What are smart motorways?
Discussion
downright dangerous is what they are, a few weeks ago a truck was stopped in lane one on the M6 , cars swerving round it , nothing on the gantry signs at all.
If they're monitored by camera imagine how boring a job that is , it might be 2-3 minutes before they notice somebody has stopped.
If they're monitored by camera imagine how boring a job that is , it might be 2-3 minutes before they notice somebody has stopped.
rxe said:
Yes. I had the full "double bad experience".
Driving past Brum on the way home from Manchester, the OSF tyre let go. Thankfully the traffic was dense, not going that fast and I just steered it gently to the hard shoulder and let it come to a halt. The hard shoulder was currently closed, so the red Xs were showing.
Ok, stop car, lights off, hazards on, wallet, phone, get up the embankment and call the AA. Only there wasn't an embankment, I was on a mahoosive elevated section with a 60 foot drop to the ground below. So at this point I was relying on some half asleep driver realising the hard shoulder was closed and not ploughing into me. The best I could do was walk 200 yards down the motorway, on the basis that is someone took out the car, they might stop before hitting me.
The only positive in the whole thing was that I was so high up the AA priority list, they arrived in 15 minutes. As the driver said, if it was between you and a pregnant disabled women with a car full of children and kittens, we'd still have come to you first. I had apparently managed to pick the most dangerous spot on the motorway network to break down. The AA bloke was scathing about smart motorways, and claimed to have attended a fatal the week before where someone was trying to change wheel and got taken out.
Nobody or thing got taken out FFS!!! Why do people keep insisting on talking as though they're in some awful Hollywood film.Driving past Brum on the way home from Manchester, the OSF tyre let go. Thankfully the traffic was dense, not going that fast and I just steered it gently to the hard shoulder and let it come to a halt. The hard shoulder was currently closed, so the red Xs were showing.
Ok, stop car, lights off, hazards on, wallet, phone, get up the embankment and call the AA. Only there wasn't an embankment, I was on a mahoosive elevated section with a 60 foot drop to the ground below. So at this point I was relying on some half asleep driver realising the hard shoulder was closed and not ploughing into me. The best I could do was walk 200 yards down the motorway, on the basis that is someone took out the car, they might stop before hitting me.
The only positive in the whole thing was that I was so high up the AA priority list, they arrived in 15 minutes. As the driver said, if it was between you and a pregnant disabled women with a car full of children and kittens, we'd still have come to you first. I had apparently managed to pick the most dangerous spot on the motorway network to break down. The AA bloke was scathing about smart motorways, and claimed to have attended a fatal the week before where someone was trying to change wheel and got taken out.
My experience of 'smart' motorways is that the management is so hit n miss that the whole system is ridiculous.. Information is often vastly inaccurate or way after the event..
I've had lane closures for an imaginary obstruction, speed limits going 60, 40, 60, closed, national speed limit, over the course of about 5 miles. You can only imagine the impact on the average motorist...
On a critically busy motorway network, the only way a 'Smart' system would work would be if it was absolutely pin-point accurate and accidents, incidents etc were cleared off the carraigeway quickly with lanes restored quickly.. The whole implementation is more antiquated than the roads they work on.
And to be honest, they'd be better off using their resources getting roads cleared and lanes open quickly and ending this never ending curse of roadworks with very little activity but loooooong periods of major disruption.
I've had lane closures for an imaginary obstruction, speed limits going 60, 40, 60, closed, national speed limit, over the course of about 5 miles. You can only imagine the impact on the average motorist...
On a critically busy motorway network, the only way a 'Smart' system would work would be if it was absolutely pin-point accurate and accidents, incidents etc were cleared off the carraigeway quickly with lanes restored quickly.. The whole implementation is more antiquated than the roads they work on.
And to be honest, they'd be better off using their resources getting roads cleared and lanes open quickly and ending this never ending curse of roadworks with very little activity but loooooong periods of major disruption.
mygoldfishbowl said:
rxe said:
Yes. I had the full "double bad experience".
Driving past Brum on the way home from Manchester, the OSF tyre let go. Thankfully the traffic was dense, not going that fast and I just steered it gently to the hard shoulder and let it come to a halt. The hard shoulder was currently closed, so the red Xs were showing.
Ok, stop car, lights off, hazards on, wallet, phone, get up the embankment and call the AA. Only there wasn't an embankment, I was on a mahoosive elevated section with a 60 foot drop to the ground below. So at this point I was relying on some half asleep driver realising the hard shoulder was closed and not ploughing into me. The best I could do was walk 200 yards down the motorway, on the basis that is someone took out the car, they might stop before hitting me.
The only positive in the whole thing was that I was so high up the AA priority list, they arrive life can hurl your wayd in 15 minutes. As the driver said, if it was between you and a pregnant disabled women with a car full of children and kittens, we'd still have come to you first. I had apparently managed to pick the most dangerous spot on the motorway network to break down. The AA bloke was scathing about smart motorways, and claimed to have attended a fatal the week before where someone was trying to change wheel and got taken out.
Nobody or thing got taken out FFS!!! Why do people keep insisting on talking as though they're in some awful Hollywood film.Driving past Brum on the way home from Manchester, the OSF tyre let go. Thankfully the traffic was dense, not going that fast and I just steered it gently to the hard shoulder and let it come to a halt. The hard shoulder was currently closed, so the red Xs were showing.
Ok, stop car, lights off, hazards on, wallet, phone, get up the embankment and call the AA. Only there wasn't an embankment, I was on a mahoosive elevated section with a 60 foot drop to the ground below. So at this point I was relying on some half asleep driver realising the hard shoulder was closed and not ploughing into me. The best I could do was walk 200 yards down the motorway, on the basis that is someone took out the car, they might stop before hitting me.
The only positive in the whole thing was that I was so high up the AA priority list, they arrive life can hurl your wayd in 15 minutes. As the driver said, if it was between you and a pregnant disabled women with a car full of children and kittens, we'd still have come to you first. I had apparently managed to pick the most dangerous spot on the motorway network to break down. The AA bloke was scathing about smart motorways, and claimed to have attended a fatal the week before where someone was trying to change wheel and got taken out.
t life throws your way, give him a few more years...mygoldfishbowl said:
Nobody or thing got taken out FFS!!! Why do people keep insisting on talking as though they're in some awful Hollywood film.
Well, it was pretty scary. A normal breakdown where you get behind the barrier and/or climb the embankment is fine, the only thing you have to worry about is rain. But being stuck on a mortorway lane with literally nowhere to go is rather different. If somebody opens the lane, you're probably going to get splattered. If there is a half asleep driver fiddling with their phone, you're going to get splattered. Smart Motorways are just another stepping stone to Autonomous Cars. I frequently use the M62 around Leeds and the M6 north of Birmingham and I've no idea who is employed to work in the control centres but they are certainly far from smart! The worrying thing is that the cameras are activated by decisions made by these prats, at least the old dot matrix speed limit warning signs aren't enforceable. They are part of a wider Socialist agenda in dumbing down the populace and enforcing state control.
rxe said:
mygoldfishbowl said:
Nobody or thing got taken out FFS!!! Why do people keep insisting on talking as though they're in some awful Hollywood film.
Well, it was pretty scary. A normal breakdown where you get behind the barrier and/or climb the embankment is fine, the only thing you have to worry about is rain. But being stuck on a mortorway lane with literally nowhere to go is rather different. If somebody opens the lane, you're probably going to get splattered. If there is a half asleep driver fiddling with their phone, you're going to get splattered. 
crostonian said:
Smart Motorways are just another stepping stone to Autonomous Cars. I frequently use the M62 around Leeds and the M6 north of Birmingham and I've no idea who is employed to work in the control centres but they are certainly far from smart! The worrying thing is that the cameras are activated by decisions made by these prats, at least the old dot matrix speed limit warning signs aren't enforceable. They are part of a wider Socialist agenda in dumbing down the populace and enforcing state control.
You can see proof of the excellent Smart Motorway concept every week night on the M1 around Chesterfield at 8.30pm. So good the system is that they require police rolling road blocks to stop the traffic so that the cone wallahs can do their job because no-one takes any notice of the multitude of new matrix boards and gantries informing them of closed lanes.
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