“Smart”Motorways.

[ludwigvan]

The fluffy,cuddly advert using cartoon figures telling you what to do if you get a warning light in your vehicle, lets have an advert showing someone broken down on one of these insanely dangerous motorways trying to get their wife,children and pets out of the car before a Polish lorry driver watching a video smashes their car to smithereens.

[jno]

sunny d, I think there's some cognitive dissonance at work here. The purpose of motorways is to get you from A to B faster. Accidents en route are accepted as a possible side effect.

But the purpose of hard shoulders is different: they're to keep you safeg. Accordingly, if they're death traps too then they've failed - whereas if somone's killed on the motorway itself, it's the drivers, not the planners, who have failed, even if there are more such accidents than in the "safe" lane.

In terms of saving lives, I'd sooner the hard shoulders were kept even if it does slow traffic down; show traffic is safer traffic.

[ToraToraTora]

"smart" motorways? an abomination in every respect, end them now. Even chico's attempt at justification above holds no water, madness.

[237SJ]

They're dangerous. I once broke down on a motorway where the hard shoulder had been disabled due to roadworks and that was bad enough.

[Ryzen]

Cheap fix to a long term problem..yes converting a 3 lane into a 4 will smooth flow for the short term,but where do we go when the 4 lane is as busy as the original 3 lane with no hard shoulder?

[ToraToraTora]

chico, 18:20. show me the stats.

[shoota]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/12/highways-england-referred-to-cps-over-m1-smart-motorway-death

[TonyV]

Signed

[ToraToraTora]

"Cheap fix to a long term problem." - it's neither a fix nor cheap, the true problem is that motoring is far too cheap, poor people can afford it.

[tonyav]

Signed.

The sooner they are gotten rid of the better.

[Ryzen]

Do the 'stats' take account of the deaths caused by the extended emergency response times.

[shoota]

From my link above:
“Operators may occasionally look at CCTV images when they’re not engaged in responding to other incidents, but there is no constant or routine monitoring. It’s simply not part of the safety standard.”

Erm...

[Deskdiary]

Cars don't interest me, I'm a bike person, and one of my bikes is a classic, i.e, it's not the most reliable - pretty reliable, but you wouldn't want to do 200 miles on it - and last year I was taking it for an MOT and jumped on a smart motorway for about 5 miles to take it to a specialist (as it needed some other work) and it decided to stop; I honestly don't think I've ever been so scared in my life - trucks were barrelling past within inches, I dropped it and jumped over the barrier as quick as I could. Bike totally effed.

Smart motorways are dangerous, and it appears coroners agree; I prefer their expert opinion than AB 'expert' opinions.

[ToraToraTora]

DD, mate I feel for you, must have been awful, I too am a biker and I totally get it.

[ToraToraTora]

DD what was the bike? I have a GPZ 900 A2, 1985, a la Top Gun, I'd be gutted if that got mangled.

[Deskdiary]

TTT - it's always been Italians for me, currently a 2006 SSFF (Pierre Terblanche's first crack at a Ducati) and a 1078 MV Brutale.

The bike I left at the side of the road, which was more fun to ride than the Italians, was a screaming 1980 2 stroke Yamaha YZ250. Great bike - bit alas no more.

[bookbinder]

Thanks to all who signed the petition. I had nothing to do with the organisation of it; I just happened to find it when I was looking for some information on this subject.

[gness]

I don't agree with Chris and Dave. Dave now knows that. Chris will when we meet up for that pint or three.... :-)

[gness]

Oh and I can't sign...but my children will, BB....I'll make sure they do!

[ToraToraTora]

DD, mate I love the Italian bikes but my tolerance for "character" is limited! TBF they are a lot better now, I'm in the market for a new bike at the mo, seriously looking at a Diavel, though the new Katana is in the frame probably.