Flashed on smart motorway, doing under the limit

[mcg_]

Driving along the M1 tonight in the wonderful smart motorway. Sat at 50 for miles because of there were 'reports of obstruction in the road' (something along those lines).

Obviously no obstructions.

Anyway, what ever, good for the mpg I suppose. Going to a wedding receptions I wasn't bothered about so no rush.

I'm about say 100m from a gantry, speed limit displayed goes from 50 roundel to nation speed limit roundel. Finally, so put my foot down a bit. Probably pass under the gantry seconds after the change at about 60 and get flashed!! 99.9% sure I was going over 70.

Be interesting to see if I get a ticket through.

Anyone know if there's any weird law / bad technology that mean there's a reason I got flashed?

[TooMany2cvs]

mcg_ said:

Driving along the M1 tonight in the wonderful smart motorway. Sat at 50 for miles because of there were 'reports of obstruction in the road' (something along those lines).

Obviously no obstructions.

There y'go. It did its job, and enabled the wombles to get the obstruction cleared before you got there without causing disruption.

[mcg_]

TooMany2cvs said:

mcg_ said:

Driving along the M1 tonight in the wonderful smart motorway. Sat at 50 for miles because of there were 'reports of obstruction in the road' (something along those lines).

Obviously no obstructions.

There y'go. It did its job, and enabled the wombles to get the obstruction cleared before you got there without causing disruption.

quite possible. fantastic if so. although if there was an obstruction, i'd have thought they would leave out the word, 'reported'

[Haltamer]

I had a reported obstruction on the M25 Today.
It was a dead, very clapped out transit dangling into lane one, where it had ground to a halt on the verge.

Wouldn't it be nice if such obstructions could be prevented, perhaps there could be a spare lane at the side of the motorway, where people with mechanical issues could pull in...

[mcg_]

Haltamer said:

I had a reported obstruction on the M25 Today.
It was a dead, very clapped out transit dangling into lane one, where it had ground to a halt on the verge.

Wouldn't it be nice if such obstructions could be prevented, perhaps there could be a spare lane at the side of the motorway, where people with mechanical issues could pull in...

give it 20 years

[TooMany2cvs]

mcg_ said:

although if there was an obstruction, i'd have thought they would leave out the word, 'reported'

Somebody reported it. They go to check, and remove it if there.

[mcg_]

TooMany2cvs said:

mcg_ said:

although if there was an obstruction, i'd have thought they would leave out the word, 'reported'

Somebody reported it. They go to check, and remove it if there.

I know.

I feel like you’re missing the point of this thread and just pointing out the obvious, trying to be clever. Bit odd really.

[Kraken]

Haltamer said:

I had a reported obstruction on the M25 Today.
It was a dead, very clapped out transit dangling into lane one, where it had ground to a halt on the verge.

Wouldn't it be nice if such obstructions could be prevented, perhaps there could be a spare lane at the side of the motorway, where people with mechanical issues could pull in...

99% of the time it would be sitting there empty doing nothing which would cause far more congestion in busy times than the odd broken down vehicle does.

Do you think the Government just decides on a whim to remove the hard shoulders without any pre-planning or investigations?

[Willy Nilly]

TooMany2cvs said:

mcg_ said:

Driving along the M1 tonight in the wonderful smart motorway. Sat at 50 for miles because of there were 'reports of obstruction in the road' (something along those lines).

Obviously no obstructions.

There y'go. It did its job, and enabled the wombles to get the obstruction cleared before you got there without causing disruption.

Just once I'd like to see them clearing something up or see evidence of something on the carriageway. Just once is all I ask.

[snake_oil]

Willy Nilly said:

TooMany2cvs said:

mcg_ said:

Driving along the M1 tonight in the wonderful smart motorway. Sat at 50 for miles because of there were 'reports of obstruction in the road' (something along those lines).

Obviously no obstructions.

There y'go. It did its job, and enabled the wombles to get the obstruction cleared before you got there without causing disruption.

Just once I'd like to see them clearing something up or see evidence of something on the carriageway. Just once is all I ask.

But you never will, because the gantry will have done its job. Don't you see, thicky?

[anonymous-user]

snake_oil said:

Willy Nilly said:

TooMany2cvs said:

mcg_ said:

Driving along the M1 tonight in the wonderful smart motorway. Sat at 50 for miles because of there were 'reports of obstruction in the road' (something along those lines).

Obviously no obstructions.

There y'go. It did its job, and enabled the wombles to get the obstruction cleared before you got there without causing disruption.

Just once I'd like to see them clearing something up or see evidence of something on the carriageway. Just once is all I ask.

But you never will, because the gantry will have done its job. Don't you see, thicky?

I've seen it and done it hundreds of times if not more.
Saw a 'reported debris' sign last week, all the traffic had slowed down then speeded up, at 'end'/ the front was a TO vehicle driving along possibly with debris in the car.
As to the other point about hard shoulders modern cars rarely break down (stupidity excepted) so what a waste 25% of running capacity on busy motorways.
Can't find the picture of the huge toffee mixing machine debris that fell of a wagon on the M60 a few years ago for you to look at on a Sunday morning, it was in all the local papers at the time.

[BertBert]

snake_oil said:

But you never will, because the gantry will have done its job. Don't you see, thicky?

What nonsense .

But anyway to the point to the OP's question. If you are right that the NSL signs were displayed, then that'll be on the image from the camera that takes a picture. You'll be unlikely to get a ticket. Although of course you are still in the lower limit until you go past the sign, so you will have broken the limit.

However there won't be any photo evidence of you and your speed until after the sign when you were in NSL.

Let us know if anything comes through.

Bert

[BertBert]

as an aside, OP you say in the title doing under the limit, but in your post you are 99% sure you are doing more than 70. That's confusing.
Bert

[cadmunkey]

To answer the OP's query, gantry cameras take time to re-calibrate after a speed change, so every road user gets a 60 second grace period to accommodate that change. If you are flashed within that first 60 seconds you will not be fined.

[mcg_]

To the last few reply’s, thank you. Fingers crossed I’ll be ok, just a bit of unnerving. Will update.

I say 99% as it’s a virtual dash, so never saw it go over 60, but the numbers don’t increase at the same speed that the car does (hard to explain but if you wanted a VAG virtual dash you’ll get it) and I braked as soon as I saw the first flash.

[mcg_]

BertBert said:

What nonsense .

But anyway to the point to the OP's question. If you are right that the NSL signs were displayed, then that'll be on the image from the camera that takes a picture. You'll be unlikely to get a ticket. Although of course you are still in the lower limit until you go past the sign, so you will have broken the limit.

However there won't be any photo evidence of you and your speed until after the sign when you were in NSL.

Let us know if anything comes through.

Bert

Thanks Bert.

Just to confirm -

~100m from gantry national speed limit sign

Stay at 50

Under gantry, foot down

Flash

[4rephill]

BertBert said:

as an aside, OP you say in the title doing under the limit, but in your post you are 99% sure you are doing more than 70. That's confusing.
Bert

I think he means he's 99% certain he wasn't going over 70, as he posted:

mcg_ said:

.....Probably pass under the gantry seconds after the change at about 60 and get flashed!! ...

mcg_: The gantry cameras sometimes flash vehicles driving @ the speed limit (or even slightly over it), simply to make drivers aware that there are cameras on the motorway, and they are switched on, in order to help keep speeds down (especially when it's dark, and the flash can be seen from a long way off).

A year ago I got flashed by a gantry camera on the M1 late at night whilst driving at 76mph (I was using the 10% + 2mph over the limit theory, and figured being 3mph below 79mph, I would easily be okay). Never heard anything from it.

I'm pretty sure your car simply triggered a harmless warning flash and nothing more.

(No guarantee's though! )

[xx99xx]

I drive a 20 mile stretch of smart M1, 5 days a week. I regularly see the cameras going off when doing speeds well below the posted limit. Even crawling past at 5mph has set them off. I think they are programmed to go off randomly for whatever reason.

[ghe13rte]

The HADECS system will take a picture when a new speed limit is confirmed by the system as showing a new speed limit. This will be just a few seconds after the new limit is displayed.

The camera will flash when this occurs. No speed violation record is produced or taken during the first 60 seconds after a limit is changed.

If you are driving under the Gantry or just past it close to the time a speed limit has changed the system has not flashed because you have driven past but because the speed limit has changed.

[ghe13rte]

xx99xx said:

I drive a 20 mile stretch of smart M1, 5 days a week. I regularly see the cameras going off when doing speeds well below the posted limit. Even crawling past at 5mph has set them off. I think they are programmed to go off randomly for whatever reason.

No it hasn’t.