Safe Speed Forums

I heard a rumour that the HADECs (enforcement cameras for the VSL) will be enforcing at VSL+2mph and also the NSL when the variable limits aren't in operation.

If that rumour were true, I should have had a NIP by now.

They're not live yet...

This has been discussed in another thread here, I thought the cameras where now live when the manditory limits where displayed. I've emailed the highways agency to try and find out, I'll post if I get a reply. Also when you look at the Highways agency web page it also mentions ANPR, I’m wondering where these are mounted?

_________________
Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

I was on the M42 the other day. Showed a congestion warning and a 40 limit. Drove down it the whole length of the restriction. No congestion in sight.

_________________
Speed camera policy Kills

The whole this is a white elephant...congestion is worse, enforced limits when the road is clear and 60/50mph signs that are difficult to distinguish apart!

rubbish

A bit of devils advocate here but the whole idea of these bloody things is that they slow down traffic to stop 70mph traffic ploughing into the back of a jam and coming to a screeching halt.

Therefore if the system is working you won't see the jam because it will have cleared just before you get there (assuming you enter the reduced speed limit just as it starts being enforced)

The theory is sound, whether the control centres can actually make it work is a different matter. Every time those signs are flashing 60 and you are stuck in a queue doing 30, the operators have failed.

In orther words, they cock it up every morning and evening.

The reason I don't see a jam is because theres no real traffic but someone hasn't reverted to NSL.

The times when there is traffic there are jams.

I don't believe they will ever work.

You got it in one.
It's already common knowledge that if you see the 40 on the M25, then the traffic is not even moving.

_________________
What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

I can't see how it can possibly work.
You seldom get a situation where a fast traffic stream happens upon a jam, there normally being a fairly steady flow - give or take. For it to work there needs to be a rolling roadblock - ie you slow down, but everyone ahead of you carries on at normal speed. Then, if you've built up enough of a gap, the jam may have had time to dissipate by the time you get there - although the cars which were ahead of you before you slowed down will have caught up with the jam and so will have had to stop. But how do you control that, as it depends on one person slowing down and everyone ahead continuing at normal speed? And this has to be over some distance in order to create an appreciable gap.
And even if you could control it, I still can't see it working because, if the jam was caused by anything more serious than the traffic simply slowing down then it's going to take longer than several minutes to dissipate - which means that the rolling roadblock will have to be over tens of miles to be effective. On the other hand, if the jam was caused by the traffic simply slowing down, then there's a high risk that a rolling roadblock is simply going to create more of the same kind of jam behind it.

_________________
Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

..

_________________
Q. Are you a stupid fascist with limited reading skills or are you just a retard?

..

_________________
Q. Are you a stupid fascist with limited reading skills or are you just a retard?

There are 4 cameras on every gantry, one for each lane (yes, including the hard shoulder)

Not every gantry has a camera in (according to my Origin B2, and verified by wing mirrors)

And the principle is sound. Take the example of something happens to slow down traffic at a single point, say a bit of elephant racing slowing the road down to 50mph.

Eventually the elephants will go away and the people at the front of the queue they caused will start to accelerate. Meanwhile at the back of the 2 mile queue, people are still ploughing into it at 70mph and slowing down at the last minute.

Therefore if the road is operating at full capacity. The 2 mile queue will be replenished at the back as quickly as it is vanishing at the front, this will remain the case until the busy period ends and finally the supply of new cars to top up the queue will dwindle.

So if 1 mile from the back of the queue you bring in a 60 limit, a nice gap will open, and the length of the queue will be reduced before the slowed down cars begin topping it up again. More importantly the rate of topping up will be lower than the rate at which the queue is clearing and eventually you will get all the 50mph traffic out of the system.

So you've turned a 2 mile 50mph queue into a 3 mile 60mph queue, overall this is a higher rate of flow for traffic, plus less slowing down and speeding up has benefits for fuel consumption and pollution and all that guff.

..

_________________
Q. Are you a stupid fascist with limited reading skills or are you just a retard?

Off the top of my head, I think there's about 3 ish at the start of the VSL zone and 3ish at the end if you're going northeast. To be honest I haven't looked for them in great detail

They seem to like doing both sides on the same gantry, so that's 8 x 6 = 48 cameras, but I could easilly have missed some. I'd probably say 80 maximum.

I've not compared coming back the other way since I usually take a different result. Going west through that zone in the evening rush hour is a stupid thing to do. I go down the M1 and through Milton Keynes instead.

I'll try and count them while going North on my way home on Thursday.

_________________
Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

I emailed the Highways agency and got this reply:



Reading that I'd say they are live.

_________________
Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

but not at NSL.

sounds fair to me.

not convinced the VSL+2mph camera rumour is actually enforceable.. is it ?

Well I went down there this morning, seems I underestimated the cameras somewhat.

This first 3 or 4 gantrys upon joining from the M40 all had cameras on. I forget how many because I stopped for a McDonalds at Junction 4.

There was then a gap of a few gantrys and then about 7 more. Some of these were less than 15 seconds apart (my B2 gives me 15 seconds warning, and it sometimes did this before I'd cleared the last camera!) this was at 70mph

At 8 cameras per gantry, I'd estimate there are around 100 of the things, but I did not count throughly.

I counted 48 cameras (12 gantries) from junction 3A-7 (Northbound) and from what I could see it’s the same for the south bound, and on the same gantries. So I’d say 96 cameras in all. There where empty brackets on some gantries, maybe if they want to move them around.

_________________
Useless laws weaken necessary laws.