Highways agency.
13 April 2015, 04:26 PM
#1
Highways agency.
What is it with this lot?
On my way south along the A1, the four lane stretch leading southbound to Alconbury, Friday night, 27th March, the overhead gantries were flashing 50mph, then 40mph, then 40mph again, each time announcing, "Queues, Caution".
There were no queues, very little traffic and sure enough, the next gantry read, "END".
Coming back, Saturday night, same section, but northbound, imagine my surprise to find the SAME THING?
What's the use of that? It's just going to encourage folk to ignore the gantries.
And while I'm on the subject, what's the point of a sign that says, for example, "M25 closed J20-J21"?
How many people could ACTUALLY tell you where that was, without looking? Some decent info wouldn't go amiss.
With their huge budget, you'd THINK the Highways agency could do the simple things right? You'd be mistaken.
On my way south along the A1, the four lane stretch leading southbound to Alconbury, Friday night, 27th March, the overhead gantries were flashing 50mph, then 40mph, then 40mph again, each time announcing, "Queues, Caution".
There were no queues, very little traffic and sure enough, the next gantry read, "END".
Coming back, Saturday night, same section, but northbound, imagine my surprise to find the SAME THING?
What's the use of that? It's just going to encourage folk to ignore the gantries.
And while I'm on the subject, what's the point of a sign that says, for example, "M25 closed J20-J21"?
How many people could ACTUALLY tell you where that was, without looking? Some decent info wouldn't go amiss.
With their huge budget, you'd THINK the Highways agency could do the simple things right? You'd be mistaken.
13 April 2015, 05:08 PM
#2
They are always wrong on the A3 and M25 (South). Always ignore them. About the only thing they get right is Queue Caution on the M25 during the morning rush hour. There is always a queue during the morning rush hour and no one is doing more than 40 mph, no one needs to be told caution and everyone knows they are in a queue - but I guess they are right at least!
Occasionally the A3 Matrix's northbound have show details of operation stack in Kent and one time details of some issues in Felixstow. So clearly they are targetting HGV's.
So perhaps that's who they are targetting (HGV's), but it's not useful to many and surely all the long distance lorry drivers know about these things and if they need a ferry there is not much they can do about the route they choose.
Big waste of money at first, however the last couple of years I have seen some saying estimated time to next big junction, so that's partially helpful.
But I think they should be used to allow drivers to make decisions that could help traffic. For example giving details of the travel time between certain junctions, but do that back on a different road (eg on the M4 around J10, but detail the traffic on M25 J14 - J10). That could help people avoid certain areas (by going through Bracknell) and actually spread traffic out, rather than allow it all to bunch.
I can't see that it would take too much to do that.
Occasionally the A3 Matrix's northbound have show details of operation stack in Kent and one time details of some issues in Felixstow. So clearly they are targetting HGV's.
So perhaps that's who they are targetting (HGV's), but it's not useful to many and surely all the long distance lorry drivers know about these things and if they need a ferry there is not much they can do about the route they choose.
Big waste of money at first, however the last couple of years I have seen some saying estimated time to next big junction, so that's partially helpful.
But I think they should be used to allow drivers to make decisions that could help traffic. For example giving details of the travel time between certain junctions, but do that back on a different road (eg on the M4 around J10, but detail the traffic on M25 J14 - J10). That could help people avoid certain areas (by going through Bracknell) and actually spread traffic out, rather than allow it all to bunch.
I can't see that it would take too much to do that.
13 April 2015, 08:23 PM
#3
I've come to the conclusion that most of the time it is the overhead gantries that are actually causing the slow build up of traffic. If the gantries said 70mph instead of 40mph and "caution" I bet there would be no ques! When they do say 40mph and "caution" I can never see anything to be cautious about!
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