Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2004
- Posts
- 7,053
Removing the hard shoulder from the motorways was an absolutely stupid move in the first place, whoever's made that decision is an absolute fool.
Seen many near misses on a lane which has been closed due to the broken down car but people ignore the overhead signs.
We had/have the safest motorways in Europe, they shouldn't have messed with it.
The more confusing and distracting they make it the more accidents there will be.
If they are too complicated to use should you really be in charge of a vehicle?
How surprising, nicking the hard shoulder to use as a lane has notable downsides.
So assuming a normal smart motorway and all four lanes are full of static traffic, how do emergency services get through if there's an accident, I know let's make a lane just for that and give it a special name so they can get by. Feels like a step backwards Imo and was obviously a cheap and nasty way to get an extra lane.
I had to stop in a live lane once when my car lost power in the fourth lane between M6 J13 and J12. I was trying to get to the recovery area. To do so, I had to pull across 4 lanes of traffic in a car that was coasting to a standstill. And then I stopped 10m short of the recovery area.
Scariest moment of my life.
It's not massively different true, but most city centres have bus lanes so surely they would go along them, plus there's normally more than one way to get to a place in a city centre whereas in a motorway there isn't always.They could do with activating speed cameras on the closed lanes to start fining/points for drivers who are ignoring lane closures.
I disagree, if anything they should abandon the way the earlier smart motorways work (look at M6 J8 to J10) where the inside lane gets closed off if traffic is light. These lanes should be open 24/7 unless of a breakdown.
This really, honestly how hard can it be to drive in the far left lane until a sign tells you that the lane is closed.
There are way to many upsides to counter any downsides. There are too many cars on the roads these days, adding extra capacity was really a critical priority.
How's that any different than when emergency vehicles have to get through traffic in city centres? I guess the luxury with motorways is that they have very wide lanes, so plenty of room for people to shuffle over.
Also if people follow the signs correctly, then the inside lane would be closed and free from cars for any emergency services to drive down.
The sequence of that event wouldn't have differed that much if it was a traditional motorway though. You'd have still had to veer across two other live lanes to land on the hard shoulder.
I guess they did the cost analysis and the 1million+ costs for a motorway/road mortality are outweighed by the economic benefit.So after all these opinions about how rubbish they are, who has a better suggestion for less money?!
Anything with "smart" in the name is anything but tbh. Smart TVs, smart meters, smart phones. All the opposite of smart. And when it comes to software "smart" means choose every possible incorrect setting.
Do you ever read your own posts back to yourself?
The sequence of that event wouldn't have differed that much if it was a traditional motorway though. You'd have still had to veer across two other live lanes to land on the hard shoulder.
They could do with activating speed cameras on the closed lanes to start fining/points for drivers who are ignoring lane closures.
I disagree, if anything they should abandon the way the earlier smart motorways work (look at M6 J8 to J10) where the inside lane gets closed off if traffic is light. These lanes should be open 24/7 unless of a breakdown.
This really, honestly how hard can it be to drive in the far left lane until a sign tells you that the lane is closed.
There are way to many upsides to counter any downsides. There are too many cars on the roads these days, adding extra capacity was really a critical priority.
How's that any different than when emergency vehicles have to get through traffic in city centres? I guess the luxury with motorways is that they have very wide lanes, so plenty of room for people to shuffle over.
Also if people follow the signs correctly, then the inside lane would be closed and free from cars for any emergency services to drive down.
The sequence of that event wouldn't have differed that much if it was a traditional motorway though. You'd have still had to veer across two other live lanes to land on the hard shoulder.
or just high more motorway police.If proper lane discipline was enforced smart motorways wouldn't be necessary. Perhaps the money could have been used on enforcing middle lane hoggers instead
If they are too complicated to use should you really be in charge of a vehicle?