What would you do if you saw a 20mph variable speed limit on a motorway?

[Penfold101]

Just to go back to the original post in this thread, parts of the M6 in Cheshire had the overhead gantry signs at 20 mph yesterday due to two of the four lanes being closed and completely flooded, and the other two being open but still very wet…

 

[Conscript]

To be fair I've experienced the same with "smart" motorways and inconsistent or missing signage. I have no problem doing 50 when the signs say 50, but when the next gantry is completely blank am I OK to carry on at 50, or should I slow to 40? Mr HGV right up my **** seems to think its now NSL... the point is that the signs need to work, consistently, if they are going to issue fines based on them.

...and don't get me started on "Report of pedestrians". Has anyone ever seen any sign of a pedestrian when those signs are showing?

Just for future reference, if the sign isn't illuminated, then you should be safe to proceed at NSL. Next time you pass a gantry with cameras attached, keep an eye out on the verge and you'll see that there's a mast with a set of CCTV cameras which monitor the matrix signs. If a car triggers the speed camera, then the CCTV image is used to corroborated what the matrix sign was displaying at the time. If the sign is faulty (say not all the matrix LEDs are illuminated) then the ticket would be null and void, so it's cancelled. Hence, this would prove if the sign wasn't illuminated at all, so you'd be safe from prosecution.

As for pedestrians, I've seen the opposite recently.....a chap was killed on the M25 a couple of weeks ago, but this happened on a stretch where theres very few matrix information boards, let alone any smart infrastructure...I don't know the full circumstances of the accident, but perhaps a warning might have helped

M25: Man dies in crash near Orpington

A man aged in his 50s dies at the scene following the crash near Swanley, Kent Police says.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[koolpc]

20mph has its place on our roads but, some areas where it has been implemented are just a joke....

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Take the next exit and use the 60mph road which usually runs parallel.

Motorways don't feel any quicker since they installed the random speed limit generator. Feels like they knock it down to 40-50 for fun or to generate some funds.

If you dont see the congestion....

Guess what the system is probably working as intended!

 

[Resident]

My entire post however is about not knowing what you should be doing because the signs simply aren't consistent. If there wasn't a break in the digital signage and there was an end to the temporary limit and it being a one off, I'd have no issue other than it being annoying to have a limit for so long for seemingly no reason. But as my post says, it happens ALL the time.

Every time I've driven through a temporary limit restriction, at the END of the restriction there's been a NSL or faster limit signal/sign.

If you drive past a 50 sign and the next gantry is blank then you go by the last known information. Any competent driver knows that.

 

[Conscript]

If you dont see the congestion....

Guess what the system is probably working as intended!

There's no pointing wasting your time. Pretty sure this has been explained to him several times in this and other threads.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Oh no, this is a sport now. Ever since he said i needed a new job

 

[redeye]

Resident​

Every time I've driven through a temporary limit restriction, at the END of the restriction there's been a NSL or faster limit signal/sign.

If you drive past a 50 sign and the next gantry is blank then you go by the last known information. Any competent driver knows that.

As I said, at least 2 times a week this motorway's temporary limits do not have an end NSL sign, and on the M25 on Saturday evening last week at the end of the 50 limit just after the Godstone junction there wasn't one either.

How many blank gantries do you give it before you assume it's 70 again when there is no NSL sign like the above ?

 

[squerble]

As I said, at least 2 times a week this motorway's temporary limits do not have an end NSL sign, and on the M25 on Saturday evening last week at the end of the 50 limit just after the Godstone junction there wasn't one either.

How many blank gantries do you give it before you assume it's 70 again when there is no NSL sign like the above ?

You've somehow quoted me but with someone else's post

 

[redeye]

You've somehow quoted me but with someone else's post

Thats bizzare sorry about that. I just hit the reply button like 600 times before.

Fixed.

 

[Feek]

On the occasion I got a ticket there was a 50 limit for around 12 miles.. for seemingly no reason. No traffic, no accidents, no bad weather, nothing stranded.. again this happens on an almost weekly basis.

Sounds like they're working exactly as intended.

Just because you don't see what caused the initial signs, doesn't mean there wasn't something ahead. You can be slowed down some considerable distance ahead of an incident to reduce the amount of traffic that arrives at the same time and to stop you grinding to a halt ten miles down the road.

Surely the point is that you have no way whatsoever of knowing if there's a reason. If you're slowed down fifteen miles from an incident to delay your time reaching that incident and having to stop in a queue, but that incident is cleared before you get there then there's a very good chance but you'll never know what it was. The temporary speed limit has done exactly what it's supposed to. It'll appear to you as though you were slowed down without a reason.