Safe Speed Forums

I will be driving down this infamous motorway in a couple of weeks. Last time I went along here was well over a year ago, before the 'active traffic management' was fully in force. Can anyone who uses the M42 regularly please let me know what the status of it is now, with regard to camera hazards and variable speed limits etc. I'd rather know in advance rather than trying to work it out as I drive along.
Thanks in advance.

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Why can't we just use Common Sense?

VSL is active.
there are cameras.

anything else?

It depends on what time you drive on it. Any time that might be considered remotely "rush-like" it's busy but generally free flowing, albeit slowly - averaging 40 to 50 may be as good as you get. Early afternoon it seems fairly OK, in my recent experience, and later in the evening too.

A tip I was given to spot the cameras is to look at the opposite carriageway gantries, as the gantries that have cameras have them on both sides not just one side. I haven't proved this, so if you get caught don't blame me!

M6 toll road junction with the M42 is a nightmare in both directions, even when not busy it's easy to get in the wrong lane as the signs appear to be deliberately sadistic.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Not a dig at you, but we really shouldn't be having to do this. The roads are already full of hazards - we shouldn't be having to look out for artificial ones...

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

Cheers mate, that's answered everything What I really meant was what sort of cameras (SPECS etc), and for what length of the motorway? And how often does the VSL change, do the cameras change their speed monitoring exactly in sync with a Speed limit change etc? Probably totally daft questions but I'm just feeling a little paranoid about driving along there.

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Why can't we just use Common Sense?

Will you be driving down the M6 before you get to the M42? Which way are you coming from?

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

M6 - M6Toll - M42 - M40 I think is the motorway sequence I'll use.

Edited to add: oh and it'll be late evening time - probably about 8-9pm before hitting the M42

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Why can't we just use Common Sense?

If you don’t mind paying the toll I’d say that’s your best bet. I drove back home yesterday and the queue from the M6/M5 junction was backed up right back to near the M6/M6 Toll, this was around 2.00pm. I’d also come back the same way.

I understand what BottyBurp is saying, but the cameras are easily noticed on the other side of the motorway, and you will spend less time looking across the other side than you will trying to see them from the carriageway you’re on. Just keep within the limits displayed and you’ll be fine, even though they may seem pathetic.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

no, I agree - I should have qualified that statement.

The cameras - they are Gatso-like in shape and have digital connections to the base (so they don't need trained monkeys to retrieve the film, unlike M25 ones that they have to move about every now and then). There were no SPECS cameras there last week. If the speed limit changes you have a grace period before the camera can flash you, in effect that means if the speed limit on the sign above you changes down by 10 or 20 miles per hour when you can't see it, you will not be flashed as you will be out of sensor range by the time the grace period ends.

The hard shoulder apparently becomes carriageway at very busy times, so if you break down you have to coast to the next 'refuge' area (or presumably, push it there?).

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

From what I have read the random speed limit is in place, the cameras may be in place but even if they actually work they aren't type approved.

Some info here.

Nobody seems to have agreed how they work though. Some say radar, some say laser, some say ANPR. Radar seems most likely. Some say they are digital cameras, some say film based. But basically it appears that they don't work. Or at least the software controlling them doesn't.

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Andrew.

they can't be - having sat under one for a while a couple of weeks ago, I had chance to observe it for a while. There is NO way film can be retrieved without closing the motorway. The M25 ones have an enclosed cralwspace around them, and a built in crane to lift them up on the hard shoulder, the M42 ones are ona much lighter frame. There is no way H&S would allow them to change the film in situ.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

That would make an interesting FOI, how many people have been caught speeding since the system went live?

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

AIUI this element of the scheme hasn't been turned on yet, it is due to happen some time next year.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Dare I ask how you came to be sitting on a motorway?

Ok, so they must be digital then! Hence definatly requiring seperate type approval


"How many 'Notice of Intended Prossecution's have been issued after these cameras have been trigered?" and maybe "And of these how many prossecutions have been successful?"
I think the answer is 0 though.
I don't even know where this motorway is, I can only guess "up north"... As I am on the south coast most things are "up north". So if someone else wants to do this...

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Andrew.

There's a picture..

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

I would have been "driving" but the cars in front weren't moving, so it would have been awfully rude to drive into them!

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Aa-ha! You were queueing under the queue reduction system gantry, I see now!

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Andrew.

I'll send one, anyone know who the FOI should go to?

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Presumably the Highways Agency or which ever police force the road is in.

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Andrew.

Cheers for the answers. Sounds like a ridiculously OTT system which I am hazarding a guess will do nothing to reduce congestion. And the hard shoulder idea may seem like it'll be quite effective - until someone breaks down or there's a crash, when it'll probably make things far worse.

I do seem to recall last time I drove along it (early last year), was during a fairly quiet period of a weekend, but they still had a (largely ignored) VSL of 60 displayed.

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Why can't we just use Common Sense?