Its seems ludicrous to me ! What if you have an breakdown, like a puncture ?
If you were stopped on the hard shoulder, trying to fix it, would you cause another accident, to the traffic driving on the hard shoulder behind you ?
If it is worthy of being a motorway it should be one with continuous strip to ensure all lanes are clear. If it isn't that busy I'm sure a single or dual carriageway would suffice. Either it is worth it or it is not.
To expand the M62 which goes through hills and over valleys would be hideously expensive and disruptive. I'm afraid West Yorkshire has reached saturation point necessitating schemes such as this.
They have them on the M42 here in the Midlands, where you can drive on the hard shoulder.
But they also put huge signs above the lane telling you if the lane is clear (so you can drive on it) or is not available (if someone has broken down).
Because they have CCTV cameras on the lanes as soon as a car breaks down and goes on the hard shoulder then light above the lane becomes a cross showing you cant drive on it.
It has worked fine with no problems up here on the very busy M42 for years.
We've had this on the northbound M1 in Leicestershire for a while now. I don't know how much it contributes to the almost weekly stories of the motorway being closed because of accidents or breakdowns. However, if it's going to become commonplace then perhaps it's about time we adopted the European law of having to carry - and use - warning triangles in the event of a breakdown.