O/T M42 matrix speed signs

[BaggieSingh]

Was travelling a few weeks back on M42, one gantry had 60 and the next one 50 after I passed the 60 doing 60 I lifted to slow for the next one when I noticed it, but didn’t slow down enough I guess, but I’m not one to break hard on the motorway for no reason

Now I’ve got a speeding ticket for doing 58, anyone else had similar, I thought they’d give you more time to slow down, absolute money making sham as there was no roadworks or heavy traffic

I’ve never had a speeding ticket despite driving for 29 years and don’t really drive too fast at all, but now got 2 in a year, one where a road goes from 60/40/30 and again not breaking hard enough but not in a residential area, no one around and was caught doing 36 in the 30 but right at the start of the new 30 zone which is crazy to me

I never drive faster than I should around residential areas where there may be pedestrians or kids, I would class myself as a really good driver, who tries to keep traffic flowing where possible

I’m going to have to change my driving style to slam the anchors on whenever I see a reduction rather than just lifting which is a bit contradictory to what I was told when I learnt

Anyone had similar ??

[mickd1961]

Forgive me BS because this will sound pedantic......I’m just relaying what was said to me on a speed awareness course ( I’ve been on three of them, I got into trouble for saying I enjoyed them and that the coffee and biscuits offered were always a bit of an pull! )

They describe what you’ve described as “driving without due care and attention and with a lack of awareness of your situation”.

These days you don’t need to “jam on the brakes” to go from 60 to 50 mph anyway, the slightest touch and speed reduces in fractions of a second.

Remember, if a car hits you from behind it’s THEM that gets done and not you, the offence is still “driving without due care and attention” for that scenario.

The driver behind a vehicle is responsible for creating the correct stopping distance required.

The other thing I’ve noticed whilst driving in electric mode is the instant drop off in speed the moment you lift the accelerator, with no combustion you drop 10mph almost instantaneously.

I asked the person doing the course why I’d received a ticket for doing 76 on the M4 in Wales as it was my belief that as a driver you were “allowed” a 10% tolerance rate.

She said that not only was that assumption pure fiction but also questioned as to why any leeway at all should be allowed.

Each mph over the limit increases the chance of death by quite a large %.

I’ve been lucky with the M42 gantry signs, the last time I was heading up north I thought I’d been done as I felt I’d gone through one that dropped to 50 too quickly.

Truth is.......I’d switched off and lost concentration.

I’d suggest this is what you might’ve done BS.

Simple answer is to set your speed limiter to 50 for that whole section and stay in lane one, just because it’s says 50 or 60 doesn’t mean we are forced to drive at that speed, it’s the maximum allowable remember.

[SCOOP115]

I asked the person doing the course why I’d received a ticket for doing 76 on the M4 in Wales as it was my belief that as a driver you were “allowed” a 10% tolerance rate.

She said that not only was that assumption pure fiction but also questioned as to why any leeway at all should be allowed.

Not surprsed at the answer. It seems all those who run the course must stick tp the "Party"line Wales seems to be the most strict when enforcing, however, you are partly right on your "assumption" it seems to be a matter of chance where you get caught. Some Police area openl admit they allow the 10% + 2 mph as the threshold. A lot of other Forces will not disclose whet their limit is.

[Omegstrat6]

As a relief manager a good few years ago I covered a lot of miles and although I never drove dangerously, I admit to having a rather heavy right foot at times and inevitably got caught out by cameras on occasion, mostly for doing just under 80 in the outside lane of a 70 limit. Only time I felt genuinely aggrieved was similar to your own though when I was working away and so didn't know the road and it went from a 60 to a 30 just as you went around a bend . There was a village coming up but no indication of this as the 30 limit started well before and locals I worked with said there had been several complaints about the placing of the camera being purely a money making thing.

[BaggieSingh]

Was on the m42 again today and it is definitely a ploy by the authorities

I saw 50 60 and national speed limit for 4 junctions changing pretty much every gantry

So where does it stop and start at that gantry and just between that one and the next one

That is dangerous as I watched the gantry signs more than anything, absolute joke as it was quite busy so there no danger of anyone doing more than 70 but I have no idea why you have to enforce 60 for 2 gantries then 50 then 70 then 60 again other than to print money

BTW I drove 50 all the way down, getting increasingly more and more pissed off, not by the speed but buy the blatant way they were trying to trip people up

[SCOOP115]

Was on the m42 again today and it is definitely a ploy by the authorities

I saw 50 60 and national speed limit for 4 junctions changing pretty much every gantry

So where does it stop and start at that gantry and just between that one and the next one

That is dangerous as I watched the gantry signs more than anything, absolute joke as it was quite busy so there no danger of anyone doing more than 70 but I have no idea why you have to enforce 60 for 2 gantries then 50 then 70 then 60 again other than to print money

BTW I drove 50 all the way down, getting increasingly more and more pissed off, not by the speed but buy the blatant way they were trying to trip people up

I think you'll find most of these gantry's are controlled automaticaly by reading sensors in the road ahead to calculate trffic volume, speed atc so there must be a "formula" for getting a speed setting - Incidentally, the limit applies from where it is shown until another change (up or down ) appears - You do have about 30 seconds grace period after a sign changes to stop anyone slamming on the anchors at the sight of a change

[BaggieSingh]

Mick in reply to you I think I may have done what you said previously in that I was doing 60 stopped looking at the signs thinking it’s 60 from now on and then hit a sign that said 50 then gone back to 60
I still think it’s so dangerous to change them for such a short space unless there’s road works which are normally really obvious

[mickd1961]

Was on the m42 again today and it is definitely a ploy by the authorities

I saw 50 60 and national speed limit for 4 junctions changing pretty much every gantry

So where does it stop and start at that gantry and just between that one and the next one

That is dangerous as I watched the gantry signs more than anything, absolute joke as it was quite busy so there no danger of anyone doing more than 70 but I have no idea why you have to enforce 60 for 2 gantries then 50 then 70 then 60 again other than to print money

BTW I drove 50 all the way down, getting increasingly more and more pissed off

The speed limit applicable is whatever shows on the gantry, there are cameras attached to the back of some of those gantries but not all.

You can see the box of tricks on the reverse of the speed indicator and get used to which ones have it and which ones don’t.

Your speed is being judged in the 50-60 feet after the gantry, you can see the markers painted on the tarmac.

There’s also average speed cameras on sections of the M42, those bloody yellow things.

Best just to limit yourself to 50 and go easy for 4 or 5 miles.

The A449 from the Black Bridge near Hartlebury and past Ombersley is now average speed cameras so I set y limiter to 51mph as I can’t trust myself to concentrate for 15 minutes.

[SCOOP115]

The speed limit applicable is whatever shows on the gantry, there are cameras attached to the back of some of those gantries but not all.

You can see the box of tricks on the reverse of the speed indicator and get used to which ones have it and which ones don’t.

Your speed is being judged in the 50-60 feet after the gantry, you can see the markers painted on the tarmac.

There’s also average speed cameras on sections of the M42, those bloody yellow things.

Best just to limit yourself to 50 and go easy for 4 or 5 miles.

The A449 from the Black Bridge near Hartlebury and past Ombersley is now average speed cameras so I set y limiter to 51mph as I can’t trust myself to concentrate for 15 minutes.

Also there are cameras positioned on the side of the road (some round the M6/M42 junction) which are apparently "live" all the time even when no lower limits are displayed. They don't need the road markings etc to check So they can nab you at any time (Google HADEC 2)

[BaggieSingh]

I think you'll find most of these gantry's are controlled automaticaly by reading sensors in the road ahead to calculate trffic volume, speed atc so there must be a "formula" for getting a speed setting - Incidentally, the limit applies from where it is shown until another change (up or down ) appears - You do have about 30 seconds grace period after a sign changes to stop anyone slamming on the anchors at the sight of a change

Can’t be a 30 second grace period otherwise I would t have got a ticket as there was one gantry that said 50 between 2 x 60s that did me