A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

[nowster]

Large numbers on DLSs isn't a problem. The Datum point of the M1 and M6 (and southern A74(M)) coincide.

Scotland doesn't do DLS but if it did... https://goo.gl/maps/Q2tZZRcR6dQ6p5LU6

[ManomayLR]

Large numbers on DLSs isn't a problem. The Datum point of the M1 and M6 (and southern A74(M)) coincide.

Scotland doesn't do DLS but if it did... https://goo.gl/maps/Q2tZZRcR6dQ6p5LU6

They don't do most things about motorways right. They never used matrix signs, at first they had Motorwarns and then they took those out too, and there is only one smart motorway near Edinburgh. If it wasn't for the urban sections of M74 and M8, then I'd have completely given up on Scottish motorways. No DLS and where are the SOS phones?

[Jeni]

Large numbers on DLSs isn't a problem. The Datum point of the M1 and M6 (and southern A74(M)) coincide.

Scotland doesn't do DLS but if it did... https://goo.gl/maps/Q2tZZRcR6dQ6p5LU6

They don't do most things about motorways right. They never used matrix signs, at first they had Motorwarns and then they took those out too, and there is only one smart motorway near Edinburgh. If it wasn't for the urban sections of M74 and M8, then I'd have completely given up on Scottish motorways. No DLS and where are the SOS phones?

You've been to Scotland, right?

[someone]

So apparently the A1 now starts, according to the driver location signs, at the new entry-slip from the A14. What an utter joy (!) it was to be greeted with A1 - A - 0.1 on joining

Is that where the A1(M) would have started had the motorway designation plan for the A14 not been dropped?

I have only seen the proposal refer to "Alconbury to Brampton" though obviously non-motorway traffic would have had to leave at the B1514 junction. But as a two-lane section they may have left it like the Catthorpe section of the A14 west of junction 1, which only leads on to a motorway yet is not one.

[Berk]

Large numbers on DLSs isn't a problem. The Datum point of the M1 and M6 (and southern A74(M)) coincide.

Scotland doesn't do DLS but if it did... https://goo.gl/maps/Q2tZZRcR6dQ6p5LU6

They don't do most things about motorways right. They never used matrix signs, at first they had Motorwarns and then they took those out too, and there is only one smart motorway near Edinburgh. If it wasn't for the urban sections of M74 and M8, then I'd have completely given up on Scottish motorways. No DLS and where are the SOS phones?

You've been to Scotland, right?

Depends whether he’s got it loaded in the sat-nav.

[Hdeng16]

Large numbers on DLSs isn't a problem. The Datum point of the M1 and M6 (and southern A74(M)) coincide.

Scotland doesn't do DLS but if it did... https://goo.gl/maps/Q2tZZRcR6dQ6p5LU6

They don't do most things about motorways right. They never used matrix signs, at first they had Motorwarns and then they took those out too, and there is only one smart motorway near Edinburgh. If it wasn't for the urban sections of M74 and M8, then I'd have completely given up on Scottish motorways. No DLS and where are the SOS phones?

What?!

[Chris5156]

So apparently the A1 now starts, according to the driver location signs, at the new entry-slip from the A14. What an utter joy (!) it was to be greeted with A1 - A - 0.1 on joining

Is that where the A1(M) would have started had the motorway designation plan for the A14 not been dropped?

The zero-point at Huntingdon is 100km from London - the markerposts count up to 99.9km and then revert to 0 rather than 100. It's been there for decades; the fact it's now found at the new A14 interchange is just coincidence.

[ManomayLR]

Sorry what I said was a bit too extreme compared to what I meant - what I mean is that it’s rather surprising that Scotland never adopted the MS1 when it first came out, instead staying with the Motorwarn, and never use driver location signs - they don’t have many smart motorways either. So it’s just a bit different compared to English motorways where every mile there is an electronic signal.

[Alderpoint]

So it’s just a bit different compared to English motorways where every mile there is an electronic signal.

Bit of a sweeping statement. Last few days I've driven the whole length of three difference English motorways* and seen less than half-a-dozen VMS.

*M45, M69, and M54.

[orudge]

never use driver location signs

We have marker posts (and emergency phones, which can also be found on some trunk A roads) - I don’t know that DLS are particularly needed.

they don’t have many smart motorways either

For the most part, we don’t need them! I don’t know how beneficial the M90/M9 intelligent traffic system is, as I don’t use those roads at rush hour, but presumably it helps. I can imagine parts of the M8 and maybe the M80 might benefit from it, but there doesn’t seem to be a rush to install such technology.

So it’s just a bit different compared to English motorways where every mile there is an electronic signal.

You say that like Scotland not having that is a bad thing!

[DavidBrown]

Whilst a bit more technology on Scottish motorways I don't think would go amiss, I do think the benefit of MS1's are being somewhat overstated here. If I join the M5, and the first matrix is flashing away at 50, does that mean I'll be stuck in stationary traffic for the next 3 hours, or will the next sign just say 'End'? Both scenarios, and anything in between, happen to such an extent that the sign may as well not be there, and I don't think the A74(M) or M90 are any worse off for not having them. I've thought for a while now that the Welsh stretch of the M4 is probably the closest to being the ideal mix of basic warnings and useful information on various VMS. Can't say I think too much of DLS either.

Still, this is the A14 thread we're in, right?!

[Pendlemac]

So it’s just a bit different compared to English motorways where every mile there is an electronic signal.

Bit of a sweeping statement. Last few days I've driven the whole length of three difference English motorways* and seen less than half-a-dozen VMS.

*M45, M69, and M54.

Given that the M69 is around 15 miles long, there must be at least a dozen along there given the usual spacing of a pair every 2 miles.

( The fact that the latest versions have a much higher 'Ooh Shiney!' quotient does NOT mean that the basic MS1 can no longer be described as a 'Variable Message Sign' )

[Steven]

So it’s just a bit different compared to English motorways where every mile there is an electronic signal.

Bit of a sweeping statement. Last few days I've driven the whole length of three difference English motorways* and seen less than half-a-dozen VMS.

*M45, M69, and M54.

Given there's more than half a dozen MS3s between the start of signage for M54 J2 and the M6 then it's not the fact they don't exist...

[Alderpoint]

Given that the M69 is around 15 miles long, there must be at least a dozen along there given the usual spacing of a pair every 2 miles.

( The fact that the latest versions have a much higher 'Ooh Shiney!' quotient does NOT mean that the basic MS1 can no longer be described as a 'Variable Message Sign' )

Apologies, I was referring to the large textual signs, I really don't think of those little matrix signs in the central reservation as "electronic signals".

[mikehindsonevans]

I have just arrived in Cambridge after a hilarious diversion. The advance warnings were displayed from Kettering as I headed eastwards, advising an A14 closure from j25 to j31 (Histon).

Great traffic management from Cambridge Services, coning us down to one lane and then off at Bar Hill (I think, because none of the directional signs can be read without main beam, which annoys the poor sap in front of you). There's a Tesco just south on the second roundabout (where the "A14 East" diversion signs were sending us).

Unfortunately, a few absent diversion signs had a lot of us back on the Westbound carriageway heading back towards Huntington and Godmanchester.

We went past Cambridge Services and were then directed off, up over and back onto the eastbound A14!

Arrived at the closure a second time. This time, many of us thought "******* this for a game of soldiers, I have a bed waiting for me". Thus a large convoy headed out towards Oakington, eventually rejoining the A14 Eastbound at J31 having explored Histon.

Not a good night for HA and their signage monkeys, many of whom were sitting in their well-illuminated lorries at critical points, believing that their job was done.

Sorry lads, not tonight it wasn't.

G'night.
Mike

Please let us know the response to your complaint/enquiry to the organisation concerned.
I am sure they will want to know your experience of what went wrong and learn from it.

Richard,
I have, today, received a response from HA to an email which I sent them on December 16th. So assume about a month from now.
Mike.

[Arcuarius]

Large numbers on DLSs isn't a problem. The Datum point of the M1 and M6 (and southern A74(M)) coincide.

Scotland doesn't do DLS but if it did... https://goo.gl/maps/Q2tZZRcR6dQ6p5LU6

The A38 near M1 junction 28 is numbered up to something like 472 IIRC. To me it's far more important that the references are unique because there's no sense in having two locations with the same DLS reference, when you happen to have broken down there.

[NICK 647063]

So google maps updated within a few weeks of the new A14 opening but how come Highways England cannot update traffic England? All the new cameras are showing but on the old road but when clicked you view the new road, yet no new road shown, it’s crazy considering it’s Highways England’s Road..

[c2R]

To me it's far more important that the references are unique because there's no sense in having two locations with the same DLS reference, when you happen to have broken down there.

Sort of... The a1 numbers are so far apart In restarting you'd be calling a different control riom when you dial 112/999 anyway

[Bryn666]

Large numbers on DLSs isn't a problem. The Datum point of the M1 and M6 (and southern A74(M)) coincide.

Scotland doesn't do DLS but if it did... https://goo.gl/maps/Q2tZZRcR6dQ6p5LU6

The A38 near M1 junction 28 is numbered up to something like 472 IIRC. To me it's far more important that the references are unique because there's no sense in having two locations with the same DLS reference, when you happen to have broken down there.

I see that the destinations on the 1/2m sign don't match the ones on the final fork now which has been replaced like for like and still has the massively wide and massively silly "South West Scotland" destination.

[M5Lenzar]

Sort of... The a1 numbers are so far apart In restarting you'd be calling a different control riom when you dial 112/999 anyway

What if you're calling the RAC or AA?