38 killed on smart motorways in last five years 38 killed on smart motorways in last five years
BBC video shows rear ended VW Transporter, stronger than I imagined.
BBC video shows rear ended VW Transporter, stronger than I imagined.
I did a speed awareness course a few months ago and the instructor was 'educating' us on how Smart Motorways work. He claimed they have detectors built into the road that detect if a vehicle is going too slow, or broke down, tailgating and even people hogging middle lanes.
I wonder just how much truth there is in 3rd hand information on new technologies like this.
I wonder just how much truth there is in 3rd hand information on new technologies like this.
They built “smart” motorways ‘cos they were cheap, but finding £100bn to build a railway that no one wants isn’t a problem; apparently.
I’ll get mi coat....
pah . . . motorways NEED a hard shoulder.
scrap the Smart Cr*P i say . . . . . there not worth the trouble and risks
scrap the Smart Cr*P i say . . . . . there not worth the trouble and risks
One does wonder how many people are killed on Motorways with hard shoulders as a comparison though.
It says in the article. But I’ve forgotten the number
Well, not one to shy away from controversy. I think smart motorways are excellent. I've traveled motorways on a daily basis for donkeys years and I find that where its a smart motorway it has worked great in reducing traffic jams.
In the old days, in a build up of traffic, drivers would speed up then brake hard when hitting the jam. Smart motorways slow the traffic before the jam and thereby reduce the shock wave effect of heavy breaking.
I use the M54 - M6 daily and that junction used to be a a solid Jam up to the M5 or M38 junction. It's still slow but it's nowhere near as bad since the smart motorways went live. And this was all long after the opening of the M6 toll so , whilst that has relived the traffic, it's smart motorways that have eased the congestion.
In the old days, in a build up of traffic, drivers would speed up then brake hard when hitting the jam. Smart motorways slow the traffic before the jam and thereby reduce the shock wave effect of heavy breaking.
I use the M54 - M6 daily and that junction used to be a a solid Jam up to the M5 or M38 junction. It's still slow but it's nowhere near as bad since the smart motorways went live. And this was all long after the opening of the M6 toll so , whilst that has relived the traffic, it's smart motorways that have eased the congestion.
Ridiculous, not a single statistic to say they are safer, actually totally the opposite across the board... summed up by this madness:
and this is just a small stretch, appalling!
In the five years before the road was converted into a smart motorway there were just 72 near misses. In the five years after, there were 1,485.
and this is just a small stretch, appalling!
100% agree with this. The M6 used to be a stop-start nightmare.
I need to see the number of deaths/serious injuries compared to before the smart motorway came into effect - will do some digging.
What struck me about the TV report on this was how the hell some drivers did not see the stationary car in front of them.
Pete
I need to see the number of deaths/serious injuries compared to before the smart motorway came into effect - will do some digging.
What struck me about the TV report on this was how the hell some drivers did not see the stationary car in front of them.
Pete
And I think HS2 is excellent as do many others, but it is badly explained!
Apologies @Lord Mfwic, did not mean your comment was ridiculous. I meant the supposed solution in the article. I totally agree with the traffic management aspects, they just seem to be inherently unsafe for breakdowns and emergency service access... motorways do, indeed, need hard shoulders.
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ha it's only free flowing now because most of it's a 50mph roadwork zone!!
- get the trains/buses working properly (and cheaply)
Smart motorways may well ease congestion, I don't doubt that. That is not to say that they are safer.
When motorways were built many years ago it was decided that it was necessary to have a continuous refuge lane (hard shoulder) for broken down vehicles so that those vehicles were not stationary in a live lane. I can't see why that has changed, despite advances in vehicle design, cars still break down, so why or how is it safe to do away with the continuous refuge area now? It is not always going to be possible to limp to a refuge in all cases, if your engine seizes or stops unexpectedly, so the refuges are not a satisfactory substitute for the hard shoulder. So I am firmly of the opinion that "smart motorways" are simply a method of cheaply creating extra capacity and safety is compromised.
Ask yourself if you'd rather your engine cut out suddenly on a smart motorway or a conventional one with a hard shoulder.
Personally I wouldn't be reassured to know that in the next 15 minutes somebody will see me on camera and will close the lane hopefully before a HGV wipes me out.
If everybody knew how to drive on a motorway three lanes would be more than enough anyway.
P.S. A while ago I told all my family, if you break down on any motorway, get on to the nearside as much as possible, hazards on and get everybody out of the car and as far up the bank as you can, even if its raining. Only return to the car when emergency services / Highways / AA arrive.
When motorways were built many years ago it was decided that it was necessary to have a continuous refuge lane (hard shoulder) for broken down vehicles so that those vehicles were not stationary in a live lane. I can't see why that has changed, despite advances in vehicle design, cars still break down, so why or how is it safe to do away with the continuous refuge area now? It is not always going to be possible to limp to a refuge in all cases, if your engine seizes or stops unexpectedly, so the refuges are not a satisfactory substitute for the hard shoulder. So I am firmly of the opinion that "smart motorways" are simply a method of cheaply creating extra capacity and safety is compromised.
Ask yourself if you'd rather your engine cut out suddenly on a smart motorway or a conventional one with a hard shoulder.
Personally I wouldn't be reassured to know that in the next 15 minutes somebody will see me on camera and will close the lane hopefully before a HGV wipes me out.
If everybody knew how to drive on a motorway three lanes would be more than enough anyway.
P.S. A while ago I told all my family, if you break down on any motorway, get on to the nearside as much as possible, hazards on and get everybody out of the car and as far up the bank as you can, even if its raining. Only return to the car when emergency services / Highways / AA arrive.
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It's good to debate the issue,
But for me I've seen loads of times were a smart motorway (using the hard shoulder as a live lane) has had a RTC which has gridlocked all the lanes to a standstill...... then further down the motorway seeing the emergency services fighting to get through the gridlocked lanes....
But for me I've seen loads of times were a smart motorway (using the hard shoulder as a live lane) has had a RTC which has gridlocked all the lanes to a standstill...... then further down the motorway seeing the emergency services fighting to get through the gridlocked lanes....
Smart Motorways, especially when not busy pose more of a risk in my experience. For 7 years I've driven the M1 from 23A to 32 every Sunday evening (post 11pm) and now most of that route is smart motorway; for my journey there's often little traffic about but I've definitely had more near misses on that 1 drive than most of my years driving on 'unsmart' motorways. My scenario has always been the same - happily driving in lane 1, maybe cruise control on and then you see a vehicle in front of you and it takes a while to sink in that they're stationary; I was lucky and had some reaction time left but not all will. None of the times this happened to me were any gantry sign warnings activated. The ones I've seen must have had power loss as they were just sat there with dim lights or unilluminated. I'm lucky I have LED headlights with great range and and forward looking warning systems and it still surprises you how fast you close on a stopped vehicle at 70mph-ish - less powerful headlights and no clever vehicle systems and maybe the outcome would have been different on each occasion.
But then, the scariest near miss I had was a mostly black cow, side on in lane 4 of the M1 - car tech saw that before I did and applied the anchors and saved us both I think.
But then, the scariest near miss I had was a mostly black cow, side on in lane 4 of the M1 - car tech saw that before I did and applied the anchors and saved us both I think.
Not convinced by them at all. Done huge miles for the last 10 years from the SE to the NW, so M1 and M6 basically round the worst parts.
Years ago a good journey time was around 2hrs 40, sub 3 hrs common.
Since the smart motorways never even got close, 3hrs 30 seems to be the best today with often 4hrs+
Appreciate they may work in some places as described above but on a 200+ journey they are a huge negative on average. Easily done 250k miles on that route over the years so it's a fairly decent average unfortunately.
Years ago a good journey time was around 2hrs 40, sub 3 hrs common.
Since the smart motorways never even got close, 3hrs 30 seems to be the best today with often 4hrs+
Appreciate they may work in some places as described above but on a 200+ journey they are a huge negative on average. Easily done 250k miles on that route over the years so it's a fairly decent average unfortunately.
Yes, I agree, but years ago there were a couple of million fewer cars on the road! That's another topic entirely though.....
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