Red 'X's over lanes
Discussion
Going through a red 'X' carries the same penalty as going through a red traffic light. The police are now being encouraged to prosecute offenders they come across, due to more & more 'Smart Motorways' where people / obstructions have more possibility of being in a running lane after incidents.
This is good news, only the other day the Mrs commented on some dolt on the hard shoulder of the M42 when it was closed to 'normal' traffic. How we haven't heard of more 70mph+ rear endings I don't know.
Sadly though I suspect it will go the same way as the MLM thing did a few years ago. Lots of excitement for a few weeks then all the MLM signs went back to "don't drive tired" and "16 miles/16 minutes to Junction 875" The latter being to worst as some seem to take that as a challenge either to beat it or to make it happen!
Sadly though I suspect it will go the same way as the MLM thing did a few years ago. Lots of excitement for a few weeks then all the MLM signs went back to "don't drive tired" and "16 miles/16 minutes to Junction 875" The latter being to worst as some seem to take that as a challenge either to beat it or to make it happen!
I drive the M42 twice a day, four days a week. The availability of the hard shoulder as a live lane seems to be a little random, but whenever its down to the normal three lanes, I ALWAYS see drivers trundling up the hard shoulder, because that's what they did yesterday and the day before, and the day before that.....
occasionally, drivers will blindly wander into it without checking, and then have to force their way back into lane 1. Occasionally, drivers will hammer down the left lane of the slip road, smug that they're making up ground on all the people dutifully joining the main carriageway, only later to realise that all the dutiful drivers had looked far enough ahead to see the bloody great red 'X' on the next gantry...
As mentioned above, I'm staggered that there haven't been any spectacular rear-end accidents yet - perhaps the proliferation of 'safe refuge' areas has helped
perversely, when the hard shoulder IS in operation as a live lane, its usually the fastest moving lane out of the four, as all the sheep stay in the lane they've been in for the last twenty miles....
occasionally, drivers will blindly wander into it without checking, and then have to force their way back into lane 1. Occasionally, drivers will hammer down the left lane of the slip road, smug that they're making up ground on all the people dutifully joining the main carriageway, only later to realise that all the dutiful drivers had looked far enough ahead to see the bloody great red 'X' on the next gantry...
As mentioned above, I'm staggered that there haven't been any spectacular rear-end accidents yet - perhaps the proliferation of 'safe refuge' areas has helped
perversely, when the hard shoulder IS in operation as a live lane, its usually the fastest moving lane out of the four, as all the sheep stay in the lane they've been in for the last twenty miles....
Nigel_O said:
perversely, when the hard shoulder IS in operation as a live lane, its usually the fastest moving lane out of the four, as all the sheep stay in the lane they've been in for the last twenty miles....
Not surprising really - I drive the M1 twice a week and in heavy traffic - the left lane is always the one moving the fastest.It's quite amusing watching cars darting between lanes two and three, brake lights flashing as they go in a vain attempt at gaining just one more car length over their peers.
Invariably you go sailing past them as lane one flows freely. Five or ten minutes later once the heavy traffic has subsided - you see the same cars come rocketing past.
Rude-boy said:
This is good news, only the other day the Mrs commented on some dolt on the hard shoulder of the M42 when it was closed to 'normal' traffic. How we haven't heard of more 70mph+ rear endings I don't know.
Sadly though I suspect it will go the same way as the MLM thing did a few years ago. Lots of excitement for a few weeks then all the MLM signs went back to "don't drive tired" and "16 miles/16 minutes to Junction 875" The latter being to worst as some seem to take that as a challenge either to beat it or to make it happen!
One of the guys at work was on a speed awareness course and asked about the MLM rule change. The police said they allow a year for awareness to creep into society and then they start prosecuting more. So apparently this will be stepped up this year. Sadly though I suspect it will go the same way as the MLM thing did a few years ago. Lots of excitement for a few weeks then all the MLM signs went back to "don't drive tired" and "16 miles/16 minutes to Junction 875" The latter being to worst as some seem to take that as a challenge either to beat it or to make it happen!
RacingPete said:
One of the guys at work was on a speed awareness course and asked about the MLM rule change. The police said they allow a year for awareness to creep into society and then they start prosecuting more. So apparently this will be stepped up this year.
In a way MLMs can be useful; I do 60 miles a day on the M62 and very rarely venture out of L1 - if I do I'm back in asap. It's much less stress and I sail past everything on the right. MLMs are useful as they provide a kind of rolling barrier between myself and all the photocopier salesmen glued to each others arses playing the brake test game in L3. I'd just leave them there.Again the HA don’t help themselves
There was obviously a problem on the M6 this morning J6- J5 with traffic backing from J7
Through J6 the limits were 40mph then opening up to 60 on the “managed” section (with hard shoulder 4 lane running)
However a couple of miles up the road we were confronted with O/head gantries showing 20 mph on the Hard shoulder lane and 50 mph on the other 3 !
The next gantry along however had a red cross on the H/S lane i.e no advanced warning of the lane closure. – Immediately after was the safety refuge where the vehicles involved in the “incident” along with a HA Motor had gathered.
I had a bit of sympathy for the drivers H/S in this instance as it looked very difficult to get into Lane 1 before the Red cross due to the traffic slowing ahead to rubberneck what was going on.
There was obviously a problem on the M6 this morning J6- J5 with traffic backing from J7
Through J6 the limits were 40mph then opening up to 60 on the “managed” section (with hard shoulder 4 lane running)
However a couple of miles up the road we were confronted with O/head gantries showing 20 mph on the Hard shoulder lane and 50 mph on the other 3 !
The next gantry along however had a red cross on the H/S lane i.e no advanced warning of the lane closure. – Immediately after was the safety refuge where the vehicles involved in the “incident” along with a HA Motor had gathered.
I had a bit of sympathy for the drivers H/S in this instance as it looked very difficult to get into Lane 1 before the Red cross due to the traffic slowing ahead to rubberneck what was going on.
Dog Star said:
RacingPete said:
One of the guys at work was on a speed awareness course and asked about the MLM rule change. The police said they allow a year for awareness to creep into society and then they start prosecuting more. So apparently this will be stepped up this year.
In a way MLMs can be useful; I do 60 miles a day on the M62 and very rarely venture out of L1 - if I do I'm back in asap. It's much less stress and I sail past everything on the right. MLMs are useful as they provide a kind of rolling barrier between myself and all the photocopier salesmen glued to each others arses playing the brake test game in L3. I'd just leave them there.Gafferjim said:
Going through a red 'X' carries the same penalty as going through a red traffic light. The police are now being encouraged to prosecute offenders they come across, due to more & more 'Smart Motorways' where people / obstructions have more possibility of being in a running lane after incidents.
As far as I can see it stating the bleeding obvious, well the highway code all drivers should already be familiar with.
i'm still not entirely clear on the rules of red x's these days
there is a section of a27, the southwick tunnel, which for as long as i have been driving has a lane control in force, but it's very clear it just applied to the tunnel.
Further up the A27, a few miles before it becomes the M27, it has all been apparently made up to motorway standard, and can display these red x's but not signs about lane control, and it's not a motorway.
there is a section of a27, the southwick tunnel, which for as long as i have been driving has a lane control in force, but it's very clear it just applied to the tunnel.
Further up the A27, a few miles before it becomes the M27, it has all been apparently made up to motorway standard, and can display these red x's but not signs about lane control, and it's not a motorway.
Rude-boy said:
This is good news, only the other day the Mrs commented on some dolt on the hard shoulder of the M42 when it was closed to 'normal' traffic. How we haven't heard of more 70mph+ rear endings I don't know.
Agree. I think hard shoulder running will at some point be responsible for a big pile up when someone misses or doesn't understand the meaning of the red X. I feel it's almost inevitable.Martin4x4 said:
What is the point of this message?
As far as I can see it stating the bleeding obvious, well the highway code all drivers should already be familiar with.
Well it would seem that some drivers apply a test to signs to decide whether it applies to them and whether it should be complied with.As far as I can see it stating the bleeding obvious, well the highway code all drivers should already be familiar with.
The red-X means do not proceed in this lane beyond this point. Yes it would be obvious to you but some drivers test the application of the sign, if they see no reason to not use the lane and traffic is perhaps slower in the open lanes they defy the sign. Similarly the sign to the right of the red X means do not drive at speeds that are more than 60mph, similar tests are applied and those tests have been explained thousands of times in this and other forums.
It is going to prove interesting when this discussion develops to see how the pistonheads massif are going to support compliance with the red-X but not the 60 with the red circle next to the red-X. This conflict is already outlined in the discussion so far...back-to-you.
Edited by emmaT2014 on Friday 6th February 09:26
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