M60 Smart Motorway

kinetic747

kinetic747

kinetic747

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Took a trip to Rochdale today, M61, M60 then M62 and the 'smart' improvements have if anything, made things worse. There are now 4 lanes but they seem narrower so I saw a few HGV's and vans veering over the lane markers. A couple of the van drivers were on the phone, hardly surprising these days but extremely dangerous. Also, due to the 50mph enforced limit, I think it's easier to end up in a HGV blind spot. Does anyone else feel the same?
 
What smart motorway on the M60 it's not finished yet. The 50 speed limit has been in place for years now.
 
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"Smart" motorways were born because the Government realised there was a need for higher capacity roads. Some moronic civil servant suggested that there was already a rarely used 4th lane, why not use that?

No-one thought to list the reasons for not using it such as it's there for emergency use for brokendown vehicles and emergency services to get to incidents.

The major problem with "Smart" motorways is that they are controlled by individuals who have multiple screens to constantly monitor and don't have the mental capacity to monitor one.

How many reports has there been of IPV collisions on these "smart" motorways?
 
I laugh when it says upgrading to a smart motorway. It is actually a downgrade whichbis very dangerous if you happen to breakdown. You also spend more time looking at the gantries than on the actual road because of the limits going up and down.

The speed limits are also controlled by sensors in the road which measure traffic flow. They just end up causing more congestion in my experience.
 
Resident said:
"Smart" motorways were born because the Government realised there was a need for higher capacity roads. Some moronic civil servant suggested that there was already a rarely used 4th lane, why not use that?

No-one thought to list the reasons for not using it such as it's there for emergency use for brokendown vehicles and emergency services to get to incidents.

The major problem with "Smart" motorways is that they are controlled by individuals who have multiple screens to constantly monitor and don't have the mental capacity to monitor one.

How many reports has there been of IPV collisions on these "smart" motorways?
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I thought the reason was dynamic speed limits to deal with the huge traffic jams that form when some idiot who doesn't ubderstand how a motorway works uses thier brakes?
 
LeMson said:
Seen a hard shoulder live lane with stopped car and hazards on, scary as hell these places!
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Yep if I ever broke down or was in avehcile that did on one of these motorways I would be as far up the embankment as possible and feeling really bad about the driver who was potentially gonna die before the idiot on camera duty noticed it there
 
Tefal said:
I thought the reason was dynamic speed limits to deal with the huge traffic jams that form when some idiot who doesn't ubderstand how a motorway works uses thier brakes?
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They are but a high proportion of people don't understand this.
Traffic restricted to 50 flows so much better because you don't get trucks overtaking, or Mr I'm in a rush so let me through at 100. You just get everyone cruising along. The more smart motorways the better IMO.
 
robj20 said:
They are but a high proportion of people don't understand this.
Traffic restricted to 50 flows so much better because you don't get trucks overtaking, or Mr I'm in a rush so let me through at 100. You just get everyone cruising along. The more smart motorways the better IMO.
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Limit lorries to lane 1 and job done?

Also your forgetting lorries can't go in lane 3 so lorries over taking only cause issues in 2 lane systems

And you get the exact same problem if the speed limit is 50. You need to dynamically drop the limit to stop people hitting the jam as it rolls forward (a lot of the time the smart pantries go as low as 40 on otherwise seemingly clear moto4way)
 
Tefal said:
Limit lorries to lane 1 and job done?

Also your forgetting lorries can't go in lane 3 so lorries over taking only cause issues in 2 lane systems

And you get the exact same problem if the speed limit is 50. You need to dynamically drop the limit to stop people hitting the jam as it rolls forward (a lot of the time the smart pantries go as low as 40 on otherwise seemingly clear moto4way)
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Trucks going into lane 2 actually causes huge tail backs a lot of the time. You get people in lane 2 slamming the brakes on then moving into lane 3 often causing people in lane 3 to slow.
A lot is people refusing to leave enough space between cars to allow for people moving into lanes.
 
Tefal said:
Limit lorries to lane 1 and job done?

Also your forgetting lorries can't go in lane 3 so lorries over taking only cause issues in 2 lane systems
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Really? So if a car is overtaking two side-by-side lorries at say 65mph, that doesnt cause a delay for the rest of the traffic which is moving at 70-80? Nope, this actually happens a lot.

Plus, it's 'you're' not 'your'. :)
 
Tefal said:
I thought the reason was dynamic speed limits to deal with the huge traffic jams that form when some idiot who doesn't ubderstand how a motorway works uses thier brakes?
Click to expand...

abbviper said:
I laugh when it says upgrading to a smart motorway. It is actually a downgrade whichbis very dangerous if you happen to breakdown. You also spend more time looking at the gantries than on the actual road because of the limits going up and down.

The speed limits are also controlled by sensors in the road which measure traffic flow. They just end up causing more congestion in my experience.
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Dynamic limits simply don't work automatically. They're manually controlled, there's no sensors at all. Someone is making a decision to alter the limit.

That said there are long sections of the smart network like M1 J35-J30 where they seem to be set on a timer which defeats the whole purpose of the "smart" function.
At 5.30am the gantries light up 50 signs and they go off about 10am then back on 3pm till 7pm.
 
I hate "smart" motorways. I never drive any of them regularly enough to know where the cameras are so when I see the random red 50 (or worse 40) appear I can't take the risk and slow down as gradually as I can to be doing within 10% when I pass the gantry, this often ends up with me experiencing what it must be like to blow your engine up while leading at Daytona as all of a sudden traffic swarms past like you are stood still.
 
France, Germany etc in the past raised the speed limit because modern vehicles can cope

So what should the UK do? Oh yeah, lets make the M1 go to 50mph at 2 in the ******* morning because there's SO MUCH TRAFFIC
(2 cars in a miles viewing distance)
 
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