Using the hard shoulder to dodge the traffic

[Streetcop]

Not much point in reporting it now...

However, if trafpol had seen it...then a nice 3points£60fine would have been issued..

I've issued a few before, for that offence....well deserved, IMO

[FQ400]

In Russia, as an example, once there's traffic the hard shoulder just becomes another lane. If it's completely filled with people - what can the police do? Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's good - the emergency lane is there for a reason - however it was always very strange to see the english public being so submissive. Surely even here if everyone were to pull out onto the hard shoulder - the police could do nothing. Once again - don't get me wrong - I'm well aware that this would not actually help anyone get anywhere quicker, and would cause potential accidents.

It gets worse though, in russia, once the hard shoulder is as full as the other lanes, and if there's no central reservation - people will pull out into the fast lane of the oncoming traffic. Seriously. And start flashing their headlights until the people on the other side move over into the slow lane. And so slowly the traffic jam eats up lanes on either side until you have 7 lanes one way and 1 hard shoulder lane the other way. Incredibly dangerous, but slightly amusing all the same... can you imagine what would happen if someone tried that here!

[richardthestag]

When driving in South Africa I found that the hard shoulder is used by slower cars getting out of the way of faster cars on normal roads, once they have been passed slower cars rejoined the road. Seemed a good idea because it saved the faster car crossing to the other side of the road to overtake.

R