Very true although when I travel a route with no smart motorways my journey time is similar today as it always was, unless all 2m extra cars are on the m6?
Surely everyone can agree, a motorway with a hard shoulder is safer than one without therefore using the lane for traffic to ease congestion is at the cost of safety.
Variable speeds should be a different subject. Personally I think they probably do help but the operators are so conscious of risks that they often whack up a 40 sign when there is no justification. Having said that if I was in charge of the signs and people’s lives I would probably keep it at 40 all the time!
Variable speeds should be a different subject. Personally I think they probably do help but the operators are so conscious of risks that they often whack up a 40 sign when there is no justification. Having said that if I was in charge of the signs and people’s lives I would probably keep it at 40 all the time!
What people are forgettting is the common sense rule!
The roads clear all doing 70mph, the sign shows 60mph, then people brake from 70mph to 60mph. This causes accidents. I have seen loads of rear ends on the M25 because of this stupid, stupid system.
People are more then capable of seeing traffic slowing down in front of them, its worked that way for nearly 100 years. Smart motorways is a dreamt up idea that works and looks perfectly on paper and a computer model. Not in reality.
The roads clear all doing 70mph, the sign shows 60mph, then people brake from 70mph to 60mph. This causes accidents. I have seen loads of rear ends on the M25 because of this stupid, stupid system.
People are more then capable of seeing traffic slowing down in front of them, its worked that way for nearly 100 years. Smart motorways is a dreamt up idea that works and looks perfectly on paper and a computer model. Not in reality.
I think the smart bit in slowing traffic down when it gets busy is good, but I don't like getting rid of the hard shoulders. The amount of times I have seen vehicles wandering into it. Also if you break down and are parked on the hard shoulder the advise given is get out of the car and get behind the barriers. Even hard shoulders are not safe. No hard soulder is even worse. A lot of drivers don't read the roads and travel too close to the cars in front, at speed as well.
According to Inside Out North West (last Monday i recall) a smart motorway with all the sensors i.e. full Smart only exists for a small section of the M25. Others read: Most rely on humans spotting you on CCTV. It should be all or nothing
And pick either All Lanes Running or at busy times (Variable Hard Shoulder??) and not have 2 separate systems
You laugh. This could be Heathrow and the M25 in years to come if it gets the extra runway?
Panorama this evening, half an hour of footage, eye witnesses, bereaved, experts and police from all levels and 100% damming.
Seems everyone thinks these are bad, unsafe and poorly conceived, including an all party MP working group, mainly because of the lack of a continuous hard shoulder... except possibly the transport secretary - odd that
Seems everyone thinks these are bad, unsafe and poorly conceived, including an all party MP working group, mainly because of the lack of a continuous hard shoulder... except possibly the transport secretary - odd that
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