A500 Stoke - Average speed cameras

[brummie_rob]

The time has come it appears for the A500 to get 12 average speed cameras between the M6 J15 and Wolstanton (where the widening works are taking place). This has been a long time coming, but since Highways England and CMPG took over patrolling of the route, they have caught over 3500 speeders on several clampdowns:

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... ng-2837547

I think they should personally make it a 60mph average speed zone. In the middle of the night the 50mph will seem very slow!

[PeterA5145]

50 is certainly ridiculously slow, and generally ignored, on the section between Hanford and the M6 that has recently been cut from NSL.

[Truvelo]

The cameras are being installed now and will be in place by December. That seems an extraordinary amount of time

[Bryn666]

As a road that would easily meet HE's standard for a lower tier expressway you'd think that variable speed limits would have been applied...

[trigpoint]

The cameras are being installed now and will be in place by December. That seems an extraordinary amount of time

50 does feel ridiculously slow on this stretch, it really should be nsl.

[Chris Bertram]

The cameras are being installed now and will be in place by December. That seems an extraordinary amount of time

50 does feel ridiculously slow on this stretch, it really should be nsl.

Yeah, but that won't claim many £££ in speeding fines or speed awareness courses, will it?

[Truvelo]

The cameras are being installed now and will be in place by December. That seems an extraordinary amount of time

50 does feel ridiculously slow on this stretch, it really should be nsl.

Yeah, but that won't claim many £££ in speeding fines or speed awareness courses, will it?

Nor will taking 7 months to install the cameras. Think of all the £££ they could be making sooner if the cameras went up quicker.

[Bryn666]

Compliance with average speed checks is much better than standalone sites.

Contrary to popular and misguided opinion they don't generate that much money and improve collision rates.

I'd rather we had these than vans.

[Big L]

I see plenty of folk that slow down for the first average camera, zip gaily along to the next one before crawling past it. Every time I dearly hope that their stupidity earns them a fine and points.

[vlad]

50 is certainly ridiculously slow, and generally ignored, on the section between Hanford and the M6 that has recently been cut from NSL.

50 is generally ignored on the entire A500.

[Bryn666]

As traffic volumes have risen beyond what the A500 was designed for the older interchanges are now substandard for 70.

The "correct" answer is to bring the road up to modern standards but that would involve years of work and considerable expense. It is therefore considered more practical to mitigate poor driver behaviour.

On the whole the A500 is quite low standard, I don't get too worked up about the 50 mph limits along it as a result. In the USA it would undoubtedly have a 45 mph speed limit if not lower in parts.

[trigpoint]

I only use the section between the A50 and the M6/A5182, maybe because I only use it on Friday or Saturday evening but 50 feels very slow and its quite rare to need to leave lane 1.

[Berk]

Compliance with average speed checks is much better than standalone sites.

Contrary to popular and misguided opinion they don't generate that much money and improve collision rates.

I'd rather we had these than vans.

I am coming round to that view myself. As long as it was also extended to removing most humps/bumps/chicanes that have been plonked down over the last 30 years.

[JF2309]

As traffic volumes have risen beyond what the A500 was designed for the older interchanges are now substandard for 70.

The "correct" answer is to bring the road up to modern standards but that would involve years of work and considerable expense. It is therefore considered more practical to mitigate poor driver behaviour.

On the whole the A500 is quite low standard, I don't get too worked up about the 50 mph limits along it as a result. In the USA it would undoubtedly have a 45 mph speed limit if not lower in parts.

Everything here is about right. What has really knackered the A500 is the A50 being hooked directly into its veins (Had the M64 been built.....etc etc) while it deals with more and more local traffic. The benefit of underpassing Stoke Road and City Road roundabouts has long been negated by an increase in traffic volume, if the M6 is ever shut then you’re really up a creek if you need to use the A500. It needs to do its job, but to do it we’ll just have to go slower than before, its better than not moving at all.

[Duple]

As traffic volumes have risen beyond what the A500 was designed for the older interchanges are now substandard for 70.

The "correct" answer is to bring the road up to modern standards but that would involve years of work and considerable expense. It is therefore considered more practical to mitigate poor driver behaviour.

On the whole the A500 is quite low standard, I don't get too worked up about the 50 mph limits along it as a result. In the USA it would undoubtedly have a 45 mph speed limit if not lower in parts.

Everything here is about right. What has really knackered the A500 is the A50 being hooked directly into its veins (Had the M64 been built.....etc etc) while it deals with more and more local traffic. The benefit of underpassing Stoke Road and City Road roundabouts has long been negated by an increase in traffic volume, if the M6 is ever shut then you’re really up a creek if you need to use the A500. It needs to do its job, but to do it we’ll just have to go slower than before, its better than not moving at all.

It is also extremely strangled by the A50.. why this was never a free flow(multi level?) hamburger style interchange I have never understood, lack of investment I guess.

The que to join the A50 some mornings has spanned as far back as Eturia, the key at those times is to get in to Lane 2 'well ahead' - there is rumour that when the widening is complete it will become a "Smart" road with variable speed limits, which would work well I feel.

Why the extra lanes were never put in at Wolstanton when it was built I am unsure, the land has always been there - I believe the arrangement at City Road is what this project will eventually look like.

[mikehindsonevans]

As traffic volumes have risen beyond what the A500 was designed for the older interchanges are now substandard for 70.

The "correct" answer is to bring the road up to modern standards but that would involve years of work and considerable expense. It is therefore considered more practical to mitigate poor driver behaviour.

On the whole the A500 is quite low standard, I don't get too worked up about the 50 mph limits along it as a result. In the USA it would undoubtedly have a 45 mph speed limit if not lower in parts.

This has been our opinion (time-expired road, inadequate for current traffic levels), every time we abandoned the M6 in search of a road where we could do more than 40mph. Further north, the A34 towards Manchester gives us a far more consistent journey time.

[vlad]

It is also extremely strangled by the A50.. why this was never a free flow(multi level?) hamburger style interchange I have never understood, lack of investment I guess.

The A50 was plugged in with as little alteration to the A500 as possible. The trumpet part of Sideway Interchange is original to the A500; this was kept when the A50 was built and a roundabout put in just to the north. It was probably cheaper than doing much else.

Having a free-flow junction between the A500 and A50 would be best, of course, but as Sideway is pretty close to the junctions to the north and south how do you allow for all the weaving?

[JF2309]

It is also extremely strangled by the A50.. why this was never a free flow(multi level?) hamburger style interchange I have never understood, lack of investment I guess.

The A50 was plugged in with as little alteration to the A500 as possible. The trumpet part of Sideway Interchange is original to the A500; this was kept when the A50 was built and a roundabout put in just to the north. It was probably cheaper than doing much else.

Having a free-flow junction between the A500 and A50 would be best, of course, but as Sideway is pretty close to the junctions to the north and south how do you allow for all the weaving?

Also I think the Council would object massively because of the location of the incinerator, which makes a fair bit of money, the location of the Trentham Lakes Junction would cause a problem and theres a Canal and River to divert, both of which were diverted during the Pathfinder Project. I don’t see a simple solution to it and to top it all off, this bit of the A50 is just a Spur!

The extra lanes at Wolstanton were probably never thought of because I don’t think anybody foresaw the A50 piling into the A500 in the way it does and spewing a mixture of long distance traffic with local traffic onto the A500. Also, Wolstanton when it was built was just an access road to Shelton Bar before the Retail Park and now the link road (Which is a revival of an old road that existed before the A500 came to be) to Wolstanton, it wasn’t massively trafficked as it is now.

[AAndy]

Compliance with average speed checks is much better than standalone sites.

Contrary to popular and misguided opinion they don't generate that much money and improve collision rates.

I'd rather we had these than vans.

A large proportion of speeding tickets issued are from specs... accurate figure need to be released for comparison.

It s your opinion that seems misguided in this instance, and just untrue, with 70,000 specs tickets issued the highways agency said in 2018...

[Jeni]

Compliance with average speed checks is much better than standalone sites.

Contrary to popular and misguided opinion they don't generate that much money and improve collision rates.

I'd rather we had these than vans.

A large proportion of speeding tickets issued are from specs... accurate figure need to be released for comparison.

It s your opinion that seems misguided in this instance, and just untrue, with 70,000 specs tickets issued the highways agency said in 2018...

Ok, 70,000 tickets issued out of how many times the cameras were passed?