Now the government has admitted that 'smart' motorways are a bad idea. So logically, existing smart motorways should have their hard shoulders re-instated, even if that means reducing from 4 traffic lanes to 3.

The overhead gantries with variable speed limits are a good idea though, so they should stay. In my experience, variable speed limits actually keep the traffic flowing better. But motorways without hard shoulders are obviously less safe than ones with them.

Agreed. Variable speed limits seem to work well, driving on the hard shoulder doesn't. I live fairly near the Almondsbury Interchange (M4/M5) and it's fairly noticeable that people try to avoid driving in the hard shoulder even when it's open.

I don't think they avoid driving in it, more that people don't understand that they can. Makes it better for me though as can often make good proress whilst everyone stays in the slower lanes. It's a bit like bus lanes that are not always in use at certain times, people still keep out of them.

Totally agree. It's not that they aren't safe, It's the average driver doesn't understand how to use them (or even drive!)

Don't get me started on 'zip merge', or how the 40 tonne 'knight of the road' driver feels they have the right to block a lane to prevent anyone from zip merging!

If the average person can't use something safely, it's not safe. I know there are refuges, but not every issue can wait that long for you to pull over, so the alternative is to stop in a live lane of a motorway.

They could improve how the gantry works and make them a lot quicker with better monitoring. I would rather have a brekdown on the M62 smart motorway than somewhere like the A1 with no hard shoulder but just as much and quick moving traffic.

Unlit sections in the dark were always going to be dangerous and always will be, its all very well those who don't use the motorways every day in the dark to tell the rest of us how things should be or how inferior our driving skills are, it isn't you on a dark wet inside lane with your lights barely able to penetrate the gloom hoping not to find some half smashed unlit car imbedded half in/out of the armco with some poor sod stuck inside.

Yes things could happen just the same with a hard shoulder but most of us don't drive along a fully operational hard shoulder.

I've maintained from day one of these schemes that where unlit the hard shoulder should not be a live lane during darkness or in foggy conditions, if this had been implemented from the start everyone would have got used to it.

There's another thing too, too many car/van drivers (truck drivers even the excuseable foreigners are able to work this out) can't work out whether a part time hard shoulder is operational or not, perfect example being the M6 northbound just after the M5 joins and jct 9, as with many west mids sections unless the overhead gantry has the hard shoulder lit as in use its a hard shoulder, every day when i use that section people are merrily driving up the emergency use only hard shoulder, ignorance incompetence or sheer contempt.

I've had multiple instances of coming across stationary vehicles on a live lane, thankfully all so far no unlit vehicles in the dark on unlit, even at 50/55 mph its shocking how little time there is to adjust speed and merge without bringing the road to halt, most times its trucks in the left hand lane not cars as you all know, almost no cars drive along the left hand lane in the dark on unlit smart motorways.

What a marvelous idea to install more refuges, who'd have thought of that duh, we need these people to lead the country i tell you gawd help us...anyone with an ounce of savvy would have put the extra refuges in whilst the works were taking place, this was promised after the last smart motorway furore whilst the whole M1 section between jcts 13 and 15 was still dug up, but may not have been as lucrative for all concerned as waiting till now when conveniently infrastructure construction has hit a quiet patch.

Anyway, which is going to be the Zil lane for the more equal than others.

Edited by gordonbennet on 16/04/2023 at 09:52

About time too. Anyone can see they were far more dangerous than a normal motorway.

Statistically, they weren't - even without Stationary Vehicle Detection (SVD) the Killed & Seriously Injured statistics show that smart motorways were no more dangerous than conventional motorways - with SVD they would be safer.

Really?

www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/motoring/motoring-news...1