Motorway Gantry Signs

Frank Wilson

Who pens these pearls of wisdom

"Queue Caution"

No sh-t mate i've been sat here 20 minutes already

"Strong Winds Today"

No sh-t as I am being buffeted from lane to lane and paper bags etc are flying all over the place

"50 50 50 END"

Why were we restricted to 50, there was nothing there.

"Pedestrians In Carriageway"

I must have seen this sign dozens of times and I have yet to witness these foolhardy people in the carriageway.

"M6 Junction 13 Long Delays"

Why don't they put Junction 13 Stafford or whatever town it is, do they think that every driver in this country is a walking encyplopedia on every motorway junction and it's destination in the country.

They are beginning to wind me up.

Pross

My favourite is squinting through fog or heavy spray trying to read what the sign is telling me and when I can eventually make it out it says 'poor visibility'.

napoleond

my favourite is 'Sign not in use'

Mikey23

Oh the joy of living in the country!

napoleond

Bozman

I like the challenge ones. " 30miles/28mins to junction * ".

florerider

Possible queue ahead

If it ain't a queue than what the devil is it?

rodgers73

"Is your car ready for winter?"

"Check your fuel"

I don't know where we'd be without them...

amaferanga

Frank Wilson wrote:

"50 50 50 END"

Why were we restricted to 50, there was nothing there.

My understanding is that this is often an attempt to keep traffic flowing. If people ignore it then instead of traffic slowing a bit, but still continuing to flow, you get the horrible stop start traffic. It works well where the speed limit is enforced (e.g. Parts of M6), but not at all on e.g. the M60 around Manchester where most people just ignore it.

MountainMonster

Did you know every junction sign has the junction number written on it. Not exactly rocket science to look at the corner of a sign and see how many junctions away you are.

Lazyness is amazing in humans.

Superbalicious

I understand advisory 50mph speed limits may be set when an unconfirmed report of an incident is received. Once investigated, if it turns out to be nothing, or has cleared quickly then the speed would be cancelled. If it is verified as an actual incident then the appropriate action would be taken which may include setting lower limits. As many reports may turn out to be nothing, or very short duration, it may sometimes the case that it's cancelled after you have driven passed it. They may also be set when an automatic incident detection system picks up slow moving traffic further along the motorway... if people slow down it would give the actual queue a chance to disperse. If you don't get to the queue then it worked...!

Fuel... you would not believe the number of people who run out of fuel on the motorway. If it means one less person runs out of fuel then that's one less driver stopped on the hard shoulder, one less person in a potentially unsafe environment, and also one less recovery operative in a potentially unsafe environment too.

Pedestrians... Could be kids playing chicken. Just because you didn't see then does not mean they weren't there 30 seconds before you drove passed. Personally I'd rather see the message and not see the pedestrians, rather than not have a message and have to avoid someone, potentially causing an accident in the process.

Strong winds forecast... if it makes one lorry driver pull off and tie back the sides of their unladen curtainsider then it could be one less hgv being blown over and crushing other cars as happened in the recent winds.

Maybe the system isn't perfect, some messages may or may not apply to you or your journey, but I guess it all helps to make the UK motorway network one of the safest in the world. Now if people would stop crashing, being unprepared, etc then that would solve half of the problems straight away...!

Oh, and mandatory speed limits are coming to the M60 if the press releases are anything to go by...

secretsam

I'd be interested to know how they advise people from abroad of the speed limit in those "Rough Guide" books, etc. The point being, in the UK if you drive on a normal, not too congested motorway at the national speed limit of 70, you'll get overtaken by 99% of all the other cars, vans, motorbikes, etc. The only exceptions will be the Cops themselves (unless on a blue light) and doddering old farts who should be taken out and shot, no questions asked.

pinno

I like the advice one's:

'Wear your seatbelt'
'Tiredness can kill, take a break'... which gets the mind working, they could have:
'Wash with soap'
'Cook eggs in water'
'Practice safe sex'
'Eat food'...

pinno

SecretSam wrote:

I'd be interested ...doddering old farts who should be taken out and shot, no questions asked.

You mean Mikey and Team47b et al, should be taken out and shot?

DavidBelcher

pinarello001 wrote:

I like the advice one's:

'Wear your seatbelt'
'Tiredness can kill, take a break'... which gets the mind working, they could have:
'Wash with soap'
'Cook eggs in water'
'Practice safe sex'
'Eat food'...

My favourite is "Think Bike". As if I needed any further encouragement to do anything but....although I think the type of bike mentioned on the sign isn't quite the same!

David

Frank Wilson

MountainMonster wrote:

Did you know every junction sign has the junction number written on it. Not exactly rocket science to look at the corner of a sign and see how many junctions away you are.

Lazyness is amazing in humans.

Ah but if I am driving say to Wolverhampton, I would come off at the sign marked Wolverhampton, I would not know what junction number it was so therefore I would not know if Wolverhampton was before or after the queue at junction 13, so as you can see it is not laziness. Everyday of my working life I come off at the exit marked Bredbury, I look for Bredbury because that is where I need to come off, but don't ask me what junction number it is because that is of no consequence, I am not going to 47 or 63 I am going to Bredbury.

Thanks for calling me lazy though, that will spur me into a full on training regime involving running 10 miles per night with a copy of the UK motorway network about my person so I can learn all the junction numbers, then maybe I can get a job with Eddie Stobart in Carlisle, sorry don't know which junction number Carlisle is or I would have just put 23 or something similar.

Tiltzey Boy

I like "Check your distance"

Last time I looked it was 134489, but I've driven to Bristol and back a couple of times since, so it's probably over 135K now, which reminds me, it's a few Ks overdue for a service.....bugger!!

Kendal Black Drop

Frank Wilson wrote:

Everyday of my working life I come off at the exit marked Bredbury, I look for Bredbury because that is where I need to come off, but don't ask me what junction number it is because that is of no consequence...

...sorry don't know which junction number Carlisle is...

42, 43 and 44 depending on whether you want south, central or north Carlisle.

I don't know how many junctions Wolverhampton has.

Mike Healey

SecretSam wrote:

I'd be interested to know how they advise people from abroad of the speed limit in those "Rough Guide" books, etc. The point being, in the UK if you drive on a normal, not too congested motorway at the national speed limit of 70, you'll get overtaken by 99% of all the other cars, vans, motorbikes, etc. The only exceptions will be the Cops themselves (unless on a blue light) and doddering old farts who should be taken out and shot, no questions asked.

99%??? Really??? Perhaps it's because I'm one of these doddering old farts trundling along at 55-60 in the n/s lane. largely because I'm usually doing the 3.5 miles between J26 and J27. I could break the speed limit, even in my old Escort, but why waste petrol. I'll leave that to the 70+ idiots.

I prefer the old Bavarian (or is it Dutch?) proverb, "Old und shlow und shmart, better than young und qvick und stoopid is"

RideOnTime

Mike Healey wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

I'd be interested to know how they advise people from abroad of the speed limit in those "Rough Guide" books, etc. The point being, in the UK if you drive on a normal, not too congested motorway at the national speed limit of 70, you'll get overtaken by 99% of all the other cars, vans, motorbikes, etc. The only exceptions will be the Cops themselves (unless on a blue light) and doddering old farts who should be taken out and shot, no questions asked.

99%??? Really??? Perhaps it's because I'm one of these doddering old farts trundling along at 55-60 in the n/s lane. largely because I'm usually doing the 3.5 miles between J26 and J27. I could break the speed limit, even in my old Escort, but why waste petrol. I'll leave that to the 70+ idiots.

I prefer the old Bavarian (or is it Dutch?) proverb, "Old und shlow und shmart, better than young und qvick und stoopid is"

yes 99% is exaggerating. If you've been told ten million times not to exaggerate....

J26 to J27... but which motorway... doddery... are you saying everyone over 70 is an idiot...

Mike Healey

RideOnTime wrote:

Mike Healey wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

I'd be interested to know how they advise people from abroad of the speed limit in those "Rough Guide" books, etc. The point being, in the UK if you drive on a normal, not too congested motorway at the national speed limit of 70, you'll get overtaken by 99% of all the other cars, vans, motorbikes, etc. The only exceptions will be the Cops themselves (unless on a blue light) and doddering old farts who should be taken out and shot, no questions asked.

99%??? Really??? Perhaps it's because I'm one of these doddering old farts trundling along at 55-60 in the n/s lane. largely because I'm usually doing the 3.5 miles between J26 and J27. I could break the speed limit, even in my old Escort, but why waste petrol. I'll leave that to the 70+ idiots.

I prefer the old Bavarian (or is it Dutch?) proverb, "Old und shlow und shmart, better than young und qvick und stoopid is"

yes 99% is exaggerating. If you've been told ten million times not to exaggerate....

J26 to J27... but which motorway... doddery... are you saying everyone over 70 is an idiot...

Please re-read the quote from Secret Sam's original post

Sorry - M62 junctions