'Smart' Motorways, an accident waiting to happen?

[BossHogg]

Operators in my area are spot on, we have a few smart motorway stretches in the south of my region, luckily on my stretch it's still bog standard.

 

[cowgoesmoo]

Nothing wrong with smart motorways if you put your phone down and actually concentrate of whats going on round about you instead of monging it glued to the back bumper of the car in front.

 

[RBMK]

I was in heavy traffic on the M6 South before lockdown in lane 2 of a smart motorway when a truck about 400m in front of me did a very rapid swerve into lane 2 to avoid a broken down vehicle in the shoulder / active lane.

My phone lives in the glovebox and I avoid using it even hands free so callers get "I'll ring you back later" if I'm driving.

ETA, you can't see an obstruction when you're in heavy traffic with HGVs in front of you, even if you're driving at a safe speed and distance from the vehicle in front, and there're's nowhere to swerve to if you're boxed in.

 

[Endoscope]

Such a crazy idea

 

[Joshua Slocum]

A mate of mine lives in Brum, where they are messing about with motorway making them smart
he has done the same journey for ten years on his motorcycle 3 days a week, other 2 he works nearer and cycles
he told me that as soon as the motorway was made into 4 lanes for a few weeks it ran smoother
but then more and more people decided to use ii to commute, even comparitavly short distances
oddly, the location he cycles to in an hour, has staff driving on the motorway to get there as its quicker ??
it now he says goes even slower than before
he has witnessed a few near misses on the smart bits, so not all of them make it into the paper
the amount of broken bits of car collected by the road crews is testament to that
also older cars would often struggle on a mile or two as they broke down, I have had a company vehicle just cut out, luckily on dual carriegway after leaving the M way
dash lit up
would not even turn over, and being an electronic gearbox thingy you could not push it either, lucky there was room to stuff it into the verge

 

[cowgoesmoo]

I can't see the issue in using the hard shoulder as a running lane in heavy traffic when congestion has brought the speed down to 30 or 40mph in the other lanes. Almost every time i've seen a vehicle stopped in lane 1 it's either been a woman with a flat tyre, people swapping details after a very minor bump or some clapped out POS that's not seen a service since Brookside was on TV - why not drive to the next refuge instead of stopping in the middle of the motorway?

I think it's another example of how we refuse to hold people accountable for their actions. Not my fault I was on the phone/tailgaiting/looking out the window and didn't look where I was driving, it was the fault of someone else (i.e. the road designer).

 

[Endoscope]

I can't see the issue in using the hard shoulder as a running lane in heavy traffic when congestion has brought the speed down to 30 or 40mph in the other lanes. Almost every time i've seen a vehicle stopped in lane 1 it's either been a woman with a flat tyre, people swapping details after a very minor bump or some clapped out POS that's not seen a service since Brookside was on TV - why not drive to the next refuge instead of stopping in the middle of the motorway?

I think it's another example of how we refuse to hold people accountable for their actions. Not my fault I was on the phone/tailgaiting/looking out the window and didn't look where I was driving, it was the fault of someone else (i.e. the road designer).

It's an inherently stupid idea

 

[cowgoesmoo]

It's an inherently stupid idea

And spending public money building motorways and then only using 3/4 of them isn't??

Theres nothing wrong with using hard shoulder when it's busy - it's the lack of driving standards and near-zero enforcement of the law thats the problem on the motorways.

 

[Endoscope]

And spending public money building motorways and then only using 3/4 of them isn't??

Theres nothing wrong with using hard shoulder when it's busy - it's the lack of driving standards and near-zero enforcement of the law thats the problem on the motorways.

It was always planned to have a recovery lane to the left. The original plan still has validity and necessity. Enlargement on the cheap by utilising the recovery lane is going to be disastrous and I hope not too many people have to die before the idea is put back in its box

 

[Northern_Biff]

A mate of mine lives in Brum, where they are messing about with motorway making them smart
he has done the same journey for ten years on his motorcycle 3 days a week, other 2 he works nearer and cycles
he told me that as soon as the motorway was made into 4 lanes for a few weeks it ran smoother
but then more and more people decided to use ii to commute, even comparitavly short distances
oddly, the location he cycles to in an hour, has staff driving on the motorway to get there as its quicker ??
it now he says goes even slower than before
he has witnessed a few near misses on the smart bits, so not all of them make it into the paper
the amount of broken bits of car collected by the road crews is testament to that
also older cars would often struggle on a mile or two as they broke down, I have had a company vehicle just cut out, luckily on dual carriegway after leaving the M way
dash lit up
would not even turn over, and being an electronic gearbox thingy you could not push it either, lucky there was room to stuff it into the verge

Tell us why we should read a post that looks like your brane just vomited on your keyboard without any interaction from you?

 

[Blogg]

And spending public money building motorways and then only using 3/4 of them isn't??

Theres nothing wrong with using hard shoulder when it's busy - it's the lack of driving standards and near-zero enforcement of the law thats the problem on the motorways.

Design of all things has to factor in human stupidity.

Many years ago there were persistent problems with a ramp on to M25 from M3.

DoT claimed it was caused by drivers "not using it properly". Nothing wrong at all. Nope. Complied with all standards. Begone with you, ignorant peasants.

Eventually "reconfigured" (road marking changed to give more distance for filtering) and lo, the snarl ups and RTA's plummeted..

 

[cowgoesmoo]

It was always planned to have a recovery lane to the left. The original plan still has validity and necessity. Enlargement on the cheap by utilising the recovery lane is going to be disastrous and I hope not too many people have to die before the idea is put back in its box

There are recovery laybys on the left on smart motorways at regular intervals, the drivers in the case on the BBC news chose not to use it but instead stand in the middle of the motorway. From the mouth of the judge in the case on the BBC news "... had the victims driven on for another mile to the refuge, this catastrophe would never had occurred.". They chose to stop on the motorway and the truck driver who hit them chose to pay attention to something other than his driving, but yet the problem lies with the motorway??

 

[Ecosse]

Nothing wrong with smart motorways if you put your phone down and actually concentrate of whats going on round about you instead of monging it glued to the back bumper of the car in front.

Cock.
Utter hogwash.
They are fine unless you get a sidewall flat that tyre gunk won't fix whatever the gender or drive a PugPig / Shitroen/ Poxhall that ceases to progress sans power steering etc.

 

[Endoscope]

There are recovery laybys on the left on smart motorways at regular intervals, the drivers in the case on the BBC news chose not to use it but instead stand in the middle of the motorway. From the mouth of the judge in the case on the BBC news "... had the victims driven on for another mile to the refuge, this catastrophe would never had occurred.". They chose to stop on the motorway and the truck driver who hit them chose to pay attention to something other than his driving, but yet the problem lies with the motorway??

The catastrophe would never have occurred with a continuous recovery lane on the left

 

[Endoscope]

Its just enlargement on the cheap

 

[Endoscope]

Eventually, who knows, the original idea for this fiasco has a name, and is dragged before the courts on a corporate manslaughter charge....

 

[RBMK]

Motorways were originally designed / intended for long distance travel but in the UK we have put junctions very close to each other in many places, in some cases within 2/3 mile. This means people hopping on to the motorway to nip a mile or two to the next junction thus clogging the road up.

Plus in the UK a mind set that means it's acceptable to live 50 miles from where you work in the expectation of being able to cover the distance in an hour. I know of several people who do daily commutes of >50 miles and then complain because the motorway is busy at 0800.

Well, no shirt Sherlock, if there weren't people commuting long distances then the motorway would be less crowded and we wouldn't need another lane.

 

[Blogg]

There are recovery laybys on the left on smart motorways at regular intervals, the drivers in the case on the BBC news chose not to use it but instead stand in the middle of the motorway. From the mouth of the judge in the case on the BBC news "... had the victims driven on for another mile to the refuge, this catastrophe would never had occurred.". They chose to stop on the motorway and the truck driver who hit them chose to pay attention to something other than his driving, but yet the problem lies with the motorway??

When ‘smart’ motorways were originally tested and approved, emergency refuges were 600m apart.

By the time all-lane running was introduced that had magically increased to 2.5km and stopped vehicle radar would be in place on all smart motorways. So that will be OK then.

How is that going?

Safety technology covers only 37 miles of smart motorway

Only 37 miles of smart motorway have been fitted with vital technology used to detect broken-down vehicles, prompting more concerns over safety.The radar system, which can spot stationary cars in 20

www.thetimes.co.uk

 

[cowgoesmoo]

Cock.
Utter hogwash.
They are fine unless you get a sidewall flat that tyre gunk won't fix whatever the gender or drive a PugPig / Shitroen/ Poxhall that ceases to progress sans power steering etc.

All easily avoided by maintaining a car properly, not just changing the oil once a year before crossing you fingers that the advisories from last years MOT haven't become outright fails. And understanding that run-flat tires are designed to allow you to keep driving to a safe place, not stopping in the middle of the carriageway.

 

[tommikka]

All easily avoided by maintaining a car properly, not just changing the oil once a year before crossing you fingers that the advisories from last years MOT haven't become outright fails. And understanding that run-flat tires are designed to allow you to keep driving to a safe place, not stopping in the middle of the carriageway.

However it’s a fact of life that people don’t regularly check their cars, don’t run a visual check before each journey, throw the mot certificate into the glovebox with the extra pages still stapled to the back untouched etc, people still set off on the motorway without enough fuel relying on services being in the right place at the right time

Not every tyre on the road is a run flat
Also, things happen.

A smart motorway should be safe enough, if every driver pays attention to the road ahead and leaves the right amount of space, every driver notices the warning signs that flag that something could happen, reacts in the right way for whatever happens and surrounding drivers react in a way that allows them to take refuge - if it’s available within the distance that they can take i