Why 50 through roadworks?
Discussion
Just a bit of idle curiosity; but why do motorway roadworks drop the speed limit to 50mph?
I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
Chicken said:
Just a bit of idle curiosity; but why do motorway roadworks drop the speed limit to 50mph?
I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
It's to help protect the workers. Single carriageway NSL roads don't tend to have significant numbers of people and equipment separated from traffic by nothing more than a line of plastic cones.I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
Moonhawk said:
Chicken said:
Just a bit of idle curiosity; but why do motorway roadworks drop the speed limit to 50mph?
I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
It's to help protect the workers. Single carriageway NSL roads don't tend to have significant numbers of people and equipment separated from traffic by nothing more than a line of plastic cones.I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
I appreciate the sentiment towards the workers, when they actually turn up and do anything, but these speed limits are a pain.
Nigel Worc's said:
Moonhawk said:
Chicken said:
Just a bit of idle curiosity; but why do motorway roadworks drop the speed limit to 50mph?
I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
It's to help protect the workers. Single carriageway NSL roads don't tend to have significant numbers of people and equipment separated from traffic by nothing more than a line of plastic cones.I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
Sump said:
Nigel Worc's said:
Moonhawk said:
Chicken said:
Just a bit of idle curiosity; but why do motorway roadworks drop the speed limit to 50mph?
I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
It's to help protect the workers. Single carriageway NSL roads don't tend to have significant numbers of people and equipment separated from traffic by nothing more than a line of plastic cones.I can understand the need to slow traffic for safety etc, but 50 just seems odd.
You can do 60 on an NSL single carriageway which may have narrower lanes, twistier roads, and blind corners. Yet on a motorway, where everyone is going the same direction, there are no blind or twisty bits, and the lanes are usually wider they drop the speed to 50
As an example, we've just had months and months of 50 mph speed limits, with metal barriers, whilst the central reservation barriers were changed from metal to concrete.
Whilst these works were going on, another crew racked some roadworks on the the end, but who ever picks the numbers decided those would be 40 mph.
Same barriers between the almost non existent workforce and traffic, same lane spacings, but different numbers , all scamera enforced of course.
The metal barriers are capable of fully containg a 20t truck traveling at 40mph when hit at a 20 degree blow. A 45t truck can the be restrained such that it will enter the works area but not "punch through" the barrier.
The speed restrictions and barriers are they to stop the general driving public from wiping out road workers. The alternatively would be total closures to provide a fully sterile working enviroment.
The speed restrictions and barriers are they to stop the general driving public from wiping out road workers. The alternatively would be total closures to provide a fully sterile working enviroment.
OpulentBob said:
It's 40 (max) when the central barrier is removed.
Try working in a lane closure at 3am on a February morning and you'll be glad for the 50s. It's quite an unpleasant place to work without cars and trucks roaring through at silly speeds.
Nope, they've just done a load on the M5, Worcestershire, 50 mph.Try working in a lane closure at 3am on a February morning and you'll be glad for the 50s. It's quite an unpleasant place to work without cars and trucks roaring through at silly speeds.
OpulentBob said:
Try working in a lane closure at 3am on a February morning and you'll be glad for the 50s. It's quite an unpleasant place to work without cars and trucks roaring through at silly speeds.
Having worked on the embankment of a concrete section of the M27 this is more relevant than people would imagine - I would expect workplace noise to play a factor... As someone who works on the (non-motorway) road a lot, without the benefit of lane closures or traffic control, I'm always amazed how stupid most of the drivers are and have great sympathy for anybody who has to work amongst them...
citizensm1th said:
yes shame on anyone daring to slow down a PHer for all of 10 minutes ffs!
It may only be 10mins, but it's 10mins day after day after week after week.It would cause less disruption to people if we threw massive resources at each works area. Triple the staff working on it and have shifts working 24x7 until the road can reopen. Then they all go on to the next job.
(Say you have 3 jobs to do, in 3 weeks, and eacj job takes 30man weeks. You have 30 staff. Instead of putting 10 men on each job for 3 weeks, you should put all 30 on the first job, then the 2nd, then the third. Total man weeks time is the same, but you're only holding people up for 3 road weeks, not 9 road weeks as it would be if all 3 roads were worked on for 3 weeks each in parallel.)
citizensm1th said:
yes shame on anyone daring to slow down a PHer for all of 10 minutes ffs!
To be delayed by 10 minutes you'd have to drive through nearly thirty miles of 50 limit worksThe cost is under 21 seconds per mile of roadworks - makes me wonder why that isn't part of any campaign, hardly seems worth a minute of your time putting people's lives at risk...
mrmr96 said:
citizensm1th said:
yes shame on anyone daring to slow down a PHer for all of 10 minutes ffs!
It may only be 10mins, but it's 10mins day after day after week after week.It would cause less disruption to people if we threw massive resources at each works area. Triple the staff working on it and have shifts working 24x7 until the road can reopen. Then they all go on to the next job.
(Say you have 3 jobs to do, in 3 weeks, and eacj job takes 30man weeks. You have 30 staff. Instead of putting 10 men on each job for 3 weeks, you should put all 30 on the first job, then the 2nd, then the third. Total man weeks time is the same, but you're only holding people up for 3 road weeks, not 9 road weeks as it would be if all 3 roads were worked on for 3 weeks each in parallel.)
It isn't about us, it is about them, what they want etc, and we're dam lucky to have them !
Do you ever drive at night and see what they get up to then, with the temporary ones, closing multiple motorways in the same area ?
Closing major A roads and the motorway through the same area on the same night ? (Different departments mate !)
the_lone_wolf said:
To be delayed by 10 minutes you'd have to drive through nearly thirty miles of 50 limit works
The cost is under 21 seconds per mile of roadworks - makes me wonder why that isn't part of any campaign, hardly seems worth a minute of your time putting people's lives at risk...
Except it isn't when the volume of traffic is high and the faster traffic approaching the lower limit builds up to the point where you're at a standstill.The cost is under 21 seconds per mile of roadworks - makes me wonder why that isn't part of any campaign, hardly seems worth a minute of your time putting people's lives at risk...
Roadworks are so badly planned it's unbelievable. If the work necessitates slowing a major motorway section to 50mph for the duration, then it merits staff and machinery working 24/7 to minimise the disruption.
The speed reduction in itself is wholly justified, however there seems to be no consideration given to mitigating the problems it can cause to traffic flow and the enormous delays that can occur on busier roads.
Jonny_ said:
Except it isn't when the volume of traffic is high and the faster traffic approaching the lower limit builds up to the point where you're at a standstill.
The speed limit makes no difference to the theoretical capacity of the road, it's independent - traffic at a two second spacing will remain at a two second spacing through the limited section, with a smaller distance between vehicles proportional to the change in speed, and then extend this distance again after the higher limit is reinstated. If the volume of traffic is high enough that in reality people are unable to not cause shockwave traffic jams this will happen whether the limit is seventy or fifty...You can quite easily drive at 50 without any delay or any other problems. The problems arise from the monumental bad driving in this country and the fact nobody adheres to speed limits. If everybody drove at 50mph through the works then they'd be out the other side in no time. Instead some drive at 50, trucks tailgate those doing 50, some drive at 58, some drive at 60, Doris in her Micra is scared s
tless of the barriers so constantly brakes, Gordon in his Jag wants to go faster but is stuck behind someone doing 53 so is on the brakes every 60yds, those 5 cars behind see the brake lights and jump on theirs and bingo everything slows down.
tless of the barriers so constantly brakes, Gordon in his Jag wants to go faster but is stuck behind someone doing 53 so is on the brakes every 60yds, those 5 cars behind see the brake lights and jump on theirs and bingo everything slows down.
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