Smart motorway question
Discussion
Travelling south on the m1 last night through a smart motorway section (doesn't matter where), and the speed limit is reduced down to 40 before a junction due to a broken down car in lane 1.
The next gantry, past the obstruction, that can be seen in the distance is set to national speed limit. However, traffic joining the motorway (past the obstruction) is also set to national speed limit.
So we now have a situation where all the traffic on the motorway is currently limited to 40mph, while joining traffic is coming down the slip road at 70mph.
Should I a) increase my speed to match that of joining traffic thus breaking the speed limit or b) stick to the speed limit even though I am past the broken down vehicle and now I'm causing the obstruction?
Who said these motorways were Smart?
The next gantry, past the obstruction, that can be seen in the distance is set to national speed limit. However, traffic joining the motorway (past the obstruction) is also set to national speed limit.
So we now have a situation where all the traffic on the motorway is currently limited to 40mph, while joining traffic is coming down the slip road at 70mph.
Should I a) increase my speed to match that of joining traffic thus breaking the speed limit or b) stick to the speed limit even though I am past the broken down vehicle and now I'm causing the obstruction?
Who said these motorways were Smart?
There is no sensible question you can ask about "smart" motorways because in every sense they are a retarded idea.
There are so many ways in which it is possible to point out the stupidity of these things, or how dangerous these things are, or what a stupifying waste of taxpayer's money they are, but there is almost no point. You'd end up with a book larger than the old testament.
The only reason I can even imagine 'smart' motorways being approved is to keep officials at the DoT looking busy and as a tidy way to feed money to thier friends in the motorway works contractors... have you counted the number of overhead gantries now on the M1 south of Milton Keynes? There are so many you could literally hit a golf ball from one to another to another with a 7 iron...
There are so many ways in which it is possible to point out the stupidity of these things, or how dangerous these things are, or what a stupifying waste of taxpayer's money they are, but there is almost no point. You'd end up with a book larger than the old testament.
The only reason I can even imagine 'smart' motorways being approved is to keep officials at the DoT looking busy and as a tidy way to feed money to thier friends in the motorway works contractors... have you counted the number of overhead gantries now on the M1 south of Milton Keynes? There are so many you could literally hit a golf ball from one to another to another with a 7 iron...
donkmeister said:
I've been in the situation where the car in front goes under a gantry set at 40mph, it then changed to 50mph before i went under it.
Does that make his limit 40 or 50?
Presumably there is a delay between the signed limit decreasing and the enforcement starting.
Apparently there's typically a one minute delayDoes that make his limit 40 or 50?
Presumably there is a delay between the signed limit decreasing and the enforcement starting.
BenjiS said:
I know strictly speaking the 40 limit applies until the next gantry tells you otherwise, but in circumstances like this, once I've past the camera mounted on the 40 gantry, I tend to gradually speed up to match the speed displayed by the next gantry. So I'd be doing NSL with the merging traffic from the slip in your example.
BenjyCommon sense aside
In Law ( and thats what counts here)
Your action COULD result in you getting s speeding ticket IF you passed the NSL sign at more than the posted limit prior to it (not saying you did) However i doubt if a van would be parked there
But it is worth noting that a lot of scameras park just outside an NSL sign and get the ones doing over the limit prior to it because in their deluded little minds once you see an NSL sign you can do 60 or 70. The limits finish at the NSL sign and start at the limit shown on the sign. Think of a imaginary line drawn across the road from the sign and that is the dividing line ....not 50yds further on from the 30 mph sign or 100yds bfore the NSL
Sorry if i am teaching anyone to suck eggs here, but from some posts seen on PH it might help one or two driving Gods!!
silverfoxcc said:
In Law ( and thats what counts here)
Your action COULD result in you getting s speeding ticket IF you passed the NSL sign at more than the posted limit prior to it (not saying you did) However i doubt if a van would be parked there
But it is worth noting that a lot of scameras park just outside an NSL sign and get the ones doing over the limit prior to it because in their deluded little minds once you see an NSL sign you can do 60 or 70.
How does the scamera van know what limit was set on the gantry before the NSL when you passed it?Your action COULD result in you getting s speeding ticket IF you passed the NSL sign at more than the posted limit prior to it (not saying you did) However i doubt if a van would be parked there
But it is worth noting that a lot of scameras park just outside an NSL sign and get the ones doing over the limit prior to it because in their deluded little minds once you see an NSL sign you can do 60 or 70.
I am not deluded, I always accelerate to NSL after the preceding gantry. If you can see the road is clear then why would you wait?
Steve Campbell said:
corozin said:
There is no sensible question you can ask about "smart" motorways because in every sense they are a retarded idea.
Interesting. I'm of the opinion they are a good idea. Why are they "retarded" ?I am finding the M25 a bit tricky to handle as a new driver and with the smart motorway speed limits. When I see a speed limit on the gantries I follow it and try to change lanes to the left hand side as other drivers are doing a faster speed than the one displayed. I have the problem of having lorries tailgating me while going at 40 or 50mph. Also sometimes the next gantrie shows the end of the speed limit and sometimes it just doesn’t display anything.
You may find it helpful to relax your position on speed limits a bit.
For example, if it displays 40 and you drive at a safe just in case 38 on the speedo, your real speed will be less than that (say 37) and you will get into the pickle with lorries etc.
If there is any speed enforcement about, it will almost certainly (although not definitely) not kick in until 10%+2 ie 46. So you could drive at a (real) 45 which is 8mph faster in reasonable safety from getting a tciket.
Or even if you increase your speed to low 40s on the speedo, you might be more comfortable with the traffic around you.
Of course over and above all of that is driving at a safe speed for the conditions. I personally am much more interested in the latter than strict observation of speed limits. YMMV.
Bert
For example, if it displays 40 and you drive at a safe just in case 38 on the speedo, your real speed will be less than that (say 37) and you will get into the pickle with lorries etc.
If there is any speed enforcement about, it will almost certainly (although not definitely) not kick in until 10%+2 ie 46. So you could drive at a (real) 45 which is 8mph faster in reasonable safety from getting a tciket.
Or even if you increase your speed to low 40s on the speedo, you might be more comfortable with the traffic around you.
Of course over and above all of that is driving at a safe speed for the conditions. I personally am much more interested in the latter than strict observation of speed limits. YMMV.
Bert
Cooper2 said:
I am finding the M25 a bit tricky to handle as a new driver and with the smart motorway speed limits. When I see a speed limit on the gantries I follow it and try to change lanes to the left hand side as other drivers are doing a faster speed than the one displayed. I have the problem of having lorries tailgating me while going at 40 or 50mph. Also sometimes the next gantrie shows the end of the speed limit and sometimes it just doesn’t display anything.
Cooper2 said:
I am finding the M25 a bit tricky to handle as a new driver and with the smart motorway speed limits. When I see a speed limit on the gantries I follow it and try to change lanes to the left hand side as other drivers are doing a faster speed than the one displayed. I have the problem of having lorries tailgating me while going at 40 or 50mph. Also sometimes the next gantrie shows the end of the speed limit and sometimes it just doesn’t display anything.
I personally ignore the requirement to use the left most lane on a smart motorway when a speed restriction is in place.Smart motorway speed restrictions are put in place to ease traffic congestion and stop the motorway grinding to a halt. If everyone only used the left most lane AND obeyed the speed limit, it would be counterproductive. It would cause more congestion. Its better to spread the congestion over 4 lanes on the M25 than expect it to follow the rules of only using the 'overtaking lanes' to overtake only.
This is the reason that you often (but not always) see instructions to 'stay in lane' when there's heavy congestion and a speed reduction. If the speed limit is set to 50mph, no ones supposed to be overtaking, anyway.
I don't know why this hasn't been clarified by changes in the highway code. If the motorway is 5 lanes wide for example, as some stretches on the M25 are, lane 2 isn't an overtaking lane in reality. nor lane 3. yet they don't want to start talking about changing it to a 'freeway' but they do expect all lanes to be full of traffic at 40 or 50 mph. Its contradictory to what's actually in the HC.
At the end of the day, when on a smart motorway with a speed restriction, drive sensibly and don't speed. Don't weave from lane 1 to lane 4 to overtake a car at roughly the same speed in lane 2 or 3
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