AutoExpress: Open Plan for Hard Shoulder

[Peter Ward]

www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/ae_news_story.php?id=47686

AutoExpress said:

The world's first scheme to turn a motorway hard shoulder into an extra lane is to take place in Britain, Auto Express can reveal. Special signs will tell motorists to treat it as an additional lane in heavy traffic. A Highways Agency spokesman said: "If the flow is congested, overhead signs will impose 50mph limits and open the hard shoulder." State-of-the-art gantries are to go up every 500 metres between junctions 3a and 7 of the M42 in the West Midlands. But what if a breakdown or crash blocks the way? "We can change the signs to clear the hard shoulder and let emergency vehicles through," the official added. Yet the system is smarter than that; if CCTV shows the outside lane would be a better bet for 999 vehicles, signs tell drivers to get out of that instead. In addition, hi-tech 'emergency refuge lay-bys' will allow cars in trouble to pull out of the way during hard shoulder running. Pressure sensors beneath the surface will trigger cameras to monitor the situation. The AA's Paul Watters welcomed the trials, due in 2006. "If traffic keeps moving, there's less chance of shunt accidents," he said.

What do we think? My first thoughts are that this is potentially very dangerous because there's nowhere for people to go if they need to stop. These "emergency refuge lay-bys" are unlikely to be the answer as they'll be in the wrong place and not frequent enough (otherwise they'd effectively be another hard shoulder). Therefore, this is road widening on the cheap and in a manner which contradicts the government's message about safety.

Note also that the speed limit would be reduced to 50mph whenever the flow is "congested". Cue a permanent 50 limit.

[dontlift]

Well once the first 20 or so people have been killed on these new congestion lanes, then someone might listen but until then forget it.....

They will probably only allow push bikes in the shoulder anyway

[JohnL]

The hard shoulder is not engineered to take a continual flow of traffic, so it will subside and the surface will crack and/or rut very quickly.

Unless they're going to completely reconstruct it first of course.

This has also already been done in Italy, years and years ago. And you should see the ruts!

[Davel]

Make it a motorcycle only lane

[Munter]

JohnL said:

And you should see the ruts!

No need to go to Italy.....just drive in Lane one on our M-ways particularly up hills.

As for the idea of using the hard shoulder as an extra lane....well if they are going to do the signs properly I think it'll work. e.g. if there is a breakdown they close the lane to traffic and it's no worse than it is now. It will rely on drivers having eyes though, and the signs being used correctly. Not like the matrix signs we have now!

[towman]

This is fairly old news. The proposed site is the M42 and will operate during the rush hour only. Anyone driving through the roadworks will see the new "refuges" being built. Also connected with this is the introduction of the first HATOs on this stretch of road. As someone in the Recovery industry, I am obviously very much opposed to thes. If you break down, at least you can get out of the car and sit on the bank. The poor sod who comes to pick you up has to place himself in an extremely dangerous position. The hard shoulder is the most dangerous place on a motorway (average 5 breakdown men killed every year). Lets not make it worse.

Edited to add .... Using the hard shoulder as an extra lane? Nothing New..who remembers the bottom of the M1 before the M25 was built!

>> Edited by towman on Friday 18th June 12:56

[go4it]

They do this and it will be the biggest nistake they will ever make. Get an accident that blocks the lanes, then how the hell are the emergency services going to get to deal with it? What idiot thought this one up?