Tiger Tails on M60
New road markings to reduce lane 'swooping'
'Tiger tail' markings will be used on the M60 where it meets the M56 motorway in Manchester to improve safety at this busy junction.
The introduction of the new 'tiger tail' ghost islands will create two lanes for motorists entering or leaving the M60 motorway from the M56 motorway, improving safety and reducing congestion.
In addition to being the junction with M60, the M56 also becomes the A5103; the main route into Manchester and the current layout causes queuing at peak times with vehicles swooping across lanes at the last minute.
The new junction layout will benefit from the new markings, new verges and gantry signs and new safety barriers. The capacity of the road will be increased as part of the plan.
The £150,000 improvement scheme starts today and will take six weeks. Work will be carried out overnight with only hard shoulder closures during the day to minimise disruption to motorists.
Highways Agency project manager Paul Elliott said: "Over the past three years there have been 25 accidents at this junction which is a very congested section of the motorway network ."
"The accidents are caused by traffic weaving across as drivers realise they are in the wrong lane for where they want to go. This results in both accidents and congestion as motorists realise they are in the wrong lane and carry out ' swooping' manoeuvres at the junction ."
Surprisingly they do tend improved merge/diverge behaviour, perhaps because they make idiots realise that they are blatantly committing an offence ?
. The tiger tails will make a big difference at this particuar junction as so much of the traffic leaves the M60 here.
A sensible move IMHO.
Rich
nonegreen said:
Except that where they are being installed they are IMO not needed. The merge from the M56 to the M60 is not the problem it is a very long slip road more than a mile IIRC. The congestion is caused by the entry to the M60 not the exit from the M56. The M60 needs to have fewer junctions. Crapsville, oops sorry Stockport is the problem the rest of the road system is only designed for 1938 traffic levels. Hence the motorway is overused, for local journeys. Bring back public flogging for liberal democrat councillors.
Just wait until Crapsvilles finest finally push through planning permission for the Ikea store in Stockport. The M40/M25 junction will look like Silverstone on a wet Wednseday by comparison.
Oh yeah, this is really gonna help.
NOT!
They screwed up the M60/56 interchange (eastbound)
with the fastlane being the slowlane of the M60.
Next they will WHAT?
The problem is ALWAYS ppl who dont know the junctions going too fast to adjust to the conditions.
it's an education problem more than anything else.
planetdave said:
I use the M60/56 every working day.
Oh yeah, this is really gonna help.
NOT!
They screwed up the M60/56 interchange (eastbound)
with the fastlane being the slowlane of the M60.
Next they will WHAT?
The problem is ALWAYS ppl who dont know the junctions going too fast to adjust to the conditions.
it's an education problem more than anything else.
As a general rule entry to Mways is dogged by numpties who think 40 is an appropriate speed to enter a 70 mph environment. Exit is converted to carnage by numpties who want to pull of at the last possible second. Not sure speed is really the problem.
What happens all the time is that you have people coming on @ J4 way too slowly and moving into lane 2 ASAP.
Then you have the 'got to get into lane 1 ASAP' brigade getting mixed up with the J4 crowd.
Of course you have the 'I have never been to the airport before' lot, who dont know where they are going, changing lanes at the last moment.
Solution - earlier signage so that the latter have more time to think which lane they need.
The 'tiger tail' will achieve nothing unless drivers know where they want to be.
planetdave said:Surely this is going as far as is reasonably practical in the short term as far as education goes - i.e. you will be bloody obvious if you pull across at the last minute - like many people do at the moment without giving it a second thought.
The problem is ALWAYS ppl who dont know the junctions going too fast to adjust to the conditions.
it's an education problem more than anything else.
It turns out that us ranting on a bulliten board does very little for the general standards of education out there, whereas this idea may just do something.
I use this junction about once a week, and despite the long slip road leaving the M60, I still regularly get cut up by people leaving the exit until the last minute. The slip road may be a mile long, but the traffic jam is two - hense the problem.
The only other thing that they could do is to post a traffic cop on the junction who is in a bad mood, and does this lot for dangerous driving. However, even when properly enforced, this is still going to let the majority through.
Good idea!
Gassing Station | Motoring News | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff