Safe Speed Forums

This is how the trial will be made to look like a success, people will find other routes, and thus magically accidents and congestion will come down.

didnt see any congestion?

maybe its working then

Much as I hate to admit it, this guy does have a point as the whole purpose of this is to prevent people running into the back of a big queue and stopping by slowing them down a bit until the big queue has gone away.

That said, I use the M42 semi regularly in my M40 -> M6 runs and travel through the controlled zone every time I want the toll road or breakfast at the McDonalds at jct4.

Since this system went live, I've noticed more congestion in this stretch not less.

How about, instead of a go slow protest we run a campaign of using this stretch and making it worse simply by dumpng additional cars into it?

Lum,

It’s becoming a well known fact that speed cameras are NOT saving lives, so why have they placed hidden speed cameras on this new section off the M42. By all means have a traffic management system and use it for what it’s supposed to be used for.

They should not be using it to catch motorist who are travelling at safe speeds for the conditions and surrounding. If they want to catch people driving dangerously then they should police the roads not use cameras.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

they have to have some way of enforcing the VSL....

advisory lmits dont seem to help traffic flow as they're generally ignored so people still perpetuate the queue.

no doubt if people were able to ignore the VSL they'd still complain it wasnt working!

Enforce yes, but enforce when it’s necessary.



They’re only ignored because they’ve not been used properly in the past.



When I went through this system last week it wasn’t being use for what we are told it’s for. If they continue using it in this way, I can see what the outcome will be, and it won’t be less accidents or congestion. Just more money in Mr Browns coffers.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

its kind of difficult to prove if it _was_ neccesary or not at the time you were on it tho' isn't it ?

prior experience and here-say don't really help either way.

I was only thinking as I was driving through at the time, I wished I’d had a cini camera with me. I don’t want to get into a heated debate on this as it is a new system, and maybe I will have to eat my words. Going from my first experience the future will be interesting.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Well just travelled down to Oxford this morning, hit the M42 (south bound) Traffic Management System at around 5.30am. Traffic flow was easy (not to much around this time of morning) no gantry signs lit until about a mile from the turn off for the M40. Then low and behold three gantries where activated, I could see the far gantry from the first, information said queue ahead, first gantry dropped down to 60mph (mandatory) second gantry 40mph (mandatory) third gantry Clear sign, not a queue in sight. Allot of the gantries don’t have cameras fitted, but guess which one had the cameras on the back.

Just to catch those tired drivers who's window screens where misted or dirty from the salty spray and just before the end of the system.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

My experience (regular M5/M42/M40 route)

is that congestion is markedly worse between M5 and M40 split.

Its only just occurred to me that this co-incides with the mandatory VSL going live.

I still don't understand how going slower makes you go faster......sounds like something my mum used to say!

Mandatory VSL M42 signs

VSL signs on the M42 and, some gantries gatso cameras covering each lane:
All the money spent and once more they get it wrong, How? Well the illuminated NSL sign is not in the Highway Code. When it is displayed it shows dark background with a white stripe through it.
More unapproved signs just like the "bullseye" mandatory speed limit signs that are cropping up a lot now (on that note any one know of the guy that was on TV central news who is going to court over them?)

so all the tickets issued on the M25 over the last however many years are also illegal ?

Not all legal signs are in the HC, or even in "Know Your Traffic Signs" - you need to consult the Traffic Signs & General Directions manual.

As ed_m says, similar signs have been in use on the M25 for years, so presumably are fully legal.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Yeah - Richard Bentley - friend of mine. His web site is: http://www.rmbconsulting.co.uk

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I have to say I see no evidence that the whole exercise has been anything but a complete failure.

And a waste of taxpayers money, and not to mention how many motorists were fined for speeding whilst it was being installed.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Having driven through the m42 a few times recently after a gap of a few months, I can't say that the VSL has made any difference. I still get stuck in the same queues which are mostly travelling much slower than the displayed limit. I still haven't seen any information on how the HADECS camera system which is used to enforce the limits. There are now a lot of cameras in place behind the gantries. Is anyone able to enlighten me on how they operate?

If the M42 VSL gantries are the same as the ones on the M25 and have the same cameras then they are only allowed one camera per gantery.

I have been looking through the TSRGD and have not seen any VSL speciffic signs, so I assume they must follow the same dimensions as the fixed signs, meaning white on black != NSL.

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Andrew.

M42 VSL Gantries (the one's that have cameras fitted) have three seperate units (one over each lane), I'll try and take a photo later this week.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

which is the same as the M25 gantry cameras as i recall....


50 was actualyl a reasonable limit this morning given the traffic density, still had 3 cars and a van in in L3 in the same distance as my 2 second gap in lane 2