M6 crowned crappiest motorway for 4G signal The M6 is officially the UK's worst motorway for 4G coverage. Global Wireless Solutions clocked up almost a million data points to find a winner and loser. On average Britain’s linear car parks, er, motorways only maintain an LTE signal 62 per cent of the time. But the M6, originally built for ferrying northerners to Cup …
This post has been deleted by its author
Gawd bless the Great British Public in being so stingy that they have effectively kyboshed any future toll roads. The pisspoor returns on the M6 toll *despite* the hell that is the M6 with it's artificially slowed traffic have deterred all investors.
Fun fact #1: the M6 toll operators have a published strategy of using prices to keep it free-flowing. So the more people that use it, the more it costs.
Fun fact #2: No one in Birmingham has read the published strategy. If they had, they wouldn't keep on phoning up local radio grumbling that "lorries should use the toll". Another stated operating strategy for the M6 toll is to actively discourage HGVs (as they are what damage the road surface).
Nah, it wasn't build to relieve the A1.
However, I will cop to it not being called M1 because it was the first, which was a silly claim now I think about it. It's called M1 because of where it originates.
Motorways and roads out of London are numbered clockwise from 1 in the north, dividing the areas around London (and including some other parts of the country) into 4 zones. The M1 was the northernmost motorway out of London, so it gets a 1. The M2 and A2 are named for where they poke out in zone 2. Roads in zone 1 and get the scheme 1n, so between the M1 and M2 you get the A11 and the M11, which go in completely different directions; the A10 which goes in roughly the same direction as the M11; and no M10, because it's now part of the A414 (originates in zone 4), but was originally an eastbound motorway spur from the bottom of the M1.
The rest of the country is also divided up into numbering zones. The crucial bit of information is that the zones are different for A roads and motorways.
So really it's just a coincidence. An apparent correlation that falls apart once you consider more evidence.
The M1 is the M1 because it (sort of) runs alongside the A1, and heads north from London. The M2, M3 and M4 point in directions going clockwise from the M1. The M5 should really be the M38 if you follow those rules and the M40 maybe should be the M5, though it does follow the A40 out of London. Actually the M1 more closely follows the A5.
What a load of bulls testicles.
Yes, the first motorway in the UK was a bit of the M6 near Preston. Then came the M1 from Edgware to Rugby.
Eventually, the M6 was completed and it should really be split into two bits.
1) The bit that is a virtual car park most days i.e. from where it leaves the M1 to the end of the original bit north of Preston
2) The rest of it from Preston to Carslile where it joins the M74.
Then we'd have a more representative sample.
As for using the Toll road? Have you see the charges? Sorry no thanks.
Anyway the M6 Car Park through Brum should have good 4G as much of it is built on stilts.
Personally, I can get 4G at home if I'm upstairs at the back. 3G in the rest of the house but if I walk 500yards down the road not even 2g works and I'm not in a hilly part of the country. The lack of mobile signal is knocking £5K off the price of houses in that area.
I use this road when I am journeying from my home in North London to my relatives on the Isle of Skye. The reduction in journey time and petrol usage more than outweighs the toll charge (which at £5.50 for a car is less than the cost of 1 gallon of petrol - even a HGV is only charged £11.00)
You'd think that with all the Smart Motorway Hadecs 3 "Cow Cash" Cameras being installed, (yep, the ones where Highways Agency trickster people by "acting lazy" - failing to turn on the overhead NSL (National Speed Limit) sign when the camera is operating, NB. the shoebox sized camera operates 24/7 covering all 4 lanes at once) they would work with Mobile operators to give you a signal, after all there is £200 a pop revenue to made catching Plebs using Mobiles at the wheel. It's a self referencing income stream, which let's face it, all they care about, of late. It's just another form of regressive taxation.
Maybe it's the fact I have to drive these Smart Motorway sections and it feels constantly like someone is trying to stand on my shoelace, attempting to trip me up. If it is about safety, they have one hell of a funny way of showing it.
Not a fan of blunt pointless administrative fines, over actual Motorway Policing, as you might guess.
Que all the replies, saying drive within the speed limit, you won't be fined.
Well, that's easier said than done, when there a subtle 'grey area' trickster methods at work to further raise revenues, i.e. using the psychology of unlit overhead signs, to make you think the camera isn't active, and active it is - 24/7.
" ... failing to turn on the overhead NSL (National Speed Limit) sign ... "
It is the national speed limit, no signs needed. The round white disc with a black bar denotes the end of a lower speed limit. If the NSL sign is not displayed then the existing limit still applies and they are doing you a favour by setting the cameras to 70 mph.
The concept of the NSL and disc sign allow changes to the limit to be made (up or down) without spending £lots on new speed limit signs.
However, I am by no means convinced that speed limit enforcement in some areas is entirely, absolutely, 100% to do with road safety.
The problem I have is this Government/new Police Guidance has removed the "unwritten rule" that allowed Motorists to go about circa 80mph on Motorways and generally be left alone, i.e common sense appied/weather permitting.
Now it's Nanny State, statistical fcuking head clipping without telling anyone they have changed their enforcement policies, expecting word of mouth £100 "head clipping" fines to spread the message, while they collect the revenue and while they also fail to illuminate active enforcement of NSL Smart Motorway signage to indicate the Camera is active 24/7, during specifically nightime/off peak hours.
We're not fcuking daft as regular drivers, we know exactly what Avon and Somerset Police -M4 J19 Hadecs 3, are up to here. It's taking advantage of an anomalies (unlit signs) like this, that gives Camera enforcement a bad name.
The legislation states that all parts of the Hadecs 3 Smart Motorway signage must be illuminated/fully working for a speed limit to be enforced. If any part of the signage is faulty/not displaying, then the limit is not enforceable,
Question is, how does a driver know the difference between an unlit sign and a faulty one? Answer: They don't. Why don'r Avon and Somerset do the decent thing, give drivers an olive branch and leave the Smart Motorway NSL illuminated, when the camera is active, if this 'IS' about keeping to limits, and not revenue, but I think we know the answer to this.
It's pure and simple, a "Head Clipping" Revenue Policy.
This post has been deleted by its author
"If the NSL sign is not displayed then the existing limit still applies and they are doing you a favour by setting the cameras to 70 mph"
"They are doing you a favour". You're implying that drivers should be someway sebservient, to your/their superiority?
The problem here is closeted information, "those in the know". As drivers we just want to know the current enforcement info, when some Nanny State decides our own "common sense" regards limits isn't good enough anymore and pointless head clipping becomes the order of the day, because "technology can"
Smart Motorways Gantry Signage should reflect the speed for each section when operating. If a Camera is operating/enforcing the speed, the Smart Motorway is 'active' and so should the signage, including NSL.
The "unlit Signage / Camera Active" anomaly being used on the M4, J19 especially, here to raise revenue (and it's not small change), is that Hadecs 3 are still in operation 24/7 when the Smart Motorway section isn't. This should be made clear using those overhead information signs prior to the Smart Motorway section i.e. "Enforcement Cameras operate 24/7 even when Smart Motorways signage unlit"
How F'difficult is that to implement, to inform drivers? If this is about reducing speed.
What is this rant? If you are so stupid that you need endless reminders to tell you motorways have a speed limit, perhaps you shouldn't be driving. And the limit is there for a reason - 70 is the design speed of the road for a start.
If the Nanny State is operating, stalking my every tiniest indiscretion ("for our protection", as it's always sold to the general public), I'd prefer I was informed beforehand *exactly* what my (constantly lowering) tolerances are, using the information signs that I thought were there to inform? rather than ticketed for minor "head clipping" indiscretions (78mph+) as part of some useless statistical exercise several weeks after the fact.
It's quite difficult too, when there are plenty of other clueless stupid idiot drivers around me, all doing exactly the same, and in most cases, much higher speeds. If anything, I'm surprised the number of tickets issued isn't higher, which makes me think Police target drivers with zero points, to get the fees from courses / keep recorded numbers within reasonable limits/prevent a backlash.
As said, if this is about keeping to the speed limit, not revenue, at least inform everyone Police are now ticketing at below 80mph, (10%+2) consistently 24/7 using Hadecs 3 Cameras. It's about knowing local policies - not been caught out, "tripped up" - aka. Head Clipped.
Everyone should know how this HADECS 3 technology works and is being operated to avoid fines (using what are underhand methods- Unlit signage / keeping Cameras active - 24/7).
I've not met anyone that said: You know, I was driving like an idiot - too fast, "Fair cop", I got caught by a Speed Camera. Everyone I speak to feels "caught out" as a result of a mistake/not realising how this Hadecs 3 technology works. It doesn't feel right, that small human errors should be constantly head clipped in this way, due to lack of information on the technology/how it's enforced.
"i.e. using the psychology of unlit overhead signs, to make you think the camera isn't active, and active it is - 24/7."
Maybe we should go back to the M42 being unmanaged. Trust me, a traffic jam happened every single night due to dickheads thinking they knew best. Doing 70 up to the cars in front, breaking hard and causing a concertina effect until the entire motorway stops. You've seen it hundreds of times, you know, where there is a traffic jam for no reason....there is a reason, driver driving like dicks.
Now the Smart motorway is in, traffic jams are massively reduced.
As for
"using the psychology of unlit overhead signs, to make you think the camera isn't active, and active it is - 24/7."
I'd hate to see how you drive in the countryside or urban areas where there are no speed limit signs to remind you of the speed limit every 30 seconds.
Do y'all actually get mere 4G and even 3G on a main highway?! In the midst of actual _civilization_?! Here in Deepest South Florida even Sprint, scum that they are, fluctuate between four bars of 4G and two bars of LTE in the middle of Alligator Alley. None of the other major carriers go below two bars LTE, even in the middle of the bloody Everglades! I make the trip from Ft. Lauderdale to Tampa on a semi-regular basis and have Waze running all the way. That way I at least have warning when some idiot has done something stupid up ahead...
I also have good reception on I-95 between Ft. Lauderdale and Melbourne, another trip I make with dreary regularity. Once north of Jupiter I'm in Deep Rural Florida. Sugarcane, cattle (there's more cows than people in Indian River County), and pine woods to the left, to the right, up ahead... but there's good cell signal. Even on Sprint. Cellcos around here made sure to cover the main highways as a high priority, right after making sure that downtown areas were covered. There's a line of cell towers beside I-95, I-75, the Turnpike, US 1, US 27, US 441, etc.
How were cellcos in Britain allowed to get away with such poor coverage?
Articles on el reg are constantly beating up android and one cannot help but feel that if the stats in the graph were the other way around, the article title and content would have been based on how android is worse for signal on the motorway compared to it's fruity rival.
Obviously the stats show iOS is worse so the focus is on comparing motorways.
Just an observation. And yes, I have become the annoying fanboy sounding commentard I usually roll my eyes at. /Gets coat and grumbles on the way out
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
