Motorway warning signs??
11 December 2003, 09:39 AM
#1
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Who is actually responsible for the overhead message boards on motorways? i.e. Who controls what is displayed?
I'm rather browned off with them, as yet again this morning, they showed useless information about not drinking and driving, and not using your mobile.
Then, the 2 signs before junction 15 on the M40 were warning of an accident on the A34... both of them... rather than mentioning that round the next bend, at junction 14, there is a huge queue of traffic trailing on to the hard-shoulder!!
Numerous drivers like myself, came round the corner to find they had nowhere to go, having already missed the back of the queue, and were forced to cut-in at the last second, thus becoming a hazard to drivers already in the queue, and those behind still on the motorway.
So who do I contact to continue my rant at?
I'm rather browned off with them, as yet again this morning, they showed useless information about not drinking and driving, and not using your mobile.
Then, the 2 signs before junction 15 on the M40 were warning of an accident on the A34... both of them... rather than mentioning that round the next bend, at junction 14, there is a huge queue of traffic trailing on to the hard-shoulder!!
Numerous drivers like myself, came round the corner to find they had nowhere to go, having already missed the back of the queue, and were forced to cut-in at the last second, thus becoming a hazard to drivers already in the queue, and those behind still on the motorway.
So who do I contact to continue my rant at?
11 December 2003, 09:58 AM
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Funny that - I was wondering just the same thing this morning.
The queue signs light up and there is no queue, then you get the signs saying 'End' and lo and behold round the next bend it's total gridlock.
Then you hear the road safety people/police etc. banging on about drivers - it's not just the drivers it's your poxy signs!!
tiggers.
The queue signs light up and there is no queue, then you get the signs saying 'End' and lo and behold round the next bend it's total gridlock.
Then you hear the road safety people/police etc. banging on about drivers - it's not just the drivers it's your poxy signs!!
tiggers.
11 December 2003, 10:01 AM
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Coming back from Birmingham the other night 2 overhead signs showed a 50mph limit and proclaimed "Men Working in Carriageway" so I reduced my speed then the next sign read "End" and then half a mile later there were some men working in the carriageway 
11 December 2003, 10:05 AM
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I love the way when you've been driving in fog (cos it is foggy everywhere not just on the motorway) and in the thick of it you see a nice sign saying FOG. No **** sherlock!!!
Andy
Andy
11 December 2003, 10:16 AM
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Coming onto the M5 this morning there was a sign at the beginning of the slip road lit up with "20mph" then at the end of the slip road "End"!!?? wtf? [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
11 December 2003, 11:09 AM
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The Matrix signs are controlled by the Police Motorway control room for that area, so for example the M4, M40, M1 and M25 in the Thames Valley Police area are controlled by Kidlington.
The control room is very reliant on being kept informed by the Motorway crews, and sometimes they are inaccurate either because there is no one available to update the information or the computer suffers a fault.
The computer main frame is actually located on the Eastbound M4 at junction 5, and if it gets taken out it wipes out the M4, M40, M1 and M25 Matrix.
As a by the by, if you are ever on the Motorway around 2.00 in the morning and you see a blanket 60 displayed, this is the early morning check as 60 MPH is the hardest speed matrix for the computer to work out, so it is done early hours of the morning to make sure that everything is working before the rush hour starts.
The control room is very reliant on being kept informed by the Motorway crews, and sometimes they are inaccurate either because there is no one available to update the information or the computer suffers a fault.
The computer main frame is actually located on the Eastbound M4 at junction 5, and if it gets taken out it wipes out the M4, M40, M1 and M25 Matrix.
As a by the by, if you are ever on the Motorway around 2.00 in the morning and you see a blanket 60 displayed, this is the early morning check as 60 MPH is the hardest speed matrix for the computer to work out, so it is done early hours of the morning to make sure that everything is working before the rush hour starts.
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11 December 2003, 12:11 PM
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Slightly off subject.
When I was working for the Rainford Group(a design company specializing in RFI shielded cabinets for the mobile phone industry, ie base stations), I was one of three people responsible for designing these signs.(woooooooooo)
I was working in the design dept using AutoCad ver10/12,and a design package called metal soft. I was responsible for the design of the actual cabinets. The box bit that all the elecronics and light units are housed.
We were working for Siemens Plessey who were wireing up the cabinets and putting all the 'gubbins' in them.
The contract was known as V.M.S (variable motorway signage).
The proto-type unit was shipped to a company who were designing the pillar stand, which the whole unit was fixed to. The unit was filled with sand bags to emullate the internal fixtures. So it was the correct finished weight. They hung it up, and yes, you guessed it, during the night it collapsed and destroyed the one and only unit.
Nothing to do with us may I add........
I was later 'moved on', shall we say, to designing Bus Shelters, and advertising light units for More O'Ferrall and A.Maiden..
Those were the days......
Later Yoza
When I was working for the Rainford Group(a design company specializing in RFI shielded cabinets for the mobile phone industry, ie base stations), I was one of three people responsible for designing these signs.(woooooooooo)
I was working in the design dept using AutoCad ver10/12,and a design package called metal soft. I was responsible for the design of the actual cabinets. The box bit that all the elecronics and light units are housed.
We were working for Siemens Plessey who were wireing up the cabinets and putting all the 'gubbins' in them.
The contract was known as V.M.S (variable motorway signage).
The proto-type unit was shipped to a company who were designing the pillar stand, which the whole unit was fixed to. The unit was filled with sand bags to emullate the internal fixtures. So it was the correct finished weight. They hung it up, and yes, you guessed it, during the night it collapsed and destroyed the one and only unit.
Nothing to do with us may I add........
I was later 'moved on', shall we say, to designing Bus Shelters, and advertising light units for More O'Ferrall and A.Maiden..
Those were the days......
Later Yoza
11 December 2003, 01:36 PM
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I half-inched one of the Maiden metal signs from such an advertising board when I was a youth, and into Iron Maiden. One of those drunken moments... Not that it was ever used - my old Man told me I couldn't put it up on the wall, so it got chucked.
11 December 2003, 06:14 PM
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all the messages relating to drink drive and wear your seatbelt and dont use your phone ect are all put on by the department of transport, nothing to do with the police.
appreciate the frustration when the warning of speed limits and stuff is wrong but it is often the case that operators in Police Control rooms (who cant see the road) have to rely on patrols updating and when it comes to roadworks ect the control sets the signs and has to wait for the workmen to tell them when they have finished, often there can be a delay. Also the old matrix signs often fail and do not cancell and engineers take days sometimes to sort out the defect. Any way experience shows when a 40mph sign is on nobody hardly complies. The FOG matrix is not to simply tell you it is foggy coz that is obvious, it is a reminder to those who dont to SLOW DOWN.
wazza
appreciate the frustration when the warning of speed limits and stuff is wrong but it is often the case that operators in Police Control rooms (who cant see the road) have to rely on patrols updating and when it comes to roadworks ect the control sets the signs and has to wait for the workmen to tell them when they have finished, often there can be a delay. Also the old matrix signs often fail and do not cancell and engineers take days sometimes to sort out the defect. Any way experience shows when a 40mph sign is on nobody hardly complies. The FOG matrix is not to simply tell you it is foggy coz that is obvious, it is a reminder to those who dont to SLOW DOWN.
wazza
12 December 2003, 10:56 AM
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I appreciate that it must be difficult to keep them truly up to date. But in my experience these sigs when they are warning about something are usally wrong more than they are right. So I tend to ignore them now, and I'm sure others do the same.
My missus gets a bit brassed off when I moan about them all the time, but there must be a better way.
My missus gets a bit brassed off when I moan about them all the time, but there must be a better way.
12 December 2003, 11:12 AM
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My missus gets a bit brassed off when I moan about them all the time, but there must be a better way.
12 December 2003, 11:13 AM
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Maybe they could use the money usually spent on Speed Cameras on Roadside Watchers instead. 
They could sit near the side of the road, in an elevated position (tennis umpire's chair perhaps), and signal for people to slow down with flags, and also, more helpfully, inform the people controlling these info boards of problems on the road at that location.
Either that, or someone could increase the numbers of police patrols at the cost of a few cameras...
They could sit near the side of the road, in an elevated position (tennis umpire's chair perhaps), and signal for people to slow down with flags, and also, more helpfully, inform the people controlling these info boards of problems on the road at that location.
Either that, or someone could increase the numbers of police patrols at the cost of a few cameras...
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