I travel the M54 - M6 every day on my commute - the 'interactive' overhead gantry signs are just a joke, so much so in fact I totally ignore them now.

On the signs today - travelling towards the end of the M54 - signs all along the M54 signing CONJESTION AFTER JCN 1 - this is a nightmare if true as everyone is queing to get onto the M6 - this can take 1/2 hour or more! -now I had heard on the radio that the motorway was clear - so why all the signs?

Then at the last M54 sign it says M6 HEAVY CONJESTION J11 to J8 - again nightmare city - so as I merged off the M54 onto M6 at 90mph thru the 'solid congestion' warned about on the M54, I sped through the 'solid congestion' on the M6 from JCN 10a all the way to JCN 8 at 85mph..........

Why are these signs a total joke? - Why have all the motorway cameras if no-one ever bothers to check them - why not give the driver some useful information?

The other classic on this route is something like JOURNEY TIME TO JCN 4A - 35 MINUTES - another fabrication as *every day* it takes under HALF the the time stated to do this stretch.......

In this day & age words fail me as to why these signs are soooooo crap.

Sorry - felt the need to vent.......

the conspiracy theorists may say they want you to go on the new M6 Toll at £4 each way

 

I particulary like like "fog" when it is foggy. I mean really? Wondered why the visibility was down. May as well make them say "Slow down, dark!" at night.

5t.

 

Yup, along with the "QUEUE - CAUTION", when you have been stuck in traffic for an hour

 

I think they just make it worse not better as:

a) the dimwits all slow right down, presumably:

i) to read them (!) - personally I find I can read the twenty foot signs fine at the speed I am driving at (!)
ii) to ummm and aaahh and brake some more whilst deciding if it applies to them

b) the ridiculously lengthy roadworks, causing extensive delays. Not too mention the taxpayer ££ involved in putting them all in in the first place !!



</gets off soap box>

Amazing how someone else's post can trigger one of your bug bears, isn't it !

 

I find they only use them when there is an absolutely bleeding obvious traffic jam - "Queue after junction", actually I'm already in it thanks. Or they display nothing when there is a real problem. Or they display problems on other motorways 50 miles away. I could go on.

I would like to see these used for telling you things even when something is going alright so you can plan your journey better - for example, just giving an indication of average speed on carriageways of the intersecting motorway. This would tell you if you should stay on the present road and negotiate a route round, or get off the road you're on, onto the other where the average speeds look quite reasonable. This would be useful more in rushhour I guess and you could take several different routes home/to work.

They are so expensive and so utterly useless that I wrote to my MP about it - he passed it onto one of his transport aware colleagues - heard nothing more :-(

 

M25 - clockwise - M3 to M40. Has anyone ever driven around there at anytime of the day or night and NOT seen a "Queue - Caution" or "Queue after next Junction" sign - regardless of whether there is any traffic around or not?

I figure that as there is a queue there around 75% of the time, they leave all the signs on as it uses more electricity to switch them off and on again....

 

But the thing is there's only about 3 gantrys in the entire stretch that actually have cameras....

 

Travelling down the M1 at the weekend, Junc 25 the sign says "Delays on the M25" - WTF, that's the best part of 100 miles further down the M1

 

That's so you can plot an alternative route. Via Wales

 

they should just put up random stuff like..

"Oi you!! Stop picking your nose! and don't even think about eating it!"

Reckon on they'd be far more accurate that way

 

At least they've only wasted millions of your money on one sign every mile or so.

On the M4 across the bridge from Bristol they're in pairs. One in english the other in some obscure language that nobody under 90 can read (and they don't drive). PC to**ers.

Would be funny if they hadn't used our money and to pay for them and then stitched us up with speed cameras thro road works for weeks and weeks while they fitted them.

 

They should put road tax in with insurance then youd have nothing to moan about

ffs back in my girlfriends country theyre stripping the roadsigns to use for cooking pots

 

My favorite is caution SPRAY. Hmm wondered what that was on the floor.

Or queue ahead, at 01:00 in the morning.

 

My favourite is "LANE 3 CLOSED" Translation: All you sheep move into lane 2. Lane 3 is now reserved for Lum (and maybe one or two others who have also decided to actually wait for the non existant cones before moving). Works best at night time.

As for the fog signs, those are there to tell you to put your foglights on, obviously.

 

I like the ones near Brum that say how long it will take you to get to junction whatever... They're cool...
I like the ones that remind retards not to use their phone while driving too

 

OK - update - Yesterday - no signs on at all - so they were actually correct for once as because its school holidays the motorway was clear.....today all the signs back on again warning of dire congestion off the M54 & M6 - again did the 85mph trick all through it - why do they bother?

I reckon they have one button - M6 - 8.00am - press here! Rather than actually LOOKING at the traffic....

And Abadabz - those times to next junctions are a joke - you can pretty much halve them..... if your in a 1959 ford anglia - they might be right....