'Smart' motorways

[Sleeper]

Do they not have a back-up battery for the Hazard lights ?

John ;-)

[Maurice_Minor]

In Bangkok all their motorways are "Smart". If you are unfortunate enough to have a crash, everybody just drives around you, leaving the flow to continue in whatever lane they so choose.
This leaves the emergency services to get to the site & mop up the mess in the most expedient of ways.
hmmm....

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[P2W]

Voted 'yes'. เติมเงินเกม

[exlkrs]

Picking up my new Traveller tomorrow, a 90 min journey by smart motorway. Suffice it to say I will be returning home the near 4 hour A Route.....

[too tall]

Voted a death waiting to happen its only a matter of time

[simmitc]

Just heard that this morning a software problem disabled the accident detection systems and gantry (red cross for lane closed) signs for TWO HOURS in the North of England. Thankfully no reports of any accidents/injuries/deaths, but what would have happened to some poor driver with a puncture or any fault that stopped the car? How can our politicians carry on with these truly awful schemes?

[The Scotmoose]

OK I see that there have been numerous requests for people who have voted "no" to give there point of view - At the risk of being shot to pieces, hanged or banned AND forced to drive a Tesla for the rest of my days. I do not wish to cause any or engage in any argument, but I voted NO. There is never going to be a perfect answer to the question as there are arguments for and against the smart motorways. Have you never wished there was an extra lane to ease congestion? (M25 - every day). There has always been problems with any new system and as always it is just a case of getting used to change. At least now there is some sort of warning of what is going on. When motorways were built, they were never designed for the amount of traffic that there is on them now. Using the hard shoulder now is an attempt to try and ease things a bit, by creating an extra lane quickly and affordably. There are a lot of very compelling reasons for voting YES and I understand them and agree with a lot of them. As usual, with government policy, they are not likely to admit they may be wrong. I would personally like to see the hard-shoulder capped at a speed of 50mph, whereby it would help to alleviate some of the congestion, but due to that reduced speed limit, there "should" be more time for drivers to react when seeing broken down vehicles etc. This should be even safer than 60mph roads and dual carriageways where 70mph is legal without hard shoulders in a lot of cases. The fact that motorways are being better monitored, should ensure that the "smart" side of things potentially makes for earlier warning of problems, but, there are a lot of drivers who take no notice of what is being said on screens or signs advising reduced speed. I recently was driving at 70 mph and was passed by a car doing well in excess of 100mph - If that was not bad enough, there was a section of the road (M77) where roadworks were being carried out and everyone had to slow down and an early warning to advise of this would have helped (The high speed Merc was no sooner past the workers, but still in the "reduced speed" when away he roared). I apologise in advance, if I have opened a can of worms. I wish some of the others who disagreed would share their viewpoint as well and their reasoning behind their decision.

[Maurice_Minor]

beware of anything with the word "Smart" on it. The reality is smart=snoop, ie collecting information & using new & novel methods of extracting money from you, that the "Provider" can implement at the time of their choice.
As for smart motorways, which are clearly extremely dangerous, any fatal crashes & dead & injured people as a result of this "Smartness" will be deemed
as "collateral damage" on the way to our glorious "Smart" & brave new world.

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[les]

I saw one of those little Smart cars last week, driving down a Smart motorway, the driver was using a Smart phone (not so Smart) looked quite a well turned out chap, very Smart.

[philthehill]

The driver of the smart car must have been a smart ar-e then.

[ManyMinors]

Smart Alec perhaps?

[StillGotMy1stCar]

I think I saw the same chap, not on his Smartphone, but was eating Smarties though.

[Bill_qaz]

He could be a member of SMART
Society
Motorists
Against
Road
Technology

[Classiccars]

Is that not part of the issue that people think they can drive over the limit as others slow.So arriving at speed to anyone broken down and then having to take last minute action expecting the rest if us to think fir them.It should be a privilege to drive not be privileged as a person.

[MorrisJohn]

New smart motorways have now been banned by the PM. Welcome news, but would be better if he’d commit to removing existing stretches too.

https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunak ... t-12858118

[mike1864]

Is there any SatNav or driving App that tells you:
a. Which sections of which Motorway are Smart
b. How far is the next refuge
This seems more important than the nearest Historical Monument or Cafe!

[Oldmogman]

A definite 'yes' vote from me.

I recently wrote to my MP presenting a number of strong arguments against so-called smart motorways, and received the expected bland reply from the Secretary of State for Transport.

However, my letter at least registered my dissent, so I would encourage others to do likewise.

(I'm happy to share copies of the letters should you require them for your campaign.)

[simmitc]

Returning from the National Rally, we were on a smart motorway, observing the 50 mph gantry signs. There were then two gantries with no signs displayed before the end of restriction (national speed limit) signs were displayed on the third gantry. That suggests to me that the two intervening gantries were faulty. Tough luck if one happened to break down and was relying on the lane closure for protection

[MorrisJohn]

A definite 'yes' vote from me.

I recently wrote to my MP presenting a number of strong arguments against so-called smart motorways, and received the expected bland reply from the Secretary of State for Transport.

However, my letter at least registered my dissent, so I would encourage others to do likewise.

(I'm happy to share copies of the letters should you require them for your campaign.)

Perhaps we could get a campaign started, encouraging all club members to contact their MP on the matter using a template letter? We could publicise it in Minor Matters and get it shared with other classic car groups (perhaps via the FBHVC?). Just an idea.

[The Scotmoose]

A while back, I voted in favour of "Smart Motorways" - I WAS TOTALLY WRONG and apologise!! I have gained a bit more experience on said motorways and while the basic ideas and indeed some parts may be good, such as the forward warnings, the removal of the nearside place of safety in an emergency is total madness. The excessive speeds and lack of concentration (who said use of mobile phones, eating, drinking, putting on makeup etc? lol) of some drivers means that the hard standing on nearside is needed more than ever. There also needs to be more teaching emphasis and highlighting in Highway Code, that the nearside lane is a slower lane and that some vehicles travel there, due to age, design or capability, as well as possible problems (limp mode).
Apolgies once again for my vote for the smart motorways. I would change it if possible