First noticed it driving up last week when they hadnt tied the new-sign covers on properly, before the relaunched evening mail got hold of the story as an "exclusive" on monday.
Anyone guess what it is? I'm going to drop this in here then carry on writing the post as an edit.
In other news, Martin Brownstrouser or whatever his poxy evil name was, has finally quit the police force with a call for "MORE SPEED CAMERAS!" and to put them in even where there isn't a bad safety record (ie just pepper them about anywhere some elderly NIMBY is having trouble crossing the road at rush hour).
Dickwipe. Hopefully that's the last we'll hear of him, unfortunately he has an ally in the shape of some rabid woman who's the head of Brake (reckon she had a bad experience once at 71mph and has a bee in bonnet) and may himself carry more clout when NOT a police officer. Plus he doesn't have to worry about ignoring SafeSpeed's questioning letters any more.
The thing i'm going to write about is one of very few sensible alternative things being tried out instead of a heavy handed nannying to (futilely) keep speeds down. (If, as has been claimed, they've reduced deaths and serious injuries by 52% in the last 10 years, where's the stats to back it up? It would have almost all happened since 2003 then, as the only properly published figures show the rate being fairly stable since the mid 90s)
Indeed its one that, in the writeup, made it sound a bit like slowness is a danger rather than speed.
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EDIT bit follows
In a surprising move, the ministry of truth.... ahem, department for transport have answered the call of many a motorist for the past 40-odd years, and are running a time limited trial on an uphill stretch of 2-lane motorway - three miles of the M42 north, from a point aways past junction 10 (crossing the A5 at Tamworth) and almost up to junction 11, with the A511 at Alfreton. Oddly, it stops about a quarter mile before the summit, but that's not too great a distance and it does include the steepest part.
Yes ..... that's right... they're going to confine trucks to the inside lane!
It's only a small patch, effective only between 7am and 7pm, and only affects those over 7.5 tonnes (and maybe not coaches?) so a horde of treacle-slow transits, lutons and old large-format pickups remain exempt, but its a start.
The aim is to "improve the speed and flow of light traffic, and increase safety along this heavily congested stretch". Obviously someone thinks cars and vans being able to travel at a constant-ish 70 to 85 is a safer alternative to that of the current 54 to 69mph outside lane rollercoaster (its a fairly even 55-57 in the inside one), even if it potentially means more lawbreaking.
Then again .... sudden thought after writing that .... maybe that's the point? No speed camera partnership had a cat in hells chance of breaking even, let alone turning a profit between junctions 9 and 12 until now... Plus their argument of "speed kills" would have fallen flat at any accident. Hmm!
Anyway this will be one to watch - assuming benign intent it was probably reasoned that a grand total of three large and about six small signs was an immensely desirable alternative to widening about 20 miles of motorway (over challenging terrain, with many bridges) out to 3 lanes, and possibly the A42 as well. Will traffic flow actually improve? Or will it simply lead to one enormous queue stretching back from 11 to 10 instead of a few smaller ones, as all the ever-so-slightly-quicker trucks overtake en masse on cresting the hill? Who knows. It'll be interesting.
Trucker's groups are already complaining it'll increase journey times and put up costs. What a load of BS that is. Having to go 1/2mph slower for all of three miles, or maybe 5-6mph slower on the steep bit on the odd occasion something truly sluggish is travelling the route? Hard cheese. Welcome to the world of the car drivers you've been holding up for years. You won't end up more than a few seconds later from it and will reap it back in fuel saving (so much for increased costs) from making a long, slightly slower wind-cheating convoy up the slope. And then recovering almost immediately.
Jeez!
). the congestion caused by just five or six overtaking truckers on a 40 mile stretch of road is phenomenal.