CycleChat Investigates - Smart Motorways

[All uphill]

I share the concerns, and do not feel safe driving our 16 year old car along a stretch with no hard shoulder.

It would be great to have a government that tried to reduce traffic through better trains, buses, cycling and walking, but I am not hopeful.

 

[pawl]

I don’t like them.What happens if you break down in one of the outer lanes.

A break down in the inside lane seems to be fraught with danger.Imagine a vehicle broken down in the inside lane .Lorries thundering along.Next lane clogged with traffic so cannot pulloutdue to heavy traffic

Cameras I think need to be more frequent as do gantrys.In my opinion one death on these motor ways is one death to many.

 

[Milkfloat]

Concept is fine, but as usual the execution fails. It would be much better if there were barriers that could be deployed automatically from the side of the road to block the road. A little bit like these red ones in the US. It would still reply on a system to spot a breakdown, but should be quite a lot safer.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I'm not a fan of them, the thought of breaking down and having to stop in a live lane is scary, stupid idea. fortunately I don't do motorway trips very often now.

 

[tom73]

Is that the bit near milton Keynes?

No Sheffield

 

[slowmotion]

It's a bit depressing that The Highways Agency seems to be manned by idiots without an ounce of common sense. Smart motorways are just plain dangerous and people are needlessly dying because of their stupidity.

 

[Drago]

I'm not a fan. The government are trying to justify it and point to the figures that indicate that safety has improved - in NET terms they are safer because the concrete dividers in the median have all but eliminated crossover incidents, but nearside collisions have rocketed up.

All sorts of other issues as well to consider. Should the government be encouraging or enabling more and more unfettered car use in the environmentally conscious times?

But even worse, they're merely a fudge. If you truly need a wider motorway, then there is no actual substitute for a wider motorway, in the same way dividing your spare room in two with a curtain is no substitute for moving to a house with an extra bedroom if that is what you really need. Successive governments are fans of the half arsed, the bodge, the shortcut done on the cheap - they never work, and remedial, measures further down the line mean it'll inevitably cost a lot more than if they had just done it properly to begin with. No, no, no, no, no!

 

[roadrash]

I have said ,since the first time I heard of smart motorways , the idea of not having a hard shoulder will result in deaths, just doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Ripple]

Try to use M20. All traffic using 4 lanes is suddenly squeezed into 2 narrow lanes. Lorries don't give a s*** about speed limits, overtake each other and cars, push cars to get out of their way. Of course, no hard shoulder - good luck to break down while driving in all that madness.

The concrete barrier is being removed at the moment so hopefully traffic will come back to normal.

 

[roadrash]

hopefully traffic will come back to normal.

Whatever normal is

 

[johnblack]

The stretch between Northampton and MK is grim and that's at 50mph as it has been for a couple of years, not Smart, just comparatively cheap.

 

[Ripple]

Whatever normal is

"Normal" means that lorries don't try to push you out of their way by flashing lights and signaling.

 

[Drago]

A lot of tranport firms now have a good conduct bonus scheme for their drivers. If they don't receive any complaints from the public about antics that would make Ben Hur blush, then they get a 50 or 100 quid bonus. if they do get a complaint the bonus is snatched from the drivers he d and placed back in the bosses wallet. Therefore, phoning the companies these idiot drivers work for is always well worth the time.

What worries is the foreign lorries that seem to use the outside lane with impunity.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

A lot of tranport firms now have a good conduct bonus scheme for their drivers. If they don't receive any complaints from the public about antics that would make Ben Hur blush, then they get a 50 or 100 quid bonus. if they do get a complaint the bonus is snatched from the drivers he d and placed back in the bosses wallet. Therefore, phoning the companies these idiot drivers work for is always well worth the time.

What worries is the foreign lorries that seem to use the outside lane with impunity.

I phoned companies about their drivers 3 or 4 times last year. One food company seemed completely disinterested at their lorry speeding, tailgating, swerving across traffic and so on but the minute I said he was smoking it was like I'd shoved a red hot poker up her arse. I almost heard her jump and 5 minutes later the lorry slowed to 50 and pulled into the inside lane.

 

[Ripple]

@Drago

Car drivers are probably happy to be live to reach their destinations and don't care about reporting anybody.