Great Idea....Smart Motorways!

rockits

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9,167
Well at least it is official what most of us knew and were thinking.


Who thought it would ever be a good idea in the first place needs putting in a mental health institution.
 

midlifecrisis

Member
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16,102
Well at least it is official what most of us knew and were thinking.


Who thought it would ever be a good idea in the first place needs putting in a mental health institution.
He already is in a mental institution, it's called the Department of Transport. These are the same knobs who came up with speed cameras, speed bumps/pillows and for paying more for your road tax if you pay by direct debit.
 

rockits

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9,167
Funnily enough he lands and takes his plane off from the farmers field over the lane from us.
 

Wanderer

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5,791
Last Yorks-Dubs trip we did but one was in the missus Venerable Pug, and in atrocious weather on the M62 Westbound just before Hartshead Moor Servies, hard shoulder in use, cam belt snapped and we ground to halt. I never shat myself as much in my life, honks, trucks swerving to avoid us, no idea what to as panic had set in.

Called Recovery, said get out if car but even before we had chance, coppers arrived and Highway Patrol and got us to services. Coppers were saying they are dead set against smart motorways.

And after that experience so are we....
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,764
Smart motorways are everything but smart, most drivers don't understand the red cross they drive along the lane waiting for the red light to tell them to stop - lethal things, I try my best not to drive in the inside lane as you never know what is going to be there
 

Wack61

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8,764
18 months ago NB on the M6 I saw an eastern European registered truck stopped in one of the refuges , he was settling down for the night with his gas cooker out, sausages looked just about ready.

The AA etc won't attend smart motorway breakdowns unless you're in a refuge , they wait for the highways agency to arrive and cone the lane off

So if you break down you better hope nobody hits you in the 1st 20 seconds, then you might survive.
 

2b1ask1

Special case
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20,223
Smart motorways will never be safe, they are not even a cheap way of increasing capacity, look how many gazillions they are spending per mile making them.
 

rockits

Member
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9,167
I agree they are far from smart. Often down to many people using them being less than smart. One thing raised I have not much thought of is people not driving on the inside lane for what might be there.

Great point and advice I will take so will do the same from now on. Now I can understand some people that don't move all the way over when they can now. It may well be for this very reason.
 

Doohickey

Velociraptor
Messages
2,496
Apart from anything else, the middle lane hoggers then become one in from the outside lane hoggers and so you don't gain any capacity by using the hard shoulder. If people drove properly on the motorways then congestion would be reduced anyway.
 

zagatoes30

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20,764
Other than genuine peak periods I beleive congestion would be eased significantly if middle lane hoggers were dealt with. In France most major arteries are only 2 lane but there is little congestion as drivers tend to quickly move back to the inside lane. In Ireland we have the worse case scenario, only 2 lanes any drivers who don't move over nightmare
 

CatmanV2

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48,557
I agree they are far from smart. Often down to many people using them being less than smart. One thing raised I have not much thought of is people not driving on the inside lane for what might be there.

Great point and advice I will take so will do the same from now on. Now I can understand some people that don't move all the way over when they can now. It may well be for this very reason.

While it's logical, I suspect it's very not true. The number of people you see in lane 2, 3 and 4 when there's nothing in lane 1....

C
 

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,594
We all know the change to smart motorways was for one thing and one thing only...to make money out of its users.

Taking the safety issues aside, its there to change to variable speed limits at any time and penalise those who miss it by 3 points and fix penalty in turn cutting the police presence and save/make money.

And there you have the current state of people dying needlessly on our highways.
 

2b1ask1

Special case
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20,223
Undertaking; isn't it ok in variable speed limits anyway? I recall it being 'allowed' when they first introduced variable speed on the M25 many years ago and spent millions on gantry Gatzo cameras that never worked.
 

GeoffCapes

Member
Messages
14,000
Bloody right. String 'em up or allow undertaking, like in the US.

You can legally under take in the UK anyway.
As long as you're not swerving from lane to lane.

If you sit on the inside lane at 70mph and it's clear you can undertake, pretty much everyone!
 

Vampyrebat

Member
Messages
3,117
I have always assumed this as most people invariably enter the motorway and get into their bum-crack in the seat (middle lane/fast lane both overtaking lanes only) and sit there for there entire journey. Thus clogging up the lanes, so I find myself undertaking them as I only drive in the left hand lane (unless I need to overtake) and think to myself.....Is this legal that I am doing under 70mph but still going faster that the other D!ckheads' in the other two lanes!!
 
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Wack61

Member
Messages
8,764
There's no getting away from it , the standard of driving on Britain's motorways is awful , yesterday 2 cars coming down the slip road at 45mph , I got past them , the guy behind flashed them on and the front car braked so he braked, once the confusion had passed they must've pulled on doing 35-40

38 deaths on smart motorways I read , most of those I bet are from being wiped out when broken down.
 

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
You can legally under take in the UK anyway.
As long as you're not swerving from lane to lane.

If you sit on the inside lane at 70mph and it's clear you can undertake, pretty much everyone!

Quite a few countries it's legal to under take but they tend to have much better spatial awareness than UK road users who to sit in each other's blind spots 3 feet from the car in front