Look at Oxford Road in Manchester they made it a busses only route, this is one of the biggest roads in and out of Manchester and its now a massive cash cow to the council and pretty much empty all the time.
Nowhere to park.
It isn't roads that create congestion but driver behaviour. If road users kept longer gaps and drove cooperatively rather than aggressively many congestion points would be less problematic.
This road does, coming from my direction, it is 70mph, straight down to 40mph, not too much of a problem for those that know the road, the problem arises for those unfamiliar with the road. Then about 100yrds further along the speed limit reduces to 20mph because the council refuses to do away with a roundabout that they had blocked off access to the right hand exits probably 20 yrs ago.
It still wouldn't be so much of a problem if drivers maintained a good sized gap at all times.
None of which will change the fact that the section of road that they are going to reduce the speed limit from 50 to 70 will have no impact on congestion or emissions, the latter being the primary reason for the reduction, because there is half a roundabout in each direction where the speed limit is 20mph that causes a bottleneck, causes traffic to build up, more cars braking and accelerating within one area and increasing the emissions compared to if the road passed straight through unencumbered and not forcing emissions higher than they should be.
Clearly: better traffic control is the answer. Whenever you have speed reductions you need to start slowing the traffic well back from the critical point, which is the basis on which smart motorways operate. Of course that does require the infrastructure to operate but it's the only practical solution on our crowded roads. Given the state of local government finances I can't see your redundant roundabout being cleared away and I'm guessing there's a good reason for the 20MPH limit. That only leaves active traffic management as an option to reduce the congestion you describe.
Smart motorways don't work. For one simple reason, you need a constant update of whether lanes are shut or the speed limit has been altered.
So for up to a mile there will be people travelling more slowly than they can, until they get to the next sign with the updated limit and speed up. This is not a complete disaster, the drivers behind will have seen the sign change and understand the reason why the people ahead haven't sped up yet. If they start gesticulating then they are complete idiots and probably need to have their licences revoked.
This is why the critical part of a smart traffic system is enforcement. The surveilance component reassures the ordinary driver who then feels the confidence to obey the signs and that feeds back into a general calming of the whole flow.
That only works for the people who have seen the speed limit actively change, it doesn't help those who come along 30 seconds later.
If you drive to the road conditions it's no problem: you just go with the flow.
You can't go with the flow if it isn't flowing though and that is the problem. Reducing speed limits when traffic is heavy, just makes matters worse. With a 70mph speed limit, ignoring those that speed, the lanes will be travelling at different speeds meaning changing lanes is a lot easier.
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Pollution can obviously be measured from the roadside, but how can they know if peoples fuel consumption has reduced.
I'm generally an advocate for managed motorways and my experience of using a section daily is that they are a definite positive for traffic flow, but agree the speed with which the control rooms respond to incidents being cleared is a problem that needs to be addressed.As far as surveillance is concerned, I sometimes wonder if the people who decide the speed have gone for a tea break. I drive a lot of miles (18k in the last 6 months) and the number of times I've sat at 50 or 60 with next to no other cars around me is quite surprising. After a few miles the speed limit goes back to normal and no sign of why they were on (please don't tell me they must've worked and the traffic had cleared
There's a new series of "The Motorway" on Freeview Channel 5 at the moment. It's very revealing about how difficult it can be for the services (both emergency and support) to actually get to an incident. The number of idiots who will pull over into the hard shoulder when the other lanes are blocked is quite worrying.
Germany has this solved. Whenever there is standstill traffic people move over to the extreme side of whichever lane they are in to leave a clear route through should any emergency services need to get through.
They would work so much better if the people who thought it all up, actually realised that cars are actually capable of travelling at alternative speeds to numbers ending in 0. The first reduced limit should be 65, that way motorists can just back off when they see the sign without having to brake and will prevent the concertina effect. Then keep reducing the speed in 5mph increments.
Much more likely that things are happening that you don't see.
What, on an empty motorway?
Maintenance crews are out at those times because it's empty. There are all sorts of things going on through the night and speed limits could be set for any number of good reasons.
That's the Fortune Of War roundabout on the A127 at Laindon, isn't it? God, I hate that. The most stupid thing I've ever seen.
It is mental, but don't worry, it is al being fixed with a new 50mph limit.
