I've spent part of the last two days on the motorway network in the Midlands and found several things which were new to me.
Paying the toll on the Midlands Expressway is now simply a matter of shoving a credit or debit card into the machine.
No PIN required, and I couldn't tell you how much I've paid.
On the M1 there's traffic lights on slip roads, variable speed limits, and speed camera gantries every few hundred yards.
The M6 near Birmingham has the same variable speed limits, and you can use the hard shoulder at certain times of the day.
All new to me, but at least it forces you to concentrate.
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>> I've spent part of the last two days on the motorway network in the Midlands
Were you lost Iffy?
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...Were you lost Iffy?...
Happily not, it's still just possible to read the direction signs among the clutter.
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>> I've spent part of the last two days on the motorway network in the Midlands
>> and found several things which were new to me.
>>
>> Paying the toll on the Midlands Expressway is now simply a matter of shoving a
>> credit or debit card into the machine.
>>
>> No PIN required, and I couldn't tell you how much I've paid.
AFAIK the toll road has been like that since it opened. At first I suppose the toll was only two or three quid and one might use coins. You can get a receipt but it involves pressing a button almost simultaneously with inserting the card.
Just like the toll roads in France.
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I had to get a car out of an NCP car park last week. Happily, the punter had left the ticket on the dash.
I knew the fee was going to be high but I was pleasantly surprised when it let me use my debit card, without a pin. It did show the amount first and it printed it on the ticket after paying.
Might have been stuck in the place while I went to find a cash machine otherwise.
Ted
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Agree with iffy - the motorways around Birmingham have become "busy" with roadsigns and layouts - travelling south on it four weeks ago was easy, coming back in the daytime was a nightmare - but the variable speed limits and hard shoulder running make one hell of a difference.
iffy - even around here they have contacless CC capability - not reached N. Yorks yet ?
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I had a recent trip up the M6 to the M54.
I found the use of the hard shoulder a definite advantage - when sign-posted. A lot like using bus-lanes when permitted.
I do hope the hoi-polloi don't learn to read road signs.
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You're right Tom - not many seem to want to use the shoulders. More room for me.
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...not many seem to want to use the shoulders...
Same when I was there.
My local passenger told me it's not always clear when the permission to use the hard shoulder ends.
I didn't use it - too much risk of picking up a puncture.
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Quite right and anyway the inside lanes are only for sweeping across when joining or leaving motorways. Oh and for the "others" I suppose.
:-)
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I saw several middle lane cruisers on the M6 toll road.
Not that it mattered, very little traffic on it mid-morning.
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The M42 round the south of Brum is a sensory overload, busy does not describe it, everytime I go round there they have added a new layer of complexity, from temporary lanes, variable speed limits and some junctions where nearside lane becomes off ramp and some dont, you never quite settle just incase you end up in a car park by accident.
Hateful piece of road.
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I wonder what Rattle would make of it if he went on it.... only pulling your leg in a friendly way.
Some roads are getting complex layouts that change... thankfully some roads are quieter with the high fuel prices.
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>> The M42 round the south of Brum is a sensory overload, busy does not describe
>> it, everytime I go round there they have added a new layer of complexity, from
>> temporary lanes, variable speed limits and some junctions where nearside lane becomes off ramp and
>> some dont, you never quite settle just incase you end up in a car park
>> by accident.
good lord what a bunch of wimps! Meat and drink to us north circular, M25 london drivers.
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...Meat and drink to us north circular, M25 london drivers...
If the M25 and north circular is meat and drink, I'll stick to my diet of proper motoring in the north.
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M25 is easy, its just a giant roundabout.
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Yeah, but which way! Its twice the size of the brum one, which is a mere polo in comparison.
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Had an appointment at 0920 today at the eye hospital....normally 15 minutes from home, even in the rush hour. You get onto the A34 then make a right at lights, with a filter, and you're there......seemples.
Not for some weeks, certainly at least two months, my last visit. There are big holes in the road you turn into, at the lights. So what have they done ? it's now no entry, but traffic can come out. It would seem to me to be more important to let traffic into get to hospital appointments and emergencies. It is the city's major teaching hospital, children's and eye hospital.....a massive complex. Surely there's less urgency for traffic leaving the hospital and folk can make a more leisurely way home using the diversions. My 15 minutes became 45 minutes today. I knew about it and I knew all the little short cuts and ways round., so I was on time.
Heaven help strangers !
I did go up one road...straight across the lights and right at the next set.....no ! Fooled you, I ended up on the approach road to a multi-storey. They'd only gorn and put in a new set of lights since I'd last been there.
Ted
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I'm out of touch - Manatee
