Police in designated motorway laybys

[seymansey]

Evening all,

Every other week I work an early shift at work, which involves me leaving the house at 5am to go 50 miles up the road to my desk ready for my 6am start.

Nearly everyday I pass a good number those 'police only' laybys on the M4 and a each day a random one gets populated with a traffic car parked up on it. The traffic car nearly always has its sidelights on as if ready to do something, but i've never seen one take off down the layby after the many unsuspecting early morning drivers who zip past them.

Does anyone konw what the police officer is doing in these laybys (apart from catching some sneaky zzzz's probably ). Is it to catch speeding motorists (which i doubt since i never see any equipment being used) or are they there for perhaps rapid response to mway incidents. Interestingly, I've yet to see one parked in these bays in the daytime.

On a side note, 5am jaunts on the motorway are eased significantly with cruise control, I can only dream of what sort of smile is on the face of those of you with distronic

 

[television]

Evening all,

Every other week I work an early shift at work, which involves me leaving the house at 5am to go 50 miles up the road to my desk ready for my 6am start.

Nearly everyday I pass a good number those 'police only' laybys on the M4 and a each day a random one gets populated with a traffic car parked up on it. The traffic car nearly always has its sidelights on as if ready to do something, but i've never seen one take off down the layby after the many unsuspecting early morning drivers who zip past them.

Does anyone konw what the police officer is doing in these laybys (apart from catching some sneaky zzzz's probably ). Is it to catch speeding motorists (which i doubt since i never see any equipment being used) or are they there for perhaps rapid response to mway incidents. Interestingly, I've yet to see one parked in these bays in the daytime.

On a side note, 5am jaunts on the motorway are eased significantly with cruise control, I can only dream of what sort of smile is on the face of those of you with distronic

I think that they are just resting rather than just driving.

I love my distronic it does make life better

 

[ibrar]

They probably just grab your reg. details and send them off to get processed

Then wait for those fines to roll in Mr.Brown

 

[robert.saunders]

Stop on the shoulder and ask them, I'm sure they'll advise you

 

[jadefox]

Stop on the shoulder and ask them, I'm sure they'll advise you

Or they'll arrest you for stopping unnessesarily on a hard shoulder - as that's against the law!

(But I bet they are usually just having a cup of tea or something lol)

 

[jadefox]

I love my distronic it does make life better

What's a distronic?!

 

[portzy]

What's a distronic?!

Intelligent radar assisted cruise control. When set, it knows how close you are, or how close you are getting, to the car in front and if the distance is unsafe from a braking distance point of view it will slow you down until you get back to a distance that is safe.

HTH

Portzy.

 

[Gollom]

Intelligent radar assisted cruise control. When set, it knows how close you are, or how close you are getting, to the car in front and if the distance is unsafe from a braking distance point of view it will slow you down until you get back to a distance that is safe.

HTH

Portzy.

Use mere mortals make do with brains and feet

 

[pammy]

S/he is likely to have a radar gun - hand held which you prob wouldn't see. Try blagging past them at 96mph and see what happens! They might also be using the ANPR and will then follow anything that doesn't come up as it should. They will not,or should not, be sleeping!

What presence they have on the motorway as at the edict of the Chief Constable. During daylight hours they may well have decided that presence elswhere in the area is of more value. In this area the CC, apparently, is keen to increase Police presence on the motorways and I have seen it on the M1 when going to Barnsley, I almost always see one cruising or on the hard shoulder having pulled someone.

Mr P has been spending some time on the A1 recently and the volume of traffic exceeding the speed limits by some significant margin is actually quite scary. It shocked me! Whereas bung a traffic car there and people usually slow down - if they have their eyes open and actually see a dirty great, fully marked Volvo perched on high. Perhaps even more frightening is the number of people that don't see it

 

[Gollom]

S/he is likely to have a radar gun - hand held which you prob wouldn't see. Try blagging past them at 96mph and see what happens! They might also be using the ANPR and will then follow anything that doesn't come up as it should. They will not,or should not, be sleeping!

What presence they have on the motorway as at the edict of the Chief Constable. During daylight hours they may well have decided that presence elswhere in the area is of more value. In this area the CC, apparently, is keen to increase Police presence on the motorways and I have seen it on the M1 when going to Barnsley, I almost always see one cruising or on the hard shoulder having pulled someone.

Mr P has been spending some time on the A1 recently and the volume of traffic exceeding the speed limits by some significant margin is actually quite scary. It shocked me! Whereas bung a traffic car there and people usually slow down - if they have their eyes open and actually see a dirty great, fully marked Volvo perched on high. Perhaps even more frightening is the number of people that don't see it

Loved the idea they used on the M55 for some time - a cardboard mock-up of a police car on the hard shoulder. If I remember it was most effective - wonder why they stopped it? Doubtless infringing some spurious liberty or something!!

 

[jonm]

My guess is that it will invove a large coffee and a McMuffin ;-)

 

[verytalldave]

Isnt a McMuffin illegal in Scotland even between consenting adults?

 

[Natalie]

S/he is likely to have a radar gun - hand held which you prob wouldn't see. Try blagging past them at 96mph and see what happens! They might also be using the ANPR and will then follow anything that doesn't come up as it should. They will not,or should not, be sleeping!

What presence they have on the motorway as at the edict of the Chief Constable. During daylight hours they may well have decided that presence elswhere in the area is of more value. In this area the CC, apparently, is keen to increase Police presence on the motorways and I have seen it on the M1 when going to Barnsley, I almost always see one cruising or on the hard shoulder having pulled someone.

Mr P has been spending some time on the A1 recently and the volume of traffic exceeding the speed limits by some significant margin is actually quite scary. It shocked me! Whereas bung a traffic car there and people usually slow down - if they have their eyes open and actually see a dirty great, fully marked Volvo perched on high. Perhaps even more frightening is the number of people that don't see it

Hey! I am so glad we have an insider!

 

[Deleted member 6183]

At least they aren't down at the seaside on the fairground rides!

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

S/he is likely to have a radar gun - hand held which you prob wouldn't see. Try blagging past them at 96mph and see what happens! They might also be using the ANPR and will then follow anything that doesn't come up as it should. They will not,or should not, be sleeping!

When these laybys were originally installed the Plod cars had VASCAR installed. The elevated position allowed Plod to time cars accurately over a pre-measured distance between two marks and VASCAR would work out the speed. Sometimes you still see round white spots on the road that were (and maybe still are) used for speed measurement.

I wonder if VASCAR is still in use?

 

[jeremytaylor]

On a side note, 5am jaunts on the motorway are eased significantly with cruise control,

Drove to Switzerland and back last week. Cruise Control on for approx 75% of the journey. Very relaxing. Cruised at a constant 85mph, with only 1 minor accident each way (not me ) slightly delaying progress (we're talking minutes). No road works at all.

It was very very depressing returning to England with our overcrowded, pot-holed motorways

 

[pammy]

I wonder if VASCAR is still in use?

Very much so One of my bloke's fave toys

 

[glojo]

Very much so One of my bloke's fave toys

Pammy, Pammy, Pammy,
I keep telling you that Traffic blokes are weird.

Regards
John

 

[pammy]

Pammy, Pammy, Pammy,
I keep telling you that Traffic blokes are weird.

Regards
John

I did say "one of"

 

[mark.t]

they tried the cardboard police vehicle maneuver the other way round, real traffic car and installed plastic traffic cop sitting in it ......but then they realised they've been doing that since traffic was first introduced