1st ade

^^^^ This "It's a disgrace - the Government are using smart motorway to track my every move! 'Google, find me the fastest route to...' "

Er - No - when we started (70's?) I think fluorescent lights were in vogue, water pump was a rubber bulb on the floor that you stood on (or a little lever at the side of the tap). Shaver*, telly and radio - definitely not. [ * - on a subsequent trip a friend from school (we were then both in our early 20's) observed that the allegedly 230v shaver point on our hire boat changed his "shaver" into an "electric plucker" ]

Already on it... But not all can accept (or send) text) or

I was a (relative) child* at the time - my pocket money went from 6d to 5p and I was convinced my parents were swindleing me - although they swore blind it was double! [ * - Some say I still am... ]

I feel similarly about the A515 in Derbyshire - it's an almost constant 50 MPH (Enforced by helicopter so the signs say!) but if you exit to a narrower side road it rises to 60. The threat of helicopters is obviously effective; i've been stuck behind motorists doing a steady 40 in case they creep up above the dreaded 50 - the temptation to dive into a side road, go hell for leather for a mile, and pop out in front of said motorist is often tempting.

Logically I'm with you. Practically... "well Officer, it's like this..."

Fair comment.

At £2 for 5 PCB's couldn't you have splashed out £4 for 10 and put the fuses on a seperate board? (realising I'm going to hit the "going green" debate here but it can't be worth £2 of your time to gently fretsaw out that corner)

The bottom line is that the system (whether rail, road, air or waterway) is designed with a certain risk appetite. At one end you have a perfectly serviceable aircraft grounded because a single warning light has failed - at the other you have the chaos called our motorway system with every single vehicle making their own arbitrary decisions to obey (or ignore) signage provided for all. There's plenty of commuters (certainly on the 06:39 from Milton Keynes) who think the railways are too risk averse and "FFS get on with it" when signal failure is announced. These are, of course, the same people who will contact their MP or the Daily Wail demanding compensation if they stub a toe because the train stops suddenly. Whinge over.

I read it as 400 miles return. And sister-in-law may have no parking with charge (we live in a victoria terrace; front door straight onto the street so no easy on street parking) Although 200 miles would still need a pee stop - for me at least...

OK - I was simplifying... The signals also change if the points are set wrong ahead. And there are (normally) circuits that stop you changing points if a train has already passed the double yellow that protects them. Of course, it does go wrong sometimes...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colwich_rail_crash (I was about ten minutes behind - it took a LONG time to get home that night)

I think there are. But two significant differences: - Trains are signalled at vehicle level (or a group of vehicles treated as a single entity). The signal goes red as a train passes; it goes green when the train is far enough in front for safety. Can you imagine that on the M1? Train drivers treat SPAD (Signal Passed At Danger) very seriously. If every motorist who went through a red light / ignored a lane warning was treated in this way most of them would be off the road (and the roads would be a lot safer).

In my previous hobby this was my pet peeve - towing a 1.5 ton RIB (big inflatable) down to Plymouth with a vehicle which could easily tow at the speed limit; restricted to 60 (as I'm towing) and coming up behind someone doing 55 in the middle lane with no other vehicles in sight: - Go into the outside lane - Illegal Undertake - Illegal Sit behind flashing headlights / front fog's / sounding the horn - if not illegal then frowned upon

Accepting the fact that breaking the speed limit at one sign is not acceptable just because you can see the next (higher) one; is there a delay factor between reducing the speed limit and activating the camera? Not thinking long periods* but to avoid catching a motorist approaching the sign at the current limit, sign drops ten MPH when they are a few feet away, motorist either slams the anchors on or gets a ticket... [ * - more akin to the "Amber" phase on traffic lights ]