Pointless motorway overhead messages

[exiled]

Not pointless but banal on the M80

'POLICE INCIDENT - GLASGOW

EXPECT DELAYS'

As I said banal given the news.

'LET GLASGOW FLOURISH'

[Vierwielen]

The M27 is wierd, the interchange with the M3 is really up, I mean the breakdown signs are like

M27
K
13.2

When officially, I'm still on the M3!

Are you sure about this one? Where exactly is this sign (BTW, they are called driver location signs or DLS for short). According to Google Maps, the M27/A/13.2 DLS is on the main carriageway adjacent to the Rounhams Services. I could not see the M27/K/13.2 DLS, but 400 metres up the road I saw the M27/K/13.6 DLS on the slip road leading from the services back onto the main carriageway, exactly where I would have expected to find it.

BTW, there is more on Driver Location Signs on the SABRE Wiki and also on Wikipedia.

[corders]

was driving East-bound on the A27 just after the end of the M27 and saw a VMS with "Delays M1 J21-22"


wasn't quite sure what to make of that

[A329Mdren]

The M27 is wierd, the interchange with the M3 is really up, I mean the breakdown signs are like

M27
K
13.2

When officially, I'm still on the M3!

Are you sure about this one? Where exactly is this sign (BTW, they are called driver location signs or DLS for short). According to Google Maps, the M27/A/13.2 DLS is on the main carriageway adjacent to the Rounhams Services. I could not see the M27/K/13.2 DLS, but 400 metres up the road I saw the M27/K/13.6 DLS on the slip road leading from the services back onto the main carriageway, exactly where I would have expected to find it.

BTW, there is more on Driver Location Signs on the SABRE Wiki and also on Wikipedia.

The actual sign is,
M3
M
117.2

I had to guess the first one, I was wrong lol.

[Johnathan404]

Well there we are then, you are still on the M3!

[A329Mdren]

Well there we are then, you are still on the M3!

When about a meter down the road, your onto the M27?

[Johnathan404]

Eh?

You said the sign says M27 when officially you're on the M3. Then you said it says M3.

At the end of the day both links between the M3 and M27 are linking sliproads, nothing more and nothing less. The southbound slips have direction signage saying M27 and northbound saying M3, as with any link road.

[Big L]

On the A40 southbound, just before it peels off the A449, there is a VMS that I have only ever seen displaying the time. Last week it was about 15 minutes fast. Today about 5 minutes slow.

[Owain]

Drove up last weekend Frome-Birkenhead for the ferry. Signs on M5 said "SLOW DOWN - FOG PATCHES" when there was nothing at all. Then on M6, where there was a bit of dense fog every now and again, signs were blank throughout.

[tidalflow]

Anyone else noticed on over head Variable Message systems, there is a random block that sweeps from left to right on each row very occasionally. That is so annoying. Seems like a poor mans screen saver!

[nowster]

I think that's a lamp test.

[Lockwood]

The number of times I've seen a red X pop up on one lane for a fraction of a second then go again.

[A303Chris]

The number of times I've seen a red X pop up on one lane for a fraction of a second then go again.

I thought it was just me and I was going mad. Glad someone else has seen it

[AutomaticBeloved]

"M5(S) Closed J14-16" on the M4 - fair enough but could have been worded better given that the coach driver thought he could run down the collector/distributor road between 15-16 and go round the roundabout at J16 and ended up being forced onto the M5 North for a 45 min trip through Gloucestershire. Our coach wasn't the only vehicle caught out this way. Maybe "No Access to M5(S) at J15 - Use M49" would have been better!

[Jamesabout29]

I've seen on the M11 and A3(M) an MS1 in the central reservation flick on for a second and then off again straight way. It was just an orange square taking up the whole sign. And I think i've seen a red X flash a couple of times as well

[AutomaticBeloved]

The ones on the M5 do so aswell. I've also seen the large VMS do it aswell (often just 2 or 3 squares rather then the whole sign)

[Chris5156]

I think that's the system doing a pixel test, where it lights up each LED in the panel to check for faults.

The software in the control centre will expect a report from each sign periodically to confirm that it's working - probably every couple of hours. To do that the sign runs a self-test where it lights everything up momentarily.

[Jamesabout29]

I think that's the system doing a pixel test, where it lights up each LED in the panel to check for faults.

The software in the control centre will expect a report from each sign periodically to confirm that it's working - probably every couple of hours. To do that the sign runs a self-test where it lights everything up momentarily.

That's what I thought it was.

[irrelevant]

Thank goodness for that ... I've often caught glimpses of a flash...!

[Lockwood]

It *really* sucks though going along managed motorway and suddenly having a speed limit flassh up right in front of you, then disappear, or on a normal stretch to suddenly be told you cannot continue in that lane, so move out, to then have that lane reopen.