Conference terri::cars_uk

 The AA were Demonstrating this product on their stand at the motor show.

 The display screen showed traffic speed on the M25 and most of the radiating 
motoways. I'm not sure how far out of london the system extends though.

	Barrie.

    Dave, (if it is you!) save yourself �300 and always assume that the
    average speed that you'll achieve on any motorway is 30mph or less.
    
    Dick....... ;^)

    These boxes on the bridges etc extend up the M11 most of the way, I
    noticed these this week.  I don't know whether they're used for
    'getting' speeding cars but on Tuesday I was doing about 80-ish and
    some guy went past me at about 90-95 and about 2 miles further on he 
    was on the hard shoulder with a policecar.  The policecar didn't pass
    me and I could see no helicopter in the area so I assumed that the grey
    boxes had been in someway responsible.  Anyone care to ruminate
    further?
    
    		Jon.
    

    I remember reading an article recently which described the use of
    TV cameras mounted on overhead gantries.
    
    In this case, the cameras were linked to a central traffic monitoring
    centre and were used purely to determine traffic problems such as
    overcrowding.  It was stated that they were NOT used for detecting
    speeding motorists.  This does not mean that any obvious offenders
    will not be notofied to the police, but the TV kit was supposedly not
    used to catch anyone.
    
    I think this was in an issue of Autocar and the motorway may have been
    the M11 - but memory does play tricks, it might have been another
    magazine, another place, another time ...
    
    John Rutter (who got caught doing 102MPH by an unmarked Sierra 4x4,
                 but didn't actually get a ban - thanks Judge !)
    

	Thanks for the AA suggestion - they pointed me to their technical
	dept in Manchester but that's a very busy number - read permanently
	engaged - if there are any other thoughts I'll try them, I'll also
	keep going on the AA.

	Dick - yes it is me (or it was when I last checked), 30 MPH is a fine 
	average speed but its the 0MPH one that concerns me, if I know about a 
	JAM I can usually avoid it, the radio usually tells me when I'm in it
	so I'm investigating alternatives - may turn out to be too expensive
	but I hate being stuck in JAMS.

	Final thought, the Traffic Master stuff is (as far as I can remember)
	licencesed by the Governemnt to do its stuff so I assume its 
	separate to the stuff the police use.

	DaveB

    More on the locations of the detectors. I'm sure I've noticed them on
    (some of) the bridges over the M4, at Slough.
    
    Martin.

	Sounds like a pretty pointless excercise to me, particularly on
	the M25 where there are always jams. And anyway what do you do
	if a jam is indicated, leave the Mway and join one on the side
	roads that is probably worse?.

	I well remember being routed off a motorway once when it became 
	blocked. After about 40 mins of negotiating side roads I found 
	myself on a bridge crossing the then totally clear motorway.

	-John

	Right, got the info - the AA came up trumps.

	The company is General Logistics in Luton on 0582-450188, I spoke
	to a lady called Jane Maxwell who is putting some details and prices
	in the post to me.

	If there's any interest I'll post a summary in here when I'm next
	in the office.

	DaveB

    re: is it worth it?
    
    I'm not certain it is worth the cost, I drive up and down the A1
    and am often in a dilema in the morning (or coming back in the evening)
    as to whether to use the M25 to visit those centres of Digital in the
    South - given notice I can divert quite easily long before reaching the
    M25 but I need to know there's a problem. 
    
    Trouble is a slow moving M25 is quicker than the country lanes, a 
    stationary M25 isn't, the difference between normal (ie slow in parts) 
    and stationary is 1 accident and 30 seconds - by the time the radio 
    talks about it the queue's 4 miles long and growing rapidly. I always 
    seem to hit the queue just after an exit and its 10 miles to the next
    - guess I'm just lucky.
    
    I'll see how much it costs and how far outside of the coverage area you
    can pick up the signals - I don't mind taking a long diversion but even
    with Air Conditioning I don't like sitting in Jams - anyways its worh
    investigating.
    
    By the by I also have an RDS radio and actually find the traffic
    stations marginally usefull - at least I can work out what station I'm
    tuned into and it stays locked on it - ever tried tuning the radio on a
    Citroen BX - right down behind and level with the bottom of the gear
    lever. RDS ain't perfect but I consider it worth the investment.
    
    DaveB
    

    I remember the demo they did on tomorrow's world....
    
    The AVERAGE speed on the M25 at the time of the show was 80mph...
    
    
    
    Greg

    There was a double page ad for Traffic Master in the Sunday colour
    supps this week (at least in mine).
    
    Jeff.

       Well, just to update this topic, there was a feature in PCW this
    month and then I saw an ad on the front of the Indy yesterday so I gave
    them a call for more info.
    	From what they said on the phone, the current rental price is �30 +
    VAT per month with. I think,  a 90-day cancellation period. The data is
    collected by the black boxes around the M-way phoning(?) the central
    control with the average speed every few minutes. If the speed
    reported is less than 30mph the info is transmitted via the standard
    paging network to the receivers (which all have the same pager id). The
    displays then show little boxes showing the average speed at each of
    the black boxes and can also display some text typed in by the
    operator.

    Long time since I entered the first note in this stream, I suspect I'm
    probably the only person in the Company (or at least that reads here!)
    with one and I still like it.
    
    On May 26th (1993) they go to Phase II which covers West to just of
    Bristol, North to Leicester on M1 and Cannock on the M6 and all the
    Motorways in between. For all who have experienced the Motorways around
    the West Midlands this has definite potential (I still don't get a
    comission)
    
    If you look up you can see the sensors, usually above the centre lane
    (but not always) about every 2 miles. The new ones look different to
    the old, the new ones are fixed to the guard rail above the bridge in
    two places (the old only one)
    
    New:
    
    |\
    | \
    |  \
    +----\
         []
    
    the old ones were more like:
    
    |
    |
    |
    +---
       []
    
    This is side on view!
    
    I'll get my unit updated at the end of next week probably and as you
    get the changes where ever you are in the country it'll be interesting
    to see how many of the jams I recognise.
    
    DaveB
    

    .13� Long time since I entered the first note in this stream, I suspect I'm
    .13� probably the only person in the Company (or at least that reads here!)
    .13� with one and I still like it.
    
    	Not quite Dave,  I've got one too! I find it quite useful & I'm
    waiting to see what Phase II looks like...  I had mine stolen from
    inside the glove compartment of my car a few weeks back, but the thief
    hadn't taken the mount so it was easily replaced.
    
    	The chap who came down to deliver the new one said that the reason
    they moved from using Lane 3 to Lane 2 for the sensors was that they
    were having to move the sensors whenever there was a contraflow and
    this should mean that they'll not normally not need to do anything!