are showing for no reason,the more the genuine signs will be ignored,as already mentioned.
What i need to do is get a contract with Highways,earn a lot of money by not repairing anything and then retire.
It seems to work for all the other contractors the HA hire.
Blanket '50’s are set when a caller reports an incident,debris or a rtc etc,but the location is not comfirmed,so a blanket speed is set until location is confirmed.
The majority of time,debris,unless very large,has usually been hit and smashed to bits.
Please complain to HAIL 08457 50 40 30 about signs,perhaps if more people complained they might actually get them fixed.
extrucker:
Please complain to HAIL 08457 50 40 30 about signs,perhaps if more people complained they might actually get them fixed.
or from your mobile call 01213358300 its the same people that answer so i’m told, and the call will be included in your monthly mins ir your pay monthly.
pecjam23:
or from your mobile call 01213358300 its the same people that answer so i’m told, and the call will be included in your monthly mins ir your pay monthly.
Exactly, that’s just why i cited this no. above.
Are they thinking of putting some form of active traffic management thingy like on the M42 and are just testing what sort of notice the drivers take ■■? Oh by the way my wife says I am a bit of an animal but I not been down on the M4 for ages 
I noticed the signs on th M4 this week that said “50 Animals in Road”. Never saw one so how somebody managed to count 50 of them was a bit surprising.
The signs on the motorways are operated and owned by a whole bunch of folks.
The National traffic control centre have strategic signs - VMS - the big ones - for letting people know all the motorway closures accross the entire network - ( or thats the theory )
Most of the VMS about 3 out of four are jointly owned by the police and highways agency and both can set warnings on the signs, that works fairly well in some areas like the midlands, where both the highways and the police are in the same control rooms, not so well in areas like Notts, leicstershire and the south east where there at seperate control centres because of the force area’s.
Thye speed signs on the motorway can be operated by the control centres, but are also operated by a system called midas which tracks the traffic flow over loops in the road. If you have a big slow load or a crane or something, move over the loops it automatically triggers speeds from it to three signs back, hopefully helping people avoiding slamming on the brakes at the back of a queue of traffic.
As with all technology, connection to the signs often fails and then the operators cannot reset them from the control centres, its down to trip faults in those boxes you can see on the side of the motorway, which are repaired by contractors. So signs can be up for a day or more before they can be seen to.
As for the signs, it is easy to ignore them, but i tend to think of “the what if ?” they are correct so i do ease back. I especially stick to the signs on the M25 and M42 as they are backed by camera’s and are not advisorys as they have the red ring round them to say they are statutory speed limits, they are also backed by digital speed cameras and computers that can have you upto 12 points in a 5 miles stretch of motorway !! and those cameras being digital can record a 100,000 vehicles ( each ) quite easily in a day.
Stay safe chaps !!
I think it’d be a good idea to not operate any of the speed signs for a week to see what happens to the roads. They should still keep the ones saying “M25 J16-18 Queue Caution” so drivers can make up their own mind…but I think that no advisory speeds or speed restrictions should be displayed at all just to see what happens.
What a load of rubbish! If you think i’m going to go out in live lane without speed limits set, you’re barking! 
The Highway Man:
What a load of rubbish! If you think i’m going to go out in live lane without speed limits set, you’re barking!
You already do since most drivers ignore them anyway as they’re wrong 90 percent of the time!
Thye speed signs on the motorway can be operated by the control centres, but are also operated by a system called midas which tracks the traffic flow over loops in the road. If you have a big slow load or a crane or something, move over the loops it automatically triggers speeds from it to three signs back, hopefully helping people avoiding slamming on the brakes at the back of a queue of traffic.
This is what I understand them to be doing most of the time. This or either directly fiddled with by people looking at the camera’s. Due to the nature of most peoples hopeless driving habits, stoppages in traffic can form for no other reason than people driving too close together. A few people slam on because they have been unable to read the road correctly, and 4 miles back, the entire motorway comes to a standstill. Called phantom traffic jams, and running on some sort of “if a tree falls in the woods” theory.
There has been an obsession it seems over recent years in making traffic flow into a science, tracking and monitoring so called “phantom traffic jams” all by people with qualifications who sit in an office.
Basically trying to be too clever in my view, and just irritating us all in the process. You are never going to be able to change driving habits of 90% of road users, because all British drivers know best 
. There are too many cars on the road, so if this government would start spending money on increasing road capacity rather than ■■■■■■■ it up the wall on signage we might start to see some improvements. Of course, this government has no money, so this would invariably involve taxing the arse off us all further, thus I wouldn’t vote for it.
Adam_Mc:
You already do since most drivers ignore them anyway as they’re wrong 90 percent of the time!
It’s unusual for the signs to be wrong in my region as we have a very professional bunch of lads and lasses manning the signals desk.
The Highway Man:
Adam_Mc:
You already do since most drivers ignore them anyway as they’re wrong 90 percent of the time!
It’s unusual for the signs to be wrong in my region as we have a very professional bunch of lads and lasses manning the signals desk.
What region are you in then? My route at the moment is J11 M4 to the M25, then Clockwise round the M25 to J27 M11. Then north up the M11 to J9. Then A11, A14 and A11 again…that’s a lot of speed signs in several different regions and none of them are ever correct.
