What were the police up to?

[BlueJ]

Coming off the M55 for Blackpool this morning, a policeman was laying a single black cable across the road near the top of the slip road. I thought nothing of it - assumed a second cable would go down and be used to monitor traffic volumes.

Then on my way home at lunchtime there was a police car parked on the M56 J10 roundabout, and there was, again, a single black cable across the top of the slip road just before you join the roundabout.

Any ideas what these cables are for? For traffic monitoring there are normally two cables in succession with a small gap, but in each case this was just a single cable.

Two different forces (Lancashire, Cheshire) doing the same thing on the same day has piqued my curiosity!

[E-bmw]

The ones with 2 cables are for speed monitoring, the ones with a single cable are for traffic density measuring IIRC.

[Hughesie]

Stinger ?

[LosingGrip]

Sounds like a stinger site.

[BlueJ]

You mean they were setting up a stinger to be deployed in the future when required? Motorway exits would make sense.

[MustangGT]

Everything I have seen on TV indicates Stinger is a use on single vehicle and withdraw at any location, otherwise all cars would be 'stung'. Sounds like traffic volume monitoring to me.

[Drawweight]

Is traffic volume monitoring a police issue tho?

I’d have thought it would be council with them laying the cables.

[S100HP]

Sure it was police and not a motorway traffic officer or whatever they're called now?

[ChevronB19]

S100HP said:

Sure it was police and not a motorway traffic officer or whatever they're called now?

Yes, curious - my dad laid traffic counter cables for years (worked for council highways dept) and monitored/downloaded the data. 2 pneumatic tubes, worked on air pressure (this was in the 80’s). Several times threatened by drivers thinking he was trying to catch people speeding.

Data loggers were from the amusingly named ‘Golden River’ company.

[BlueJ]

S100HP said:

Sure it was police and not a motorway traffic officer or whatever they're called now?

100% - marked cars and uniformed police, definitely not the Traffic Officers.

[48k]

A multi-lane entrance to a roundabout at the top of a motorway slip road seems an unlikely place to deploy a stinger from a "chances of success" and a risk perspective.