"Pedestrians in the road" on the motorway, does anyone care?

[Gafferjim]

Gafferjim said:

No, I don't go near any jorno's now. I learnt my lesson with that programme "Cutting edge" I was in that, but they cut & shut the tape to suite them, not as it was. Jornos go under the same heading as politicians and estate agents, lying bds!

Just a quick note of this mornings shift, it was a quiet day really, but in our region we had, 7 x RTC's. 8 x Pedestrian jobs, 23 x live lane debris jobs, didn't check how many breakdowns, live lane or not.

Nearly forgot! 1 oncoming vehicle, and 1 bath on fire. Yes a BATH!

Edited by Gafferjim on Friday 15th November 17:22

[CommanderJameson]

Gafferjim said:

Nearly forgot! 1 oncoming vehicle, and 1 bath on fire. Yes a BATH!

Did it have three elderly gentlemen in it, going down a hill?

[Northernchimp]

I used to roll my eyes at 'Workforce in Road' signs at 1am, after years of not seeing anyone anywhere near the road. Until one day I saw a lunatic in a very old, dulled 'high vis' jacket walking down the middle lane of the M25 (despite all lanes being open)for no apparent reason.

I am slightly more cautious these days.

[anonymous-user]

Have a bit of today's fun

Holidaymakers drag cases along M-way http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-2495365...

Reminds me of the mad swedes

[iva cosworth]

I saw what was probably a couple of illegal immigrants on the M20 last week.

They found a staircase to nip off the motorway as I passed.

[anonymous-user]

hora said:

M60 North Manchester I've seen kids running across.

Fast forward a few years and within one junction two died.

Apparently they were taking a shortcut(?) from a estate that overlooks the M60.

Plenty of footbridges/bridges etc- its just chicken? Although the two that died in this case were very (too) young. 7/8 if anyone remembers

The jnc 11-12 M56 job 2007 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1226589/Tw...

After that a massive amount was spent on fencing i recall, i assume some was spent on trying to educate kids to stay off motorways which still goes on

And in last weeks news
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greate...

Still no VMS on that stretch just the old Central wickets with speed restrictions

[AndyNetwork]

Gafferjim said:

Gaz, now that I can agree with. This is due to MIDAS (Motorway_Incident_Detection_and_Automatic_Signalling )
Basically, there are wire loops sunk into the road surface in each lane (on busy motorways, not all) these detact vehicles passing over them (similar to those prior a set of t/lights) they measure the average speed of the vehicles, and if the speed drops below 50mph, then 50's will automatically set and "Queue caution" on the VMS (Variable Message Sign)if the speed reduces even further, they'll go down to 40's.
Note; on some locations where there is a stretch of road with a reduced speed limit anyway, MIDAS will set lower speeds.

The system "looks" at this MIDAS loop approx every 4 minutes, if the average speed of vehicles has increased, then MIDAS will switch off the signs. The problem comes on nights especially, is that there needs to have been a number of vehicles pass over the loops faster to trigger switching them off, if only one or two have passed over, it ignores them. So a slow HGV, Abnormal load, or similar can set MIDAS active, with not enough traffic to trigger them off.

We have 14 motorways in our region, only a % is covered by CCTV, and on nights there can be only 3/4 of us. If the problem is reported to us, we do sort it.

And this is where we need more men and women out on patrol, (Traffic police or HATO, I don't really mind) instead of automated monitoring. Or why not only have automated signs where there is CCTV to monitor that it is working as it should be.

Another question about these signs though - I live in Manchester, and use the M60 regularly, and have otfen seen warnings about delays on motorways which are no where near Manchester (M23 and M18 both spring to mind!) Why? OK, on the M1 I could expect to see these, even perhaps the M6 as these are major trunk routes, but the M60 is a urban motorway to bypass/ringroad Manchester.

[anonymous-user]

AndyNetwork said:

Another question about these signs though - I live in Manchester, and use the M60 regularly, and have otfen seen warnings about delays on motorways which are no where near Manchester (M23 and M18 both spring to mind!) Why? OK, on the M1 I could expect to see these, even perhaps the M6 as these are major trunk routes, but the M60 is a urban motorway to bypass/ringroad Manchester.

Off topic but signs related
The M60 would be better if the commuters kept their asses off it and left it to it's primary purpose as you say bypass/ringroad.
Probably been explained before but if a long duration incident is 150-200 miles away that is 3-4 hours at about 50mph so the signs are set "strategically" to give drivers time to take options.
Northern Part of the M60 covers the E22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_route_E22 Dublin to Russia and is a ferry port connector, also masses of container freight travels from down south and the east to MCR/Liverpool way, hopefully this may change a bit when this http://peelports.com/news/liverpool2-on-schedule-f... opens this year supposedly.
M18 is part of the E13 which covers most of the M1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_route_E13
Not sure about M23 but it is a major route to Gatwick and south coast.
Also thousands of people travel hundreds of miles cross country etc to the south coast and Southhampton for cruises.

As a yokel you'll understand if the M62 east is shut towards yorkshire (which it regularly is)
Strategic signing on the M6 North and South, M56 East and M62 East allows drivers to take other routes ie M65, A628 Woodhead, A57 Snake, A50/500 Stoke and a host of other routes so the impact around closures although bad can be relieved to some extent.

[vikingaero]

Pop over to Calais if you want an eye opener on pedestrians on their motorways. I saw about 3-400 on the motorway verges on one trip going out.

[markmullen]

hora said:

vikingaero said:

Pop over to Calais if you want an eye opener on pedestrians on their motorways. I saw about 3-400 on the motorway verges on one trip going out.

We went to Europe for NY's this year and on a really bleak, raining cold day as we were leaving Calais port we saw lots of French Police transit buses and migrants in various locations across a bleak industrial wasteland legging it, walking and on the dual carriageway etc itself.

Me there, sat in my warm dry car with warm clothes on looking out at them.

You're right, it must be awful seeking asylum from France, with it's temperate climate, fine wine and food and beautiful countryside.

[Lord Pikey]

Driving back into Munich last Saturday afternoon on the A8 just south of the city and there were 3 walkers / backpackers in the central reservation waiting to cross. I cant imagine how the hell they got there in the current traffic but unless the police stopped, i can imagine they were there for hours after waiting for a suitable gap to cross the other half. Its really hard to judge if the car coming towards you is doing 130kmh or 250kmh and they would have to clear 4 lanes.

bks to that.

[Charlie1986]

there was 5 walking down the M25 by jn6 last week in morning rush hour swiftly followed by some Highways guys

[iva cosworth]

Charlie1986 said:

there was 5 walking down the M25 by jn6 last week in morning rush hour swiftly followed by some Highways guys

Hopped off a truck at Clackett Lane.

[Charlie1986]

Yep was just after that. As from jn5 to 7 it was reduced to 40 with the inside lane closed off. Then there was 2 cyclists on the m23 last night aswell

[gtidriver]

Those migrants in Calais try to stop lorries by walking out in to lane one and flagging them down. Late last year they managed to stop a lorry and an Ethiopian teenager ran out into the road and was hit by a car, she was carried quite far up the road and was in a right mess. Dead. Then there's the ones by the port that hang off of lorry axles but slip and pop as the lorry drives over them.