M42 Speed Cameras

Lorian

highguyuk wrote:

Right ... ive dug this out for you all.

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/4673.aspx

If you have any another questions, feel free to ask and I will help as much as I can. This email isn't a hoax.

I already posted a link to their main page above. The thing is the email is NOT correct in that they are changing the enforcement on April 1st.

Mandatory variable speed limits WERE implemented in November. You don't see people doing a ton under the gantrys when limits are posted up. However when the variable speed signs are not lit then it seems like 50% of the traffic are doing 80+, with no extra enforcement (other than the one SPECS pair I already mentioned). I drive this stretch of road a lot.

I don't look forward to the final phase when they turn the hard sholders into lanes...

theaardvark

rdwarr wrote:

Anything that begins is almost certainly a hoax.

Look here for one of the many sites to confirm this.

The link above is to my site.

Actually, the speed cameras on the M42 are real. They are not, however, the SPECS cameras that don't flash.

For more info see these other posts on my site:

Speed Cameras on the M42
More on the M42 Traffic Management System

theaardvark

Wirenth

The active traffic management system on the M42 has been live since November 2005. I drive that section every week. Variable limits are enforced, but not the national speed limit. I see a few people doing 75-80 on there, but not many; there are far too many middle lane hogs doing 50-60 (even when there is no lower speed limit enforced) to allow for many to be speeding.

highguyuk

Lorian wrote:

I don't look forward to the final phase when they turn the hard sholders into lanes...

Can I ask why? Surely 4 lanes are better than 3?

Silent_Bob_3

The 2 mph tolerance is wrong for a start as by law cameras have to allow for 10% of the speed limit to erradicate errors in speedometers something that is inherrent in all cars. They then tag a 2mph on top of that - therefore if they set the limit at 60mph - then you will get a ticket for 68mph and over.

bunking_off

Silent_bob got in before me. It may be true that the cameras are enabled - in fact they have been for a while - but the 2mph "tolerance" claim is garbage.

S-B's explanation is correct (though I seem to recall the tolerance is not the same +/-%, they can over-read more than under-read)....I wouldn't rely on it as an excuse to routinely break the limit, but the only way you're going to be done when you think you're going at "72" is if your speedo is operating right at the extreme of tolerance so it read 70 when you were really doing 77mph, so in reality you were doing 79.

Neil_Taylor

Can I ask why? Surely 4 lanes are better than 3?



because the hard shoulder is there for a reason.
The last thing I want on a busy motorway if I break down is an HGV coming at me at 50 MPH

highguyuk

If you break down there are regular refuse areas, all fantastically lit, monitored on CCTV with Emergency Telephone.

There is CCTV throughout the scheme, so if there is anyone on the H/S they won't open it ... :-)

Lorian

Neil_Taylor wrote:

because the hard shoulder is there for a reason.
The last thing I want on a busy motorway if I break down is an HGV coming at me at 50 MPH

Exactly. I believe the active traffic management is *supposed* to detect broken down cars in the left hand land and automatically "switch" the lane back to being hard-sholder for that particular segement, but it still seems risky to me. It'll only takes one driver to miss the lane shut signal, or someone to be speeding along behind you the very moment you break down.

Maybe my fears are mis-placed and it'll all work well. Maybe it's been tested elsewhere, I don't know.

Dingers51

As I understand things based on 20-odd years as a professional driver working all over our green and pleasant land speedos as fitted in cars are not permitted to under-read your speed and have to be accurate to within 10%. So if you are travelling at an indicated 70mph you are in fact 'only' doing something between 63 + 70mph. Speedos as fitted in commercial vehicles are part of the tachograph and are calibrated instruments which are accurate. If the speedo in a truck reads 50mph then the truck is travelling at 50mph. If you are travelling behind that truck and keeping pace with it your speedo is probably showing around 55mph. During the late '80s when tachographs were introduced I noticed that the general speed of traffic increased. My opinion is that during this period due to the extra publicity involved people noticed that commercial vehicles were 'speeding' due to the disparity between the tachographs and mass-produced speedos in cars. I still see incidents today where last-minute braking takes place at Gatsos and the car decreases its speed to around 5mph less than the posted limit.
I'm sorry this is so long-winded but I hope it will clear up some of the confusion.