Pedestrians On The Motorway?

[wiltsman]

Yesterday afternoon I traveled down the M4 from London to Swindon.

Leaving Reading I passed a message board displaying '50. Pedestrians on carriageway'. Like most other motorists I slowed down looking out for anyone walking on the motorway. But at the next message board it showed the same message. Incredulously, the same message was repeated over and over again for over ten miles until the Newbury exit was reached, then they stopped, no message saying end of hazard, or similar.

Now, what speed can pedestrians reach nowadays? I can't imagine that a pedestrian on the M4 at Reading can move fast enough to be a hazard on the M4 at Newbury.

Do ABers think that whoever is responsible for displaying these messages should be operating them with a bit more diligence?

[baza]

I thought the average walking speed was 4mph, I did see a sign which read"think bike" 2 miles along the road was closed, why the hell would I want to think about bikers when all I want to do is get home.
Whoever has the job needs to wake up and give out correct information, 50 pedestrians really.

[SeaJayPea]

Two possible causes I can think of:

They've seen kids playing some sort of dare game, running across the carriageway

Or

There are workmen due to be going out and putting signs up indicating road works coming up. Those guys have to run across the motorway carrying those big triangular signs that sit in the central reservation. I know that if I had to do that, I'd want to be as certain as possible that traffic was slowing down.

In the first case, they may not know exactly where they were, in the second they will know where the road works is going to start, but may well not know how far along with putting signs/cones out they've got.

Although this does seem to be a very long stretch that you describe.

[paddywak]

When ever I've seen people coning off the motorway its been done with those slow moving vehicles following behind complete with flashing lights and proper warning signs and even the warning matrix signs going giving you plenty of warning.

[wiltsman]

Thanks for the replies. Just to clarify, the '50' related to 50mph - not 50 pedestrians!

I did think it may have related to children running across the carriageway, and although advance warning needs to be given, it doesn't need to be repeatedly displayed for ten miles.

[Zacs-Master]

The problem is that the police may have been alerted to the pedestrians by a member of the public who was not sure of the exact location, so to be on the safe side they put up the message on a lot of info boards.

[ToraToraTora]

It's standard practice here in Mumbai!

[joggerjayne]

Anyone walking on the M25 would move faster than the traffic.

[ELVIS68]

Usually when that message comes up on Motorways it means that a lorry that has parked up at a services stop or lay-by has just shed its load of illegals which were holed up in its trailer

[Mass_Hysteria]

I get a bit fed up of these signs over the motorway, pedestrians, debris, workmen etc on carriageway. Everybody bar the idiots slow down for miles and miles and miles then.................END! Nothing........What?