New M25 Specs Cameras

[Tec7]

New Specs cameras have appeared on the side of the anti-clockwise stretch of the M25 between the A12 and M11 junctions in Essex. Does anyone know if they are live yet? There are no signs supporting them, yet my Snooper Evo warns me of their presence.

They don't look like they are connected with roadworks, they look permanent to me...

Regards
Tec7

 

[robert.saunders]

The whole M25 should have SPECS

 

[C240Sport97]

why?

The whole M25 should have SPECS

 

[robert.saunders]

More cars will fit

 

[glojo]

I wonder if they will get a discount if they buy these cameras at......


...........




...........





SPEC Savers



Sorry about that but I had a mad moment

regards
John

 

[Seamster15]

More cars will fit

It's already at a stand still, nose to bum... doubt any more cars will fit!

 

[nigel cross]

Off course they will fit,they just wont be going any where as usual

 

[Silestanix]

The whole M25 should have SPECS

I'd be stupid; especially at late hours when it's empty and some of us want to get home after a late shift.


Tec7; I noticed them also, yesterday when coming back from my mates house; there's also specs cameras down the M11 from the M25 towards London.
It's a tad annoying, no signage, nothing; they've also put them on a long steep-ish decline as well...which if they're gonna be there permantly, shows the authorities intentions of making money, there's been no accidents on that secion of the M11 either.

 

[robert.saunders]

I'd be stupid; especially at late hours when it's empty and some of us want to get home after a late shift.


Tec7; I noticed them also, yesterday when coming back from my mates house; there's also specs cameras down the M11 from the M25 towards London.
It's a tad annoying, no signage, nothing; they've also put them on a long steep-ish decline as well...which if they're gonna be there permantly, shows the authorities intentions of making money, there's been no accidents on that secion of the M11 either.

Relating to the whole M25, an entire ring of SPECS: they don't need to be active 24/7 - just variable like the Heathrow area, with VMS signage indicating their use. Throughput will improve.

And reference the M11, there is major roadworks ongoing on the M11 and a huge upgrade planned (relates to Stansted) - if the SPECS are TASCAR-related, then they're not active yet, and will be when the roadworks get underway - check out projects on the HA website (just do a project search for M11). I noticed the SPECS too when I last went on the M11 - oh my goodness, I actually sped through them

 

[richard]

More cars will fit

Basic physics says that its the gap between the cars that controls how many cars wil fit. I.e more cars will fit on the M25 if they all leave 1" between them.

Also, to maintain traffic flow and prevent tail back before junctions, the speed of the traffic where lanes are closed need to be faster than that before.
- I.e 4 lanes goes to 2, the speed in the 2 lanes needs to be twice that of the speed in the 4 lanes to prevent traffic build up before the restriction. So roadworks should have minimum speed limits and people should drive faster too, none of this SPECs stuff forcing the traffic to slow and guaranteeing a tail back somewhere else on the road (I think this is bernoulli princple from my vague recall of physics A level)

Of course, if someone actually managed to speed up the M25 it would have no overall effect because the bottleneck would just move from the M25 to all the surround roads ..

Richard

 

[Silestanix]

Relating to the whole M25, an entire ring of SPECS: they don't need to be active 24/7 - just variable like the Heathrow area, with VMS signage indicating their use. Throughput will improve.

And reference the M11, there is major roadworks ongoing on the M11 and a huge upgrade planned (relates to Stansted) - if the SPECS are TASCAR-related, then they're not active yet, and will be when the roadworks get underway - check out projects on the HA website (just do a project search for M11). I noticed the SPECS too when I last went on the M11 - oh my goodness, I actually sped through them

Hahaha!!!

Woohoo!

Much appreciated...!

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

Basic physics says that its the gap between the cars that controls how many cars wil fit. I.e more cars will fit on the M25 if they all leave 1" between them.

It's not all about physics; behavioural science has a big part to play too.

Research has shown that the greatest number of cars per hour passes when speeds are reduced from 70 to 50 mph. As Robert suggests, the variable speed limits on the M25 have done much to increase its capacity in the Heathrow area, and safety has also benefitted greatly.

I agree with Robert that variable speed limits should be extended to the whole of the M25. However the contracts to widen the M25 are soon to be placed, and I suppose it would be silly to spend tens of millions on it when everything will need to be ripped out and replaced as part of the widening.

 

[Spin_bowler]

New Specs cameras have appeared on the side of the anti-clockwise stretch of the M25 between the A12 and M11 junctions in Essex. Does anyone know if they are live yet? There are no signs supporting them, yet my Snooper Evo warns me of their presence.

They don't look like they are connected with roadworks, they look permanent to me...

Regards
Tec7

Excuse me for not getting into the capacity/average speed debate

When I drove past them last weekend I they had tiny signs on the actual camera poles themselves saying 'camera not in use.'

 

[robert.saunders]

When I drove past them last weekend I they had tiny signs on the actual camera poles themselves saying 'camera not in use.'

I didn't notice; I was going too fast

 

[television]

Do not forget that these things take forward facing pictures, so do make sure that your hair looks nice and your teeth are in, and that you are not using the phone when they take your picture

 

[glojo]

I must confess to once watching a documentary which featured traffic delays\hold-ups on motorways and the causation, especially when these horrible traffic jams appeared to be for no reason.

The way this was dramatically explained was in a very practical and constructive, easy to understand manner and it all started with a car driver braking severely to avoid a car that had pulled out from the nearside lane to overtake a slower moving vehicle. A fast approaching vehicle braked quite sharply to avoid this car and then the cars behind, saw the brake lights come on and they instinctively braked. This then spread just like we see ripples in a pond and eventually miles behind this event cars were eventually coming to a standstill, all because of this one very minor incident. what was suggested was that if all vehicles could be slowed to an acceptable, uniform speed, then the traffic would flow much quicker? I suppose we could argue that if a car braked at 55mph, then would this ripple effect still happen? I must confess the documentary explained this effect far better than I could ever hope, and what was suggested appeared to be very reasonable.

 

[Tec7]

I'd be stupid; especially at late hours when it's empty and some of us want to get home after a late shift.


Tec7; I noticed them also, yesterday when coming back from my mates house; there's also specs cameras down the M11 from the M25 towards London.
It's a tad annoying, no signage, nothing; they've also put them on a long steep-ish decline as well...which if they're gonna be there permantly, shows the authorities intentions of making money, there's been no accidents on that secion of the M11 either.

It is annoying, especially if they are / are not live, just some clear signage would at least avoid confusion. Of course we all obey the road limits, however, with unmarked specs, there is always the danger that the limit is lower than the national limit, but I guess that would give you a defence in court.

I always wonder, like a model kit, if you have some parts left over at the end, if the builders who put these up had some pieces left over that said "warning, 50MPH specs limit in force", but in the absence of clear instructions, they threw them back in the van, and went off to the pub.

Regards
Tec7

 

[BarryS]

I had a very dangerous experience with the variable speed limits near Heathrow recently - was fairly late evening, light traffic - certainly insufficient to justify the variable limits, but randomly the limit would go down to "50" then next bridge, no reduction, then next bridge "40" etc. Just as I was pulling over to exit for the M4 it went to "30" and I had to brake hard just ahead of a truck I had pulled in front of. I don't know if he saw the limit but he was unhappy to slow down so drastically. I wasn't happy either frrom a safe driving perspective but didn't want a speeding ticket either.

 

[BTB 500]

There's a time delay on camera activation when the limit changes, to stop people getting a ticket if the limit drops just as they're approaching. So you you shouldn't need to stand on the brakes.