Smart motorway rollout questioned
Discussion
BBC news
BBC radio 5 live. Seems like some commonsense from MPs. HE won't be too happy as this could delay the spend of a rather large budget.
BBC radio 5 live. Seems like some commonsense from MPs. HE won't be too happy as this could delay the spend of a rather large budget.
Edited by speedking31 on Sunday 16th December 20:55
“Smart” motorways are anything but smart - fundamentally flawed, dangerous and unfit for purpose from the day the normal motorway is closed, the delays and accidents are horrendous and when the works are finished, you are left with a slower moving and more dangerous driving environment.
For example, I use the M20 most working days and have done so for over 9 years. Up until recently it has generally flowed pretty well in both directions, even in peak hours - although there are sections which can become congested, traffic would normally slow down but rarely come to a full halt.
A few months ago, they started to convert a large section to “smart” and the traffic jams are a nightmare and the rate of accidents is astronomical, even though there is a 50mph limit (almost impossible to achieve such speeds, incidentally). Joining or leaving the motorway is also often next to impossible due to the streams of slow moving traffic in all lanes travelling close together and at very similar speeds.
On several occasions, emergency service vehicles with blue lights on have been stuck in the jams, unable to get through and without the hard shoulder to use, they sit there with the rest of us.
Progress has been woefully slow. I often drive for miles and miles without seeing anyone working on the “roadworks” so we have months more of the status quo to look forward to.
This would be (marginally) more acceptable if, at the end of all the hassle, there was some improvement but no, we are then stuck with a “variable speed limit” motorway which switches randomly from 60 to 50 to 40 and back again for no apparent reason than, it seems, to catch you out for speeding; no hard shoulder, should you be unfortunate enough to break down and nowhere for the emergency services to utilise when the inevitable accidents happen.
What utter moron thought this was a good idea? At least somebody is questioning the roll-out of more...
For example, I use the M20 most working days and have done so for over 9 years. Up until recently it has generally flowed pretty well in both directions, even in peak hours - although there are sections which can become congested, traffic would normally slow down but rarely come to a full halt.
A few months ago, they started to convert a large section to “smart” and the traffic jams are a nightmare and the rate of accidents is astronomical, even though there is a 50mph limit (almost impossible to achieve such speeds, incidentally). Joining or leaving the motorway is also often next to impossible due to the streams of slow moving traffic in all lanes travelling close together and at very similar speeds.
On several occasions, emergency service vehicles with blue lights on have been stuck in the jams, unable to get through and without the hard shoulder to use, they sit there with the rest of us.
Progress has been woefully slow. I often drive for miles and miles without seeing anyone working on the “roadworks” so we have months more of the status quo to look forward to.
This would be (marginally) more acceptable if, at the end of all the hassle, there was some improvement but no, we are then stuck with a “variable speed limit” motorway which switches randomly from 60 to 50 to 40 and back again for no apparent reason than, it seems, to catch you out for speeding; no hard shoulder, should you be unfortunate enough to break down and nowhere for the emergency services to utilise when the inevitable accidents happen.
What utter moron thought this was a good idea? At least somebody is questioning the roll-out of more...
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