M6 9pm+, light traffic & 50mph

Last Saturday I was travelling up the m6 after 9pm. Traffic was very light yet on every stretch of smart motorway the overhead gantry’s showed 50mph. Once the hard shoulder returned & variable speeds ended we were back up to 70.

I assume there was some issue with the smart motorway monitoring or more likely they were short staffed so decided to slow everyone down instead of just closing the left most lane!!!

So frustrating doing what seemed like 20 miles at 50 then 10 miles at 70 then another 20 at 50 another 10 at 70 and rinse & repeat.

I’ve encountered a lot of motorways where the limits have been set low for no discernible reason. Often on my drive along the m3 it’ll say 50 due to debris in the road and you go 20 miles or more without any debris. If it was once in a while then maybe but its literally every time I use it each week!