Motorway variable speed limit cameras

I was always under the impression they only worked when the gantry signs were lit up with the variable limit displayed, but if they are clear they aren't on and so can break the limit and kill some children freely.
 
SoliD said:
I was always under the impression they only worked when the gantry signs were lit up with the variable limit displayed, but if they are clear they aren't on and so can break the limit and kill some children freely.
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I used to think that but I seem to remember reading somewhere that they are active even when not lit, I'll try and find the source.

edit/ found it

http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/gatso10.htm

It should be noted as a result that the system also enforces the national speed limit of 70mph as well as any lower limit that may be set. Therefore do not assume that because no signals are displayed you are safe from a possible ticket if you are over the limit.
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I can confirm the ones on the M42 are not active when the VSL are not enforced, well certainly upto 120 :)

Even when the VSL are in place I'm not 100% sure all the cameras work, occasionally I've been through a 50 @ 70 and never heard anything back.
 
Sirrel Squirrel said:
http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/gatso10.htm
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3, Checks that the optical output from the matrix board is exactly the same as the electrical input. In other words, if even one bulb that makes up the display of the speed has blown on the matrix board, it is invalid and the system will never
activate.
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Interesting, if someone just happened to accidentally shoot out a bulb on each sign as they drove by with an air riffle or even a powerful pellet gun it would disable the system for those sections/lanes?
 
MrLOL said:
the ones on the gantry that were put there when they widened it to 4 lanes ?
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Are you sure they are there? I live not to far from junction 25 / 26 and last time I went down it the gantrys were up, the signs were up, but if you look closely none of the gantrys actually had any cameras in at all. There certainly haven't been cameras in them since it was widened.

Actually, I've just done a quick google on this and found another post on pistonheads that seems to agree they have recently been put in.

I know it was this kind of gantry and I reguarely checked when going up from junction 25 to 27 and back and all the shelves where they would sit in the below picture were empty. If they now look like the below I would advise caution as they have only gone in over the last month or so.

g293.jpg
 
Giddy said:
I can confirm the ones on the M42 are not active when the VSL are not enforced, well certainly upto 120 :)

Even when the VSL are in place I'm not 100% sure all the cameras work, occasionally I've been through a 50 @ 70 and never heard anything back.
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This apply to the M6 aswell? ;) Thanks!
 
This latest development is a bummer. Worst thing I find about driving this section is that the lane discipline is terrible. Trucks in three lanes, people sat doing 60 in lanes two and three. It's much worse than on a three lane section.

Plus side is that you can actually drive at the speed you're supposed to around rush hour, when the section from J25 to the M42 gets really snarled up.
 
I've noticed too that the lane discipline has gone to **** since the wider bit opened

other bad bit is that northbound snarls up very friday evening at J28 where it goes down to 3 lanes
 
A modest proposal

Fusion said:
This latest development is a bummer. Worst thing I find about driving this section is that the lane discipline is terrible. Trucks in three lanes, people sat doing 60 in lanes two and three. It's much worse than on a three lane section. ...
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I entirely agree about lane discipline going out the window as you increase the number of lanes. Not long ago, on my way down to London, I couldn't believe how empty the inside lanes of the M1 were in the section before it joins the M25; there were masses of people driving their lonely, carefree way along the outer lanes and simply not bothering to move into the leftmost lanes; the same leaving London again - absolutely incredible!

The French are so much better than the British about lane discipline and yet many of their motorways have just two lanes in many places.

Frankly, I believe that a lot of the motorway should be reduced to just two lanes in each direction - more than three lanes are an invitation to selfish motorists completely to ignore lane discipline.


Aa an alternative, utilising the gantries mentioned above and bearing in mind the current high levels of unemployment amongst recent graduates of such useless subjects as Meeja, English, History, Geography, etc., it would be a great idea to mount cameras at regular intervals on the motorways and to get someone like Crapita to employ armies of otherwise unemployable graduates to monitor the feed from those cameras, identifying careless and selfish drivers. Examples could be passed on to the Police for prosecution and they could be remunerated on the basis of the number of offences they spot - WIN / WIN :)
 
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