Possibly because we are all forced to drive at 50mph. Therefore a 200mile trip takes four hours, instead of under three hours at 70mph. If 25% of the vehicles were taken off the roads (due to already arriving) it would make a big difference!
What the government seem to forget is the technology maintenance cost has to be funded and they will obviously be using the cameras to try to bridge that shortfall. This becomes a vicious cycle of 3 to 5 year refreshes due to the speed at which technology moves on, otherwise they have to pay exorbitant support charges, assuming the technology is still available. Throwing money down the drain with this, not to mention the hours/days lost per driver while they took over 12 months to install them in the first place (I lived the M3 and M4 smart motorway project for 3 years).
The M23 is being converted into a Shart Motorway. Mile after mile of 50mph/average speed cam narrow lane roadworks. For years. I may decide to crash from simple boredom and frustration.
i'v no idea if this is true. I don't drive on motorways. . Bad enough we accept yellow plates on the rear of a vehicle to make it easy for speed cameras to read the number. The Republic of Ireland has no yellow plates for the simple reason it has no speed cameras. (Scotland has shut down 80% of speed cameras not out of guilt for using them as revenue sources, but because the cameras are so costly to maintain.) Here in England and the ‘regions’ we are to be given Sherwood Forest green plates with black letters and numerals, (Robin Hood tights thrown in for free) a cost to the taxpayer for what benefit? Lots of people are colour blind. They will see blue plates.
^Agree. and the 50 mph avg speed check in roadworks is bloody dangerous with trucks and cars battling it out at 54 mph. Should be 60, above the trucks speed limiters.
I bet this will be like the HS2 review, lots more money on lunches & dinners. To come too the same conclusion that not enough money has been spent. Pathetic tories.
Doesn't work that simply though does it. People seem to be able to maintain a steady speed (be it 50mph or even 70mph), it's when there isn't an "imposed" limit (if we can call it that) that people's driving/riding becomes erratic and they stop and start and it causes tailbacks. As a case in point, when SWMBO used to leave work in Leeds anywhere between 5pm and 6pm (before that particular stretch of the M1 became a "smart motorway") it would take her her anywhere between 1.5hrs and 2hrs to get home simply because the traffic would come to a standstill fairly regularly through crap and erratic driving and the flow stopping and starting all the time. When it became a "smart motorway" the traffic started to flow and her journey time became 45 minutes, without fail. So from that pov it works.
I don't commute daily on the same stretch of motorways so I can't really comment. That said; if flashing a number overhead works, then I would like that number to be 70 as opposed to 40, especially when I am one of very few motorists on a near empty road.
You are on a nearly empty stretch of road because you are travelling at 40mph and keeping pace with traffic just out of sight ahead of you that is also travelling at 40mph. At 70mph, you will quickly catch that tailback up. And then you'll road rage cos of the traffic. Meh. That's the theory. In practice it's all bollocks cos there needs to be half the current population to make the UK bearable. Crowded roads are just one of the piss-poor aspects of rabbit-warren Britain.
If the number is in a little circle, it is a speed limit. If the number is not in a little circle, it is advisory - ie feck 'em, I go the speed I want : o )
I think that it took almost 5 years of 50MPH/ Cash Generating pain to complete the M60 around Greater Manchester and it's still as bad as the M25 in rush hour traffic. I think that the M6 between J16 - J19 took around 4 years. Often amazes me who signed these short sighted/ narrow minded ideas off on Safety grounds. Especially when you breakdown and the vulnerabilities associated without a Hard Shoulder. Middle Lane plodders, they're everywhere. Not enough is done, even with all the available Tech nowadays.
I hate driving in the UK, everyone seems to be fixated on the speed limit rather than the road.. on the motorway I rarely’overtake’ it’s rather more a drift past the car slower than myself, and cars just sit in your blind spot.. I find uk roads very frustrating, there seems to be a huge double standard And every one not adhering to a certain’standard’ is a ‘twat’ ... had years of sitting next to my father waving thank you one moment and then calling the next driver every name under the sun due to Small Mistake..
Take even longer if we all have to use electric cars. 50mph is about the maximum speed you can go to do 200 miles without draining battery. That's what it is all leading up to.
