M6 J10 Improvements

[SouthWest Philip]

I’ve just driven through junction 10.

Sit down and brace yourselves…

M6 has 4 lanes open in both directions and no temporary speed limits.

Don’t know about the roundabout, but the M6 seems to finally be done !!!

Still, four lanes all-lane running through the junction but with dynanic hard shoulder running either side. So that remains ridiculous!

[Truvelo]

I noticed four lanes through the junction was restored a few days ago. I'm not sure why this is necessary given there's a decent amount of traffic leaving and joining at this junction. It's J9 that needs four lanes. Five lanes merging into three at J8 is still a huge bottleneck. I suspect the shorter slip roads and reduced sight lines at J9 because it's on a curve is the namby pamby reason for not doing so.

[Big L]

HE release saying “all done”.

[fras]

HE release saying “all done”.

Nothing is going to work until a motorway round the west side of the West Midlands is built. Of course the alternative could be to toll the M6 and M5 in the West Midlands. After all, we now have low-emission zones, so would this be any different ?

[brummie_rob]

Google Maps showed some terrible queues all day at the junction, probably first day teething issues possibly with light phasing.

[Big L]

Google Maps showed some terrible queues all day at the junction, probably first day teething issues possibly with light phasing.

The local rag report two accidents on the M6 this afternoon in Walsall involving 5 vehicles. Could have affected J10.

[Micro The Maniac]

Still, four lanes all-lane running through the junction but with dynanic hard shoulder running either side. So that remains ridiculous!

Yebbut... trying to remember the last time I went through there and "[50] Congestion Use Hard Shoulder" was not lit

[Peter Freeman]

The refusal to entertain SPUI and DDIs here is simply a symptom of "we know best" nationalism in highways design. The fact no-one else is copying our interchange design whereas Europe is now trialling DDIs and the like (see Belgium of all places) suggests we are much happier being a stubborn island doing the same thing over and over whilst everyone else evolves. It's a disease that leaks through our bureaucracy at all levels.

We have a similar situation on the island where I live.

Long long ago, we had (land) bridges that connected us to foreign places, and we shared stuff, especially Marsupial mammals. But then it rained a lot and we got cut off. Much later, in the rest of the world, by the time the Dynosaurs disappeared and had made more space, Placentals had pretty well replaced Marsupials. However, my island stuck with the good old, tried-and-tested Marsupials. We were used to them, we knew how to catch them, and they tasted OK.

Some enterprising black people brought a few dogs over about 20K years ago, but other Aboriginals, who'd been here longer, poo-poo-ed the idea and so the Dingoes (as they called them) didn't really catch on much.

There were still hundreds of millions of Kangaroos hopping around when, much later again, some white do-gooders introduced Rabbits, placental rodents, etc. Damn nuisances! So we still mostly do Kangaroos, despite smart-arse foreigners telling us we're way behind. What do they know? Anyway, it'd be scary having lions and tigers roaming around the Outback.

[Phil]

HE release saying “all done”.

Nothing is going to work until a motorway round the west side of the West Midlands is built.

Hell would have to freeze over and pigs grow wings before that can ever come to pass in these more enlightened times.

HE release saying “all done”.

. Of course the alternative could be to toll the M6 and M5 in the West Midlands. After all, we now have low-emission zones, so would this be any different ?

Although Tolling the entire M6 & M5 through the urban areas has merit there has to be serious concern over whether the M6 Toll / M42 could take displaced traffic, plus with it being a lot longer in miles considerable quantities of traffic would simply pay the toll.

A slimed down plan only including M6 between the M5 & M42 however and abolishing tolls on the M6Toll would still reduce vehicle flows through junction 10 as that traffic would mostly be heading to / from the M5 rather than a combination of M5 & M6 traffic

[Peter Freeman]

Although Tolling the entire M6 & M5 through the urban areas has merit there has to be serious concern over whether the M6 Toll / M42 could take displaced traffic, plus with it being a lot longer in miles considerable quantities of traffic would simply pay the toll.

A slimed down plan only including (tolls on the) M6 between the M5 & M42 however and abolishing tolls on the M6Toll would still reduce vehicle flows through junction 10 as that traffic would mostly be heading to / from the M5 rather than a combination of M5 & M6 traffic

In either of those scenarios, HE would have to endure the embarrassment of having the toll-payers justifiably asking " Why have you gone to all this tolling palaver in order to reduce traffic at J10, instead of simply modifying J10 properly so that it can handle the traffic ? ".

[KILLER KNIGHT]

I’ve just driven through junction 10.

Sit down and brace yourselves…

M6 has 4 lanes open in both directions and no temporary speed limits.

Don’t know about the roundabout, but the M6 seems to finally be done !!!

Still, four lanes all-lane running through the junction but with dynanic hard shoulder running either side. So that remains ridiculous!

Learn to be grateful and not complain about an issue that doesn’t even exist.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

HE release saying “all done”.

Nothing is going to work until a motorway round the west side of the West Midlands is built. Of course the alternative could be to toll the M6 and M5 in the West Midlands. After all, we now have low-emission zones, so would this be any different ?

The Western Strategic Route? Yeah that would be a dream come true! Even Midlands Connect have cancelled it!

[KILLER KNIGHT]

Still, four lanes all-lane running through the junction but with dynanic hard shoulder running either side. So that remains ridiculous!

Yebbut... trying to remember the last time I went through there and "[50] Congestion Use Hard Shoulder" was not lit

It’s ridiculous! The dynamic hard shoulder should be running at NSL and no less!

[KILLER KNIGHT]

The first section of the M42 was a simple link road from the M6 to Birmingham Airport and the NEC. It opened in the mid 70's when money was really tight after the 1970's depression and it was 1985 before it went any farther. Even so you got the A42 because they ran out of money before reaching the M1 !

Let me remind you of the interest rate in 1986, it was pushing 8% and that was low by the standards of the time.

This is why usury must be banned.

It used to be at least capped - back in the '70s the Money Lenders Act limited interest rates to 48% per annum and was used by loan companies for unsecured loans - subsequently that limit has been abolished so now there is no top limit and can rise to over 1000%.

The general public can't seem to get it's head around interest rates - for decades banks charged differential overdraft rates depending on whether it was approved in advance or not, typically 20% for approved and 40% for non-approved, but when the differential was banned a couple of years ago the banks simply doubled the approved rate to be the same as the non-approved - no-one seems to have batted an eyelid!

But still not anywhere near as what Afghanistan has accomplished recently.

[Bomag]

Still, four lanes all-lane running through the junction but with dynanic hard shoulder running either side. So that remains ridiculous!

Yebbut... trying to remember the last time I went through there and "[50] Congestion Use Hard Shoulder" was not lit

It’s ridiculous! The dynamic hard shoulder should be running at NSL and no less!

A bit of deja-view here. The combination of lane widths and markings (post 2011 amendment regs) mean that the highest safe speed for HSR, which can be sufficiently relied on, is 60 mph (based on the average eyesight of 65 year old). While the lower speed limit has some benefit at mitigating road user risk over ALR its the combination of traffic flow and enforcement which makes HSR better for most high risk sub-groups than ALR.

[Bendo]

It was nice to traverse the M6 the other day and not have wonder whether the 60 limit was enforced at all.

Suppose the other us point of it being finished is we now no longer have the occasional situation where the gantries would show 50 only to have the fixed 60 sign override that until the next VMS. Really shows the confidence HE have in using the VMS to sign the limit full time.