M3 - the new road to hell?
Discussion
mcgandalf said:
Sorry to bump this thread. Am planning to drive up the M3 from J8 for the A303 to London tomorrow for the first time in months. Does anyone know if it is still 40 miles of mind-numbing average speed 50 zone, or have they finished the roadworks?
If the former, I'll take a gigantic diversion via the A31/A3. If the latter, I'll be very surprised.
Highways Agency website says roadworks only between J4-4a, but frankly I'd like a second opinion.
I used the M3 last week (coming back from Ringwood to Reigate), from memory I think the roadworks start at around Fleet Services and went as far as the M25 junction where I left to join the M25.If the former, I'll take a gigantic diversion via the A31/A3. If the latter, I'll be very surprised.
Highways Agency website says roadworks only between J4-4a, but frankly I'd like a second opinion.
I usually use the A31/A3 joining it at Winchester, after last week's journey I'd use the A31, M3 is a mare!
Edit: Fleet services to the M25 jct is approx 15mls
Edited by don'tbesilly on Tuesday 29th December 20:46
Thanks chaps.
I moved from Hants to SE London back in June, just when the powers who be decided to extend the 50 SPECS roadworks from their existing length of J2 to Fleet services all the way past Basingstoke. I thought it was the perfect time to move away. If, from what you suggest, the Fleet-Basingstoke stretch was just for the short-term then that is a minor blessing.
I used to drive M3 from J2-J7 most days - yes I agree it flowed well but good God it was a numbingly dull stretch of tarmac.
I moved from Hants to SE London back in June, just when the powers who be decided to extend the 50 SPECS roadworks from their existing length of J2 to Fleet services all the way past Basingstoke. I thought it was the perfect time to move away. If, from what you suggest, the Fleet-Basingstoke stretch was just for the short-term then that is a minor blessing.
I used to drive M3 from J2-J7 most days - yes I agree it flowed well but good God it was a numbingly dull stretch of tarmac.
W12GT said:
It's so dangerous - really difficult to maintain a high level of concentration at that speed on such big roads.
The statistics don't bear this out, as much as we'd like it to be true. A mate of mine does H&S, with highways responsibility for some of his function. He tells me there have been no fatalities on a 50-average bit of motorway, since the start. None, as in zero. There have been shunts, of course, but nobody has been killed. I was sceptical too but apparently it's true. The closest was the hen night minibus tragedy around/on the M62/A1 junction a year or two ago, I think that was just before the 50 section.I am of course happy to be proved wrong, that since he told me this there has in fact been a fatal accident on a SPECS controlled 50 section. (Original source: SHP magazine, I think, it's the magazine of IOSH)
battered said:
W12GT said:
It's so dangerous - really difficult to maintain a high level of concentration at that speed on such big roads.
The statistics don't bear this out, as much as we'd like it to be true. A mate of mine does H&S, with highways responsibility for some of his function. He tells me there have been no fatalities on a 50-average bit of motorway, since the start. None, as in zero. There have been shunts, of course, but nobody has been killed. I was sceptical too but apparently it's true. The closest was the hen night minibus tragedy around/on the M62/A1 junction a year or two ago, I think that was just before the 50 section.I am of course happy to be proved wrong, that since he told me this there has in fact been a fatal accident on a SPECS controlled 50 section. (Original source: SHP magazine, I think, it's the magazine of IOSH)
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m3-cra...
battered said:
That's interesting, he may have the dubious distinction of being the first. I think it's still true for the endless 50 sections on the M1, or does your Google-fu extend to disproving that assertion also?
Took a few more seconds and not sure if its the section you refer to, or if it was specs, but the article says it occurred in a section undergoing road works for the smart motorway.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2876218/Dr...
Edited by ViperDave on Tuesday 29th December 23:03
well the specs website usees stats for the 12mo before and after march 2006 to show the fatalities reduced to zero, I wonder why they haven't updated them in the 10 years since!
http://www.speedcheck.co.uk/specs.htm#casualty_red...
http://www.speedcheck.co.uk/specs.htm#casualty_red...
mcgandalf said:
Sorry to bump this thread. Am planning to drive up the M3 from J8 for the A303 to London tomorrow for the first time in months. Does anyone know if it is still 40 miles of mind-numbing average speed 50 zone, or have they finished the roadworks?
Probably too late for you - the bridge works / 50mph limit between junctions 5 and 8 finished a few weeks ago.But 3 to 4A will still be there for ages.
ViperDave said:
battered said:
W12GT said:
It's so dangerous - really difficult to maintain a high level of concentration at that speed on such big roads.
The statistics don't bear this out, as much as we'd like it to be true. A mate of mine does H&S, with highways responsibility for some of his function. He tells me there have been no fatalities on a 50-average bit of motorway, since the start. None, as in zero. There have been shunts, of course, but nobody has been killed. I was sceptical too but apparently it's true. The closest was the hen night minibus tragedy around/on the M62/A1 junction a year or two ago, I think that was just before the 50 section.I am of course happy to be proved wrong, that since he told me this there has in fact been a fatal accident on a SPECS controlled 50 section. (Original source: SHP magazine, I think, it's the magazine of IOSH)
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m3-cra...
Also, from the article the fire service took 17 minutes to reach the incident. The article isn't specific on the location but google maps gives a travel time of 7 minutes from Camberley Fire Station to Junction 3 and 15 to Junction 2. As they were't much longer than that, and probably couldn't do much to assist the driver once there I suspect this complaint has more than a little "industrial relations" to it.
Despite all that, any fatality is really unfortunate. It is worth bearing mind though that there were 96 fatalities on 2,173 miles motorways in 2014 oveall (source: http://www.racfoundation.org/motoring-faqs/safety#... There's no data I could find that says how many miles of motorway have roadworks at any one time, but from the 2014 data you would expect 4.5 fatalities per year per 100 miles of motorway, or 2 every three years for this stretch. As they started in Sept 14 only time will tell if the theory is correct for this stretch, but I would say that one fatality in all the years the SPECS controlled 50 sections have been in place rather does prove it.
Gassing Station | Roads | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff