Changing a car tyre on the hard shoulder.

[Joey Shabadoo]

Happened to me once on the M90 just south of Perth. Pulled over to change the wheel but after a few close passes whilst I was taking the wheel off, I put the spare 2' out into the road which seemed to deter more drivers than my legs did.

 

[keithmac]

Only ever happened to me once (the ex's 205) I told her to drive slowly along the hard shoulder til the next exit, OK it wrecked the tyre but I always was very wary of tyres that had been repaired by a 'plug' so I'd have scrapped that tyre anyway.

I would do the same if safe and possible, no chance changing a tyre on the motorway!.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Even a bright orange RAC patrol van with flashing beacons wasn't bright enough to avoid being hit a few weeks ago, so I doubt I'd even attempt it myself nowadays, especially on the off side.

 

[Slick]

Even a bright orange RAC patrol van with flashing beacons wasn't bright enough to avoid being hit a few weeks ago, so I doubt I'd even attempt it myself nowadays, especially on the off side.

View attachment 393588

Took me a while to work out what i was looking at.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Took me a while to work out what i was looking at.

This is same van after recovery

 

[screenman]

@Nigel-YZ1 ....funnily enough , I was on the motorways in lincolnshire yesterday and noticed the same thing.

Blimey, do we have any.

 

[Tin Pot]

And coincidentally today I just changed my wheels over for the first time ever. Winter boots

 

[mjr]

I am amazed how many people you see waiting on the hard shoulder for assistance but downstream of their car. They probably feel a psychological protection from their car, but in terms of the physics, you really don't want to be standing in the zone any impact will propel your car into, and upstream (whilst of course at the outer edge of the hard shoulder) is surely safer.

Surely in terms of the physics, you want the nobber motorist to reduce their kinetic energy by colliding with your vehicle before they hit you, rather than just smack into you unobstructed? I'd accept the higher risk of being hit by something (their vehicle or yours) in exchange for being hit at a lower speed.

Best is always going to be to get the duck out of fudge and stand well away from the road, ideally above it with good visibility and behind a barrier.

 

[raleighnut]

Blimey, do we have any.

I'm sure there's one,

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The M180 has parts in Lincolnshire.

 

[roadrash]

@screenman ..m180, cant remember where I came off but went past a small airport, onto a road called high street, (it isn't a high street) for 20 miles, bloody hell, it almost has a road surface in some parts, absolutely terrible

 

[swansonj]

Surely in terms of the physics, you want the nobber motorist to reduce their kinetic energy by colliding with your vehicle before they hit you, rather than just smack into you unobstructed? I'd accept the higher risk of being hit by something (their vehicle or yours) in exchange for being hit at a lower speed.

Best is always going to be to get the duck out of fudge and stand well away from the road, ideally above it with good visibility and behind a barrier.

The argument is:
Vehicles on the hard shoulder are a magnet for other drivers to crash into. But the chances of a driver spontaneously veering right across the hard shoulder in the absence of anything to draw their attention is tiny.

So, if you can't get right off the hard shoulder (up a bank, over a fence, behind some Armco, whatever), stand about twenty or thirty yards upstream of your vehicle. The driver who aims straight for your car will miss you and you'll be outside of the swept zone and the flying debris zone.

If you are actually working on the vehicle, then it's different: then you do indeed want another vehicle (the breakdown service van or whatever) upstream of you to absorb some energy.

That is what I was told and it makes sense to me. I'd be interested in the views of any ex-coppers who are presumably taught this sort of stuff.

 

[Nigeyy]

Oh dear. I always thought British motorists were reasonable at changing lanes away from a hazard (at least that is my memory from the 1980's).

It's one of my pet peeves; I can not understand how anyone* travelling on a multi-lane highway paying reasonable attention should not move over or have an intent to move over to a lane to be away from a visible hazard (i.e. broken down vehicle, obstacle, person, etc, etc, etc). It drives me insane, such a ridiculously easy safety issue to do. I've sadly moved over from a broken down vehicle to look in my mirror to see a stream of traffic nonchalantly sticking rigidly to the lane and flashing by. A couple of years ago the principal's father at the school my kids go to was hit and killed when his vehicle broke down and he pulled over -it may have been so easily avoided. Interestingly there was the introduction of a new law in the state of Massachusetts that said you had to pull a lane over from a stopped police/emergency vehicle which seems to have had some effect (I have seen people pull into the lane over from a police car, but sadly doesn't seem to had the same effect for any other type of vehicle stopped, oh well.)

So yes, no way would I change a tyre on a motorway, either side of the vehicle. Not worth it -I'd call breakdown services. I've taught my daughter to drive over here and have drummed into her head that you should move away from any hazard.

*well, if they don't, they are either: inattentive (comforting, eh?), incompetent (not much comfort from that?), lazy ('nuff said), stupid (goes without saying), comatose with cruise control on (?), drunk, or passed away at the steering wheel. Pick any of these -doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't be on the road!

 

[mjr]

The argument is:
Vehicles on the hard shoulder are a magnet for other drivers to crash into. But the chances of a driver spontaneously veering right across the hard shoulder in the absence of anything to draw their attention is tiny.

Why should motorways be any different to all the ordinary roads that drivers randomly veer left right off of?

 

[BoldonLad]

It is a little over ten years since I saw these figures, so, they may have changed, but, as far as I remember, in the UK, the Hard Shoulder is the most dangerous "lane" on a motorway, with more collisions on the hard shoulder than any other lane. If you consider that the hard shoulder also has the lowest occupancy, that, is quite an achievement.