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Author: Clive.Clive. Date: Feb 6, 2008 09:22
I first saw these a few years ago from Sandbach services to just north
of Birmingham, over time they have extended up to kilometre post 347 on
the M6. I recently had to fly from Stanstead and found they were also
on the M25 and M11. Have they now been accepted as standard for all
motorways?
Further they seem to be marked from central London, anyone know where
this point is?
And as it is compulsory for us now to have kilometres on our
speedometers, is there some sort of move to change the UK from mile to
Kilometres to bring us in line with the rest of Europe?
--
Clive.
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Author: MortimerMortimer Date: Feb 6, 2008 09:43
>I first saw these a few years ago from Sandbach services to just north of
>Birmingham, over time they have extended up to kilometre post 347 on the
>M6. I recently had to fly from Stanstead and found they were also on the
>M25 and M11. Have they now been accepted as standard for all motorways?
> Further they seem to be marked from central London, anyone know where this
> point is?
> And as it is compulsory for us now to have kilometres on our
> speedometers, is there some sort of move to change the UK from mile to
> Kilometres to bring us in line with the rest of Europe?
Are the posts on a motorway 100 metres or 1/10 mile apart nowadays? Next
time I'm on a motorway I'll have to count how many there are to the mile (as
measured on my speedometer).
I hadn't realised that it's only just become compulsory for UK cars to have
km/hr as well as mph marked on the speedometer - but then I haven't seen a
car with only mph marked since I started driving 25 years ago, so maybe I'm
assuming that de facto implied de jure.
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Date: Feb 6, 2008 10:29
>I first saw these a few years ago from Sandbach services to just north of
>Birmingham, over time they have extended up to kilometre post 347 on the
>M6. I recently had to fly from Stanstead and found they were also on the
>M25 and M11. Have they now been accepted as standard for all motorways?
The only legally permitted use of metric measure on UK road signs is in
conjunction with Imperial measure on height and width (and possibly length?)
limits or warnings. However, it is an interesting question as to whether the
marker posts are actually road signs within the meaning of the legislation.
> Further they seem to be marked from central London, anyone know where this
> point is?
Traditionally, all distnaces from London start at Charing Cross, although I
think that is the original site, rather than from the one outside the
railway station.
> And as it is compulsory for us now to have kilometres on our
> speedometers, is there some sort of move to change the UK from mile to
> Kilometres to bring us in line with the rest of Europe?
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Date: Feb 6, 2008 10:53
Clive. yewbank.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> I first saw these a few years ago from Sandbach services to just north
> of Birmingham, over time they have extended up to kilometre post 347 on
> the M6. I recently had to fly from Stanstead and found they were also
> on the M25 and M11. Have they now been accepted as standard for all
> motorways?
The motorways have been measured in kilometres for "quite some time."
The marker posts by the side of the road are all located at 100metre
intervals, and distances for all the devices on the motorway are
determined in metric units.
The driver information signs you refer to simply follow the same
convention so that the location of someone using a mobile phone can be
compared to known reference points.
> Further they seem to be marked from central London, anyone know where
> this point is?
For the M1/M6 it is Staples Corner. The same numbering extends to the
M18 and I suspect the M45, M54 but not the A1M nor any of the southern
motorways.
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Date: Feb 6, 2008 10:53
Mortimer privacy.net> wrote:
> Are the posts on a motorway 100 metres or 1/10 mile apart nowadays?
100 metres, and the countdown markers (///) (//) (/) are positioned at
90, 60 and 30 metres respectively. At least I think thats right, I
haven't checked DMRB for the details.
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Author: Sam NelsonSam Nelson Date: Feb 6, 2008 11:39
> Mortimer privacy.net> wrote:
> >> Are the posts on a motorway 100 metres or 1/10 mile apart nowadays?
>
> 100 metres,
Possibly-interesting story. I hear tell that, when the Scottish
Executive decided it was going to take over motorway/trunk-road
maintenance and farmed it out in quarters (of Scotland: the centre of
the cross is M9J11) the contractors were annoyed that in order to cut
the grass on motorway verges, they had to get blokes with industrial-
strength strimmers because of the marker posts. They never bothered to
ask the regional-council roads staff how they did it, but actually, the
marker posts are socketed deliberately so that you can take them up, mow
over the socket with a tractor-mower, and put them back and hence do the
job far quicker for a fraction of the cost. Mind, I guess we're paying
for that in tax...
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Date: Feb 6, 2008 12:32
Sam Nelson ssrl.org.uk> wrote:
>> and the countdown markers (///) (//) (/) are positioned at
>> 90, 60 and 30 metres respectively. At least I think thats right, I
>> haven't checked DMRB for the details.
>
> Eh? If they used to be 300/200/100 yards, they'd've had to be moved
> significantly to be 90/60/30 metres.
Oh FFS, cock up on my part. Ignore. It's 270/180/90 metres which is not
quite the 100 yard intervals it should be. I think being knackered after
a day of doing this sort of thing got to me.
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Author: Sam NelsonSam Nelson Date: Feb 6, 2008 13:49
> Sam Nelson ssrl.org.uk> wrote:
> >>> and the countdown markers (///) (//) (/) are positioned at
>>> 90, 60 and 30 metres respectively. At least I think thats right, I
>>> haven't checked DMRB for the details.
>>
>> Eh? If they used to be 300/200/100 yards, they'd've had to be moved
>> significantly to be 90/60/30 metres.
>
> Oh FFS, cock up on my part. Ignore. It's 270/180/90 metres which is not
> quite the 100 yard intervals it should be. I think being knackered after
> a day of doing this sort of thing got to me.
You're forgiven. Don't let it happen again.
--
SAm.
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Author: Jeremy ParkerJeremy Parker Date: Feb 7, 2008 11:46
"nightjar .me.uk>" wrote
[snip]
> Traditionally, all distnaces from London start at Charing Cross,
> although I think that is the original site, rather than from the
> one outside the railway station.
[snip]
Distances on the old Great North Road have mile zero at St John's
Lane, just north of Smithfield. The first remaining milepost is mile
8, now built into the wall of a Sainsbury's in Finchley. Mileposts
are generally marked on Ordnance Survey maps, although there are a
few more that the maps don't show.
The Edgware Road starts at Marble Arch, and the Bath Road at Hyde
Park Corner.
As checked against my bike computer and GPS, they seem to be pretty
accurate.
The mileposts in the London Borough of Barnet are all listed
buildings.
There's a society interested in such things
Jeremy Parker
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Date: Feb 7, 2008 12:37
"nightjar" wrote:
>> Further they seem to be marked from central London, anyone know where this
>> point is?
>
> Traditionally, all distnaces from London start at Charing Cross, although I
> think that is the original site, rather than from the one outside the
> railway station.
Mebbe, but as far as the M1 is concerned the world starts at Staple's
Corner, which is where you will find marker post 0/0. Or rather you
won't because IIRC it does not exist, but post 0/1 does exist 100 metres
north of Staples Corner.
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