"Pedestrians in the road" on the motorway, does anyone care?
Discussion
Nigel Worc's said:
It wasn't the same message at all, it was something like "incident", and I'd been passing the signs for miles and miles and miles, on a bright sunny day, on a relatively quiet motorway, I'd given up looking for whatever the "incident" was !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdm883T4VjU
It all comes back to the information about the location of the incident. I'll refer you back about 3 pages to a post by kowalski655. This is on the M6 J32 - J33, if we'd have only got between the junction numbers as the location, we have to set signs for 13½ miles, because kowalaski655 gave the marker-post number, only ONE sign was set just prior to the location so there weren't miles of signs with nothing there.(I checked the log)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdm883T4VjU
kowalski655 said:
Friday night I came upon an accident,didn't see it but was there shortly after as there was no huge jam.
Thanks to this thread I was able to use the blue marker to identify the exact location to the 999 call taker, rather than just"On the M6 northbound, somewhere north of the M55 junction" as I hadn't taken any notice of how far North I was. Irrelevant to the emergency crews I suppose as they could only have come from Preston,but it may have helped the HA,I don't know
Thanks to this thread I was able to use the blue marker to identify the exact location to the 999 call taker, rather than just"On the M6 northbound, somewhere north of the M55 junction" as I hadn't taken any notice of how far North I was. Irrelevant to the emergency crews I suppose as they could only have come from Preston,but it may have helped the HA,I don't know
(sorry, forgot to reply to your PM)I would love to know WTF happened on the M1 in the early hours of this morning.
Wall to wall trucks, my car and a few others in the variable limit area around Luton. No restrictions, then the red circle gantry lit up with 20mph for no apparent reason.
After a few seconds, the 20 signs turned to red crosses on all but lane next to the central reservation, which remained at 20.
Needless to say, much panic braking ensued, with vehicles swapping lanes to avoid collisions.
No further gantries were active.
This is getting bloody dangerous. What's going on?
Wall to wall trucks, my car and a few others in the variable limit area around Luton. No restrictions, then the red circle gantry lit up with 20mph for no apparent reason.
After a few seconds, the 20 signs turned to red crosses on all but lane next to the central reservation, which remained at 20.
Needless to say, much panic braking ensued, with vehicles swapping lanes to avoid collisions.
No further gantries were active.
This is getting bloody dangerous. What's going on?
mybrainhurts said:
I would love to know WTF happened on the M1 in the early hours of this morning.
Wall to wall trucks, my car and a few others in the variable limit area around Luton. No restrictions, then the red circle gantry lit up with 20mph for no apparent reason.
After a few seconds, the 20 signs turned to red crosses on all but lane next to the central reservation, which remained at 20.
Needless to say, much panic braking ensued, with vehicles swapping lanes to avoid collisions.
No further gantries were active.
This is getting bloody dangerous. What's going on?
You'll not see a 20 (and never a red X) without a countdown. You must have missed it. Have you put in a HAIL request?Wall to wall trucks, my car and a few others in the variable limit area around Luton. No restrictions, then the red circle gantry lit up with 20mph for no apparent reason.
After a few seconds, the 20 signs turned to red crosses on all but lane next to the central reservation, which remained at 20.
Needless to say, much panic braking ensued, with vehicles swapping lanes to avoid collisions.
No further gantries were active.
This is getting bloody dangerous. What's going on?
ha_info@highways.gsi.gov.uk
AS for what's going on, it sounds like everyone was driving too close to the vehicle in front, as usual. But motorway driving standards is another thread.
Also, I couldn't find anything in the logs that shows what you saw. STOPs were set for various reasons on the M25 and the M4 this morning (i.e. midnight until 9AM), but not the M1.
Paul O said:
When you see the sign, what do you do? Heightened awareness perhaps? But at what point do you disregard the message as being erroneous?
I always back off for these and drop back from the vehicle in front - very often the gantry signs are a work of fiction, but hitting a pedestrian is my biggest driving nightmare.Richspec said:
CommanderJameson said:
Gafferjim said:
I've once seen live images from the weather station camera, but it goes to the Mac, not to us as it's on a different feed or something ( not into the technical stuff) also they weren't PZT either. I know that there is CCTV at some of the junctions in Cumbria, but it's local authority stuff, and we can't get a feed.
If you put the weather stations in, can you nip down and re-site the one J16-J17, M60. It's too near the river and we do get false settings from it.
Note for readers:If you put the weather stations in, can you nip down and re-site the one J16-J17, M60. It's too near the river and we do get false settings from it.
The "Mac" is the Maintaining Agent Contractor, not a fancy computer. They do verge works, drainage, resurfacing, etc.
Its only when you've actually worked on the road networks (HA and Local) that you stop getting pissed off at 'empty' roadworks etc!
Rich
CommanderJameson said:
mybrainhurts said:
I would love to know WTF happened on the M1 in the early hours of this morning.
Wall to wall trucks, my car and a few others in the variable limit area around Luton. No restrictions, then the red circle gantry lit up with 20mph for no apparent reason.
After a few seconds, the 20 signs turned to red crosses on all but lane next to the central reservation, which remained at 20.
Needless to say, much panic braking ensued, with vehicles swapping lanes to avoid collisions.
No further gantries were active.
This is getting bloody dangerous. What's going on?
You'll not see a 20 (and never a red X) without a countdown. You must have missed it. Wall to wall trucks, my car and a few others in the variable limit area around Luton. No restrictions, then the red circle gantry lit up with 20mph for no apparent reason.
After a few seconds, the 20 signs turned to red crosses on all but lane next to the central reservation, which remained at 20.
Needless to say, much panic braking ensued, with vehicles swapping lanes to avoid collisions.
No further gantries were active.
This is getting bloody dangerous. What's going on?
Must have been a fault, mustn't it?
The Agency visit was fantastic, thanks very much Jim for letting us in for what I expect was a very exclusive opportunity.
I'll do a little write-up of the day later. I think it was a great opportunity for sceptics too as to what the Highways Agency do. The systems they use really are quite extraordinary....
I'll do a little write-up of the day later. I think it was a great opportunity for sceptics too as to what the Highways Agency do. The systems they use really are quite extraordinary....
[quote=Paul O]The Agency visit was fantastic, thanks very much Jim for letting us in for what I expect was a very exclusive opportunity.
I'll do a little write-up of the day later. I think it was a great opportunity for sceptics too as to what the Highways Agency do. The systems they use really are quite extraordinary....[/quote
And a thanks from me Jim for letting us have a view from behind the scenes.
I'll do a little write-up of the day later. I think it was a great opportunity for sceptics too as to what the Highways Agency do. The systems they use really are quite extraordinary....[/quote
And a thanks from me Jim for letting us have a view from behind the scenes.
I'm glad you thought it worthwhile, it's a shame it went on a bit at the beginning, it made it so that there was stuff that I'd have liked to explain better didn't get done, and you never got to see some great CCTV footage that explains just what happens at incidents, including the HGV trvelling the wrong way around the M60. You did however see 3 fairly decent incidents ongoing at the time. ie M602 - overturned car,driver being cut out of the vehicle & road closed. M56, 3 car RTC 1 lane closed. and the one underneath J23,M6 that technically HATO wouldn't attend unless requested by police to assist, but still HA area, so the MAC would need to make repairs if required.
PS. It's the NWPMG (North West Police Motorway Group) that's just won the award for their twitter feed.
this should bring up their twitter if anyone wants to follow it. https://twitter.com/NWmwaypolice
PS. It's the NWPMG (North West Police Motorway Group) that's just won the award for their twitter feed.
this should bring up their twitter if anyone wants to follow it. https://twitter.com/NWmwaypolice
Edited by Gafferjim on Thursday 26th September 15:33
Talking about managed motorways, I always worry about the dangers of people breaking down where there is no hard shoulder to safely stop on. I know there are retreats but what about people who can't make it to them? It seems like an accident waiting to happen.
By the way, one of my favourite matrix sign displays is this one.
By the way, one of my favourite matrix sign displays is this one.
Edited by Blakewater on Thursday 26th September 22:36
Gafferjim said:
I'm glad you thought it worthwhile, it's a shame it went on a bit at the beginning, it made it so that there was stuff that I'd have liked to explain better didn't get done, and you never got to see some great CCTV footage that explains just what happens at incidents, including the HGV trvelling the wrong way around the M60. You did however see 3 fairly decent incidents ongoing at the time. ie M602 - overturned car,driver being cut out of the vehicle & road closed. M56, 3 car RTC 1 lane closed. and the one underneath J23,M6 that technically HATO wouldn't attend unless requested by police to assist, but still HA area, so the MAC would need to make repairs if required.
PS. It's the NWPMG (North West Police Motorway Group) that's just won the award for their twitter feed.
this should bring up their twitter if anyone wants to follow it. https://twitter.com/NWmwaypolice
Bump. PS. It's the NWPMG (North West Police Motorway Group) that's just won the award for their twitter feed.
this should bring up their twitter if anyone wants to follow it. https://twitter.com/NWmwaypolice
Edited by Gafferjim on Thursday 26th September 15:33
Was that you on BBC Radio2 just now?
...beautGassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff