M25 variable speed limits

[Christmas themed thank]

I was driving on the M25 near Luton last night. It was around midnight and the road was pretty empty (for the M25, dead) but yet there were variable speed limits in place, of 40mph in places.

Several people went through the cameras at speeds of over 80 and yet weren't flashed. I was just wondering on this logic then if these cameras actually work?

Second, in one section the limit went down to 40mph then up to 50mph. I never saw another gantry with a limit on it nor was there a national speed limit sign. Am I supposed to carry on at 50mph indefinitely in this case>

 

[VincentHanna]

My friend works for the police and claimed that they can't keep them on all the time as they struggle to deal with the amount of tickets they issue!

 

[geekman]

Only a minority of the camera housings have actual cameras in them. Those that do can and do issue tickets as a few people have found out to their cost. If you have a radar detector it's easy to find out which ones work - I spent a year commuting on the entire south section of on the m25 every day and never got flashed, despite completely ignoring the ridiculous limits they sometimes put up. People would often follow me at whatever speed I was doing, then pass me when I slowed for one of the live cameras, and immediately get flashed.

 

[mrk]

If you keep Waze running (not necessarily in routing mode, just open showing the map is enough), you will get notified of the ones with cameras inside as people have reported those multiple times already. At least that way you'll get used to which ones are live, and which ones are fakes.

 

[Housey]

I use Waze all the time for lookout duties

 

[Nasher]

And they said this isn't mostly a money making scheme

40mph on an empty road during the night...

 

[Christmas themed thank]

Personally I think they should remove speed limits on sections of motorways, especially at night.

 

[mrk]

The A3 southbound end is basically just that. Just not officially

 

[Christmas themed thank]

The A3 southbound end is basically just that. Just not officially

Not the A3M surely, you mean by Guildford?

 

[mrk]

After Guildford is what I'm on about yeah. Soon as you pass the Guildford roundabout heading south, it's clean sailing.

 

[Christmas themed thank]

I don't go that way much To be fair I mostly use the M3 which until recently was fairly lax.

 

[mrk]

M3 is alright, but it's mega boring and now has cameras At least with the A3 you have the tunnel (you can mostly ignore the average speed zone alert if it's outside of peak times), and it's got quite the number of soft-winding bits and elevation changes to at least not be a straight and flat yawnfest

 

[Christmas themed thank]

To be fair mate, the smart motorway bit of the M3 (which I went on the other day - it's still not done, the road is done but the electrics aren't), now has a beautifully smooth surface.

 

[Rroff]

Personally I think they should remove speed limits on sections of motorways, especially at night.

In some places it might make sense - the M25 not so much. I actually kind of like the variable limits on the M25 as while a bit mind numbing at least in perception it seems a lot more stress free and better flowing than it used to be. Though the limits on the M25 don't seem very responsive to resetting - quickly change if there is an accident or local patches of bad weather, etc. but can take an hour or more to change once things clear up.

 

[robj20]

Personally I think they should remove speed limits on sections of motorways, especially at night.

I dont, you would get morons wanting to do 100+ all the time.

 

[Freakbro]

I dont, you would get morons wanting to do 100+ all the time.

And what's the matter with that?

100mph in a modern car is nothing special

 

[grudas]

I dont, you would get morons wanting to do 100+ all the time.

Nothing wrong with that really. Speed limits are set from like what 70s ? These days modern cars do a 100+ so easily that it could be the new cruising speed. Obviously Germans have already realised that but this granny state will sooner lower the limit than adapt to modern stuff.

 

[Semple]

It's all well and good having modern cars being more than capable at cruising at 100mph.

But literally every other car i see on the motorway is driven by an idiot! Who would more than likely fail to judge the speed of the car in the outer lane and jump out for an overtake - then causing a big pile up.

Edit: Also the UK is one of the most congested countries in Europe. We have too many people on the roads, and just not enough space.

 

[grudas]

It's all well and good having modern cars being more than capable at cruising at 100mph.

But literally every other car i see on the motorway is driven by an idiot! Who would more than likely fail to judge the speed of the car in the outer lane and jump out for an overtake - then causing a big pile up.

Edit: Also the UK is one of the most congested countries in Europe. We have too many people on the roads, and just not enough space.

we're talking about night time during the day I agree. it is to busy to be doing 100+

night time when it's empty the variable limit could be raised.

 

[Nasher]

It's all well and good having modern cars being more than capable at cruising at 100mph.

But literally every other car i see on the motorway is driven by an idiot! Who would more than likely fail to judge the speed of the car in the outer lane and jump out for an overtake - then causing a big pile up.

Edit: Also the UK is one of the most congested countries in Europe. We have too many people on the roads, and just not enough space.

But also a lot of poorly designed roads.

E.g they recently finished building a new bypass near me. It was supposed to be a dual carriage way, but they didn't want to spend the money doing it properly. So it's a single carriage way. They have also just built about 20 million new houses along it, so now it's completely rammed in the morning/afternoon, just like all the roads it was supposed to take the strain off (they are also still rammed). Poor planning all over the place.