On busy motorways, it can be almost impossible to get over from the outside lane to the hard shoulder if something fails, because of the sheer volume of traffic - quiet motorways aren't a problem.

So, I'd rather have a busy motorway managed, even if no hard sholuder, rather than a busy unmanaged motorway.

hit by spammers.. so moved down.

Point taken, RT, but in some - perhaps most - cases it is possible to get ovwer to the hard shoulder.....unless there isn't one.

Another typical example of government agencies just carrying on regardless on the say-so of men in suits looking at statistics, ignoring the very real risk to people whose vehicles break down. It's good that the press are on to this, although it may still make no difference.

Smart motorways? I don't think so.

Having had a cambelt failure, taking out all power including the steering assistance, at 70mph in lane 3 of the M42 (pre-managed systems) I experienced just how difficult it was to get across to the hard shoulder which meant bullying my way into gaps with inches to spare and I don't think a "lesser" driver would have managed it.

In lighter traffic, it's more likely to be done successfully, but in those conditions the hard-shoulder running isn't likely to be in use anyway.

Part-time smart motorways, to cope with twice daily peaks, are fine in my book - but long distance smart motorways just can't be monitored to the same degree - so in my case the M42 round brum is fine but not the M6 from Rugby to Preston.