M1 mess at night

[swfc2001 10]

having travelled up and down the M1 around 10 around Meadowhall and Nottingham please can someone tell me when the road works ill stop . what's the point of having  a motorway when you can't travel at motorway speeds . last night I travelled on the road at around 10 down to one lane but no signs to say 50miles speed limit . I travelled at 50 but cars were speeding past at 70 and the over head cameras were going off.!!!!!!!! 

[alarmingmark 32]

What road works ? Where ? As I travel from Sheffield to j25 most days ....they have even taken off the 3-6pm 60 ( air quality ) limit since December that came on from the A38 to Sheffield 

[tinfoilhat 11]

It's often down to one lane at night. There was one lane of standing traffic at one in the morning before Christmas.

[bassett one 449]

sounds horrific ,but everyone must always allow for this type of problem

[DerbyTup 10]

13 hours ago, bassett one said:

sounds horrific ,but everyone must always allow for this type of problem

I wouldn't describe it as "horrific".   It may be inconvenient if you get stuck in it.   The OP is referring to a very short motorway journey, Sheffield to Nottingham.  I wish my motorway journey's were that short.  I travel from Sheffield to Surrey every week, twice a week.  It involves M1, A43, M40, M4, M25 or other combinations, including A38, M69, M6, M42.  Off peak it's about 3 hours - peak time could be 5 hours, usually around 4.  

 

There are many times, especially when I've gone down late at night, that entire roads have been closed off.  Like the A43 for example, which is the road that links the M1 with the M40.  For several weeks it was closed at Brackley, forcing a diversion that added another 40 minutes to the journey.  Just before Christmas I was travelling along the A43 and about a mile before the M40 there was a warning sign, "M40 severe delays J9-J10 - 75 minutes".    That's 1 hour and 15 minutes to travel just one junction on the motorway - and by this time I'd been travelling nearly 2 hours already.

 

I've got pretty adept at taking diversions and I suppose I've got a mental map of most of the UK in my head.  At this point I headed off down the B roads towards Bicester and on to Thame to avoid the whole clogged up section of the motorway.  I think I'd do similar if I was on the Nottingham to Sheffield stretch if the delays were really bad.  I'd pick up the A38 and come up through Chesterfield, or possibly Mansfield.  The problem is though, it's often no quicker to do that than sit in the traffic.

 

I would recommend an app to any driver that is doing regular journeys.  It's something that was recommended to me and I think it's really good, it's called "Waze".  Before every longish journey now I put my destination into Waze.  It comes up with a choice of routes and gives the time and distance for each.  It also shows you where there are delays.  You can then choose whether you want to keep moving, but drive a bit further, or sit in traffic, or whatever.  It also is very up to date, so if the traffic situation changes it alerts you to that.  It's far better than my in car sat nav.  

 

You just can't allow for some delays - as I've mentioned above, when a journey which normally takes 3 hours turns into a 5 hour one - that's pretty rough tbh. (although even this isn't "horrific").  But a good app like this Waze thing can really help you avoid it in the first place.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by DerbyTup

[Cyclone 10]

22 hours ago, swfc2001 said:

having travelled up and down the M1 around 10 around Meadowhall and Nottingham please can someone tell me when the road works ill stop . what's the point of having  a motorway when you can't travel at motorway speeds . last night I travelled on the road at around 10 down to one lane but no signs to say 50miles speed limit . I travelled at 50 but cars were speeding past at 70 and the over head cameras were going off.!!!!!!!! 

If there were no speed restrictions in place, why are you complaining that you couldn't travel at motorway speeds?

And if there was a single lane, how were cars speeding past you?

[grand 10]

the m1 speed camera's seem to be active all time are atleast every fri and sun i travel on m1 day are night i see them flash loads of cars 

[Gricehead 10]

The M1 speed cameras are now certainly active all the time between J34 and J31 at least, not just when the speed limit signs are illuminated. It's been this way since Christmas. I've made something in the region of a dozen trips in evening darkness, and witnessed one or more camera flash most times.

 

If you believe a post going round on social media, they've been set to 72mph.

[tinfoilhat 11]

24 minutes ago, Gricehead said:

The M1 speed cameras are now certainly active all the time between J34 and J31 at least, not just when the speed limit signs are illuminated. It's been this way since Christmas. I've made something in the region of a dozen trips in evening darkness, and witnessed one or more camera flash most times.

 

If you believe a post going round on social media, they've been set to 72mph.

I can very much believe it. I've seen it flash twice since christmas at 31 as I was leaving the m1 and I didn't see anything that made me think any driver was really hammering it.

[Cyclone 10]

3 hours ago, Gricehead said:

The M1 speed cameras are now certainly active all the time between J34 and J31 at least, not just when the speed limit signs are illuminated. It's been this way since Christmas. I've made something in the region of a dozen trips in evening darkness, and witnessed one or more camera flash most times.

 

If you believe a post going round on social media, they've been set to 72mph.

I've been up and down the motorway recently, typically at about 80, it's >2 weeks since and I've not had a NIP, so they certainly aren't prosecuting at 72...  For that matter I'm sure I'd have noticed a flash, and didn't.

[willman 10]

I went up the m1 at 80 (at least) the other night and wasn't flashed yet at least one of a number cars who were perhaps a hundred or so metres behind did appear to get flashed.

[Longcol 596]

10 minutes ago, Cyclone said:

I've been up and down the motorway recently, typically at about 80, it's >2 weeks since and I've not had a NIP, so they certainly aren't prosecuting at 72...  For that matter I'm sure I'd have noticed a flash, and didn't.

Whilst over in Sheffield over the Christmas period I did very much the same without noticing a flash - ditto on the M42 round Birmingham where they have the variable speed limit and I was doing consistently 10mph above it - ditto the roadworks on the M62 where it crosses the M6 where the limit is 50 and I must have averaged over 60.

Edited January 9, 2019 by Longcol