Insane speed limits

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Satch

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Last night (or more correctly early this morning) I travelled from Milton Keynes to Surrey via M1/M25, the majority the journey being subject to 50mph limit enforced by average speed cameras through roadworks.

Nobody working of course and not much traffic, so ho hum, cruise control on, music, Zzzzzzz's from Mrs S. who had fallen asleep before we got out the driveway.

So then I get to the M25/M40 interchange. Speed limits on the gantries go progressively 60--->50--->40mph. Damn all traffic.

Next up M4/M25. Same thing but then lanes 1 & 3 are set to 20MPH and the remainder 40MPH. Nobody working, no traffic to speak of but utter chaos.

What are these people on?? :wallbash:
 
What are these people on?? :wallbash:
A power trip?

I'll compare your experience with my trip to France last week. On the A26 twixt St-Quentin and Reims there was a section of the crash barrier in the central reservation that had quite obviously taken a major thump (very recently, judging from the tyre marks) and was badly deformed.

As I commented to others I was travelling with, in the UK there would have been a lane coned off in either direction and a 40mph speed limit imposed, but the French seemed to manage quite well with a reduction from 130kph to 110kph and a dozen or so of the long red and white temporary barriers placed adjacent to the damaged section of crash barrier, but not impeding the traffic flow.
 
A week or so back , as part of my daily commute on the A737 dual carriageway , I passed a broken down car which had managed to coast off the main carriageway and onto an exit road , getting halfway onto the grass at the side of the slip road where he was out of everyone's way .

What made this particularly noticeable was the police car which stopped a short distance behind him - fully blocking the nearside lane of the two lane dual carriageway , so that exiting traffic had to go back out into the path of faster traffic coming up in the outside lane before getting back into the nearside lane to still take the exit anyway !

Had the police car not stopped at all , there would have been less danger and less congestion .
 
Being treated like complete imbeciles/ terrorists etc is a VERY common thing. Research shows that most people will behave the way they are treated. This sometimes becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and these are the minority examples which are continually used to skew attitudes via propaganda.

Of course, the flip side of this could come if/when toll charging is introduced to the UK. Roads do need to be repaired. At a guess, i'd say the best time to carry out such repairs would be when there is the least amount of traffic on the road. I also think the current system of financially penalising drivers for not driving like robots is a very bad thing and that it will change to something more reasonable. Won't be holding my breath though.

Stanford prison experiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I go down the M42 near Birmingham Airport quite regularly and the number of times the Overhead limit signs say 50 or in some cases 30 and the road is clear, and we are talking 9pm at night here, so it isnt about evening out the traffic flow It seems to be that they have an encyclopaedic list of reasons or excuses for reducing the limit viz.

Its drizzling
or Mrs smith is returning from solihull in her austin allegro
ooooh I think they're travelling a bit quick

or Possibly lets turn the cash collecting machine on (SPECS Areas )
and watch the money roll in First one to a £1000 gets a Bonus .

In the case of speed cameras you have to ask yourself if they are about safety why isnt there a single one on the most dangerous road in britain .
Why are there none near any of my local schools and why is the only one near me situated on a clear stretch of road just after a slight hill where if you travel at 30 and dont watch the hill your speed creeps up to 35 on the downhill lip just where the camera is .

My grandfather just had to go on a speed awareness course in place of having three points on his license and was it filled by Dangerous driving youngsters with baseball caps and saxos with 6 inch exhaust pipes , Cutting Thrusting Business men racing to their next appointment in their M3 ,

It was mainly Law abiding middle / elderly aged folk and women who had accidently drifted over the limit .

Remember there is no unequivocal evidence and you cannot prove that any of the current speed cameras has saved even one life or avoided one crash

Enough said
 
A week or so back , as part of my daily commute on the A737 dual carriageway , I passed a broken down car which had managed to coast off the main carriageway and onto an exit road , getting halfway onto the grass at the side of the slip road where he was out of everyone's way .

What made this particularly noticeable was the police car which stopped a short distance behind him - fully blocking the nearside lane of the two lane dual carriageway , so that exiting traffic had to go back out into the path of faster traffic coming up in the outside lane before getting back into the nearside lane to still take the exit anyway !

Had the police car not stopped at all , there would have been less danger and less congestion .

Had exactly this on the A420. A car had broken down, the occupants had managed to push it up and on to the raised grass verge (no mean feat!) out of everyone's way.
The Police decide the safest course of action is to cone off the lane and direct traffic past, alternating east/west. :doh:
Total, utter chaos! Queues stretch back both ways for a good 3/4 mile :wallbash:
 
Last night (or more correctly early this morning) I travelled from Milton Keynes to Surrey via M1/M25, the majority the journey being subject to 50mph limit enforced by average speed cameras through roadworks.

Nobody working of course and not much traffic, so ho hum, cruise control on, music, Zzzzzzz's from Mrs S. who had fallen asleep before we got out the driveway.

So then I get to the M25/M40 interchange. Speed limits on the gantries go progressively 60--->50--->40mph. Damn all traffic.

Next up M4/M25. Same thing but then lanes 1 & 3 are set to 20MPH and the remainder 40MPH. Nobody working, no traffic to speak of but utter chaos.

What are these people on?? :wallbash:

As tjamesbo said, see this on the M42/M6 now all the time, sooooo frustrating. And it's spreading from the M42, up the M6 and down the M40 :(
 
It is all part of the "Controlled Motorway Scheme" project that was rolled out by the last Government, i.e. more central planning nanny knows best stuff. It was/is of course a precursor to road pricing.

This is from the M25 J2/3 consultation document:


"During normal motorway operation, signals on gantries will be blank and
the motorway will operate as a standard motorway.

The variable mandatory speed limits are in operation, the variable
mandatory speed limit signals will be displayed on gantries on the M25
between junction 2 and 3. The signals are capable of displaying one of the
three mandatory settings, 40 mph, 50 mph or 60 mph. The speed selected
will depend upon prevailing traffic conditions and is automatically
calculated from sensors buried in the road surface. It is possible to
manually set mandatory speed limit signals to show a speed below 40mph.


To confirm that the speed limit is mandatory and enforceable, the speed
shown will have a red circle around it signifying that the speed is to be
obeyed as is the case with all other mandatory speed limit signs."


Apparently it is all wonderful:

Case Study - M25 Controlled Motorway

But none of that explains why in periods of virtually no traffic you still end up with enforced variable speed limits wholly inappropriate for the road conditions, some of which must have been manually set.

Edit: Now this really is appalling!

"No attempt has been made to validate the results reported. Users of the guidance are encouraged to assess the robustness of the results presented and the likely transferability of the case study to their own local environment.
"
 
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I drove 2,000km from Essex to Alicante, Spain. Not a single issue with works, other than in the UK. A few 130kp/h zones down to 110kp/h but that was it.

You can do it in 18 hrs just in case you were wondering!;)

Oh and a D10 Biturbo can really fly.
 
My grandfather just had to go on a speed awareness course in place of having three points on his license and was it filled by Dangerous driving youngsters with baseball caps and saxos with 6 inch exhaust pipes , Cutting Thrusting Business men racing to their next appointment in their M3 ,

It was mainly Law abiding middle / elderly aged folk and women who had accidently drifted over the limit .

Remember there is no unequivocal evidence and you cannot prove that any of the current speed cameras has saved even one life or avoided one crash

Enough said

The irony of the speed awareness course is that its only offered to those within a certain limit, of the limit. I got 3 points and a fine for 51 in a 40 (no defence, was distracted by a fright at the cash machine and was hotfooting it to the bank to find out what had happened) what did I learn about speed awareness?

Bugger. All.

For the record, the company responsible for fleecing my bank account a week early, leaving me skint and distressed, reimbursed me. I doubt they would have paid my 60 quid fine though :D
 
This is very frustrating, seems you can't go anywhere anymore without temporary roadworks with 50mph limit sections to the motorway or even worse, those that are now permenantly 50mph average limit.

Cruise control is definately your best friend in these situations....
 
yeah just been to derby from newcastle and there is a stretch just before wetherby of 50 mph average cameras... so cruise control went on... and it's amazing how many vehicles you overtake at 50... while they all rage at you cause they think your speeding!
 
What amazes me is how many overtake me at well over 50 mph on these average speed checks.
 
^ As above, do they know something we dont? I frequently see people bombing past.
 
The irony of the speed awareness course is that its only offered to those within a certain limit, of the limit.

Not really ironic. The logic is that people who have exceeded the limit by a small amount may not have done so if they had realised the increased risk that this represents, for little real gain in terms of progress. It's also about ensuring that they know how to tell what the prevailing speed limit is, so that they have no excuse the next time (if there is a next time).

People caught at speeds substantially in excess of the limit will most likely have been deliberately ignoring it (as opposed to having drifted above it or simply having been unaware of it), and such drivers are still deemed worthy of prosecution. I suppose they could ask to go on a speed awareness course as well, if they were willing to pay for it and thought it might do them some good.
 
^ As above, do they know something we dont? I frequently see people bombing past.

Amazingly this brings me back to my other posts that some people are really too stupid to be allowed to drive. In a recent motoring survey (will see if I can find the link) when people were asked did they know how average speed cameras worked the most common reply was

" The first camera takes a photo and calculates your speed, the second camera does exactly the same and then averages the 2 results" :doh:

So now you know why people bomb past you in 50 mph limits :devil:
 

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