Smart Motorways - Unsafe?

[mushroom25]

BBC Panorama last night, and reported this morning in many papers (here is but one - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/27/highways-englands-smart-motorways-policy-killed-drivers-exminister )

looks like the minister signed off on the evidence of a trial, and Highways England then went off and implemented the roll-out on the cheap with emergency laybys 3 times further apart than the trial, and (apart from 6% of the total) without the vehicle detection radar the system was meant to come with. Panorama showed a collection of video-ed near-misses which were of the most hair raising!

With road building now being something of an environmental anathema "smart" motorways was possibly the only option available in the fight against congestion. with 300 miles more currently being converted, what would be the sensible thing to do now - cancel HS2 and use the budget to do a proper job this time?

[Ellipsis]

If there was always a hard shoulder, it would just be a motorway.

[SlackAlice]

ToraToraTora

Couldn't agree more. Economic solution risking life and limb needlessly.

Last time I was in Thailand their motorway from Bangkok airport into Bangkok was six lanes each way but still had an extra lane for breakdowns with access for emergency vehicles only

[ToraToraTora]

TBF, it's not only a cost thing, it's not always possible to add extra lanes so I can see why the hard shoulder became attractive but we really should be looking more at ways of reducing traffic. Any extra road capacity is quickly swallowed up by the traffic, we need to think laterally.

[Togo]

We are luck here in not having to use the smart motorways. The only time we have encountered them is when we travel south to Cornwall and even then we try to avoid the sections on the M6 and M5 that utilise the system at busy times. The sections around Birmingham on the M6 are deadly. The danger, in my opinion is that when the system is operative there are drivers who are used to the opportunity to use the hard shoulder, and who do so at breakneck speed and switch lanes every few minutes trying to gain a few yards advantage. They know where junctions are and are not usually looking for exit junctions, whether to take them or to avoid them. The drivers who may not encounter them regularly can be stressed and distracted by the sudden change in circumstances and either panic or get in a dither. I am lucky in that, whilst not enjoying using them , I do, if I encounter them, get by just fine if not dandy. The M6 parts are unbelievable the first time you hit them the M5 parts are somehow not to disturbing. There has got to be a better way.

[andy-hughes]

I live about two miles away from Junction 15 of the M6, so if I want to go north or south, I hit 'smart' motorway from the off.

Every single day, the local radio traffic bulletins announce usually two or three per day vehicles broken down, and lanes closed on this stretch, so it's not proving to be 'smart' at all.

The fact that the AA will not allow its breakdown crews to attend on 'smart' motorways, but insists on broken down vehicles being towed to a 'place of safety' says it all?

[tonyav]

The fact that the AA will not allow its breakdown crews to attend on 'smart' motorways, but insists on broken down vehicles being towed to a 'place of safety' says it all?

Very true, andy.
I can't escape smart motorways where I live ( M6, M5 ), even now I find it a bit scary driving North or South on motorway's with no hard shoulder. Potentially deadly imo.

[Togo]

The section that you are referring to AV is the bit I mentioned earlier....coming home travelling North. Kin mare. More like wacky races without the fun. That bit is tricky enough for us even with the Tom Tom trned up and the ipod turned off until we turn off on the M54. Got the hang of it now, but I know it is deadly.

P.S. Take the train to Wembley

[Cloverjo]

I’ve driven on motorways fewer than ten times in my 24 years since passing my test. I’m even more disinclined to do so with these ‘smart’ motorways.

[jno]

TTT, it's not just the emergency bays. The plan also invoved radar coverage that would spot breakdowns instantly, but HE have installed this on just 6% of smart motorways. There was also a report of a warning sign somewhere that was out of action for almost a year.

Smart motorways may never work, for all I know, but they apparently did okay in the trials. It's in setting them up across the network that HE have screwed up monumentally. I don't know that the organisation is fit for purpose.

[Ellipsis]

I did not see Panorama, but it strike me that if you pass under a gantry at 70 mph a moment before it changes to [X] because of a breakdown, you're now on a collision course with a stationary vehicle without warning.

[woofgang]

The program I saw said that in many (most?) of the areas, the "smart" bit was a person scanning camera feeds. Surely the first thing to do regardless of the congestion it may cause would be to stop using the hard shoulder as an extra lane right now?

[tonyav]

P.S. Take the train to Wembley

Will do if I can get a ticket.

Junction 9 and 10 M6 North to leave or get on is a leap of faith !