Reversing down a motorway?

[GrumpyTwig]

Say you were caught reversing back down a motorway in a lane against moving traffic without any actual accidents, what kind of charges could be brought up? Just dangerous driving or anything else?


Not me, nor a friend or anyone I know but have seen it happen so just wondered.

[ookware]

There is a specific offence of reversing on a motorway punishable by up to £2,500 and 3 points.

However any circumstances which could amount to a higher offence, such as dangerous driving, could see anything from unlimited fine, driving ban and even imprisonment in extreme cases.

[CallorFold]

Just to throw another question in -

Can you reverse down the hard shoulder? In fact, can you travel down the hard shoulder at all?

Assuming the motorway is moving at "normal speed", hard shoulder not in use (by primary motorway traffic), can you reverse/travel along it to find an SOS phone? Presuming there's an issue with your car, a speed of 10-20mph? Are there any implications? Other than being generally dangerous.

[anonymous-user]

CallorFold said:

Just to throw another question in -

Can you reverse down the hard shoulder? In fact, can you travel down the hard shoulder at all?

Assuming the motorway is moving at "normal speed", hard shoulder not in use (by primary motorway traffic), can you reverse/travel along it to find an SOS phone? Presuming there's an issue with your car, a speed of 10-20mph? Are there any implications? Other than being generally dangerous.

Surely if your car was capable of moving, then you would just drive in the right direction until you found an exit?

I can't think of a situation, where you would ever need or want to reverse on a motorway, other than if directed to by the police.

[CallorFold]

Inkyfingers said:

Surely if your car was capable of moving, then you would just drive in the right direction until you found an exit?

I can't think of a situation, where you would ever need or want to reverse on a motorway, other than if directed to by the police.

Some sort of mechanical failure, limp mode or similar which was severely restricting your speed. Flat tyre, no spare? Something along those lines.

[Dave Hedgehog]

CallorFold said:

Inkyfingers said:

Surely if your car was capable of moving, then you would just drive in the right direction until you found an exit?

I can't think of a situation, where you would ever need or want to reverse on a motorway, other than if directed to by the police.

Some sort of mechanical failure, limp mode or similar which was severely restricting your speed. Flat tyre, no spare? Something along those lines.

wait for recovery

as said no go reverse unless plod directs you too

[markmullen]

CallorFold said:

Just to throw another question in -

Can you reverse down the hard shoulder? In fact, can you travel down the hard shoulder at all?

Assuming the motorway is moving at "normal speed", hard shoulder not in use (by primary motorway traffic), can you reverse/travel along it to find an SOS phone? Presuming there's an issue with your car, a speed of 10-20mph? Are there any implications? Other than being generally dangerous.

SOS phones are roughly every mile or so, if you still had motive power you'd be better carrying on to the next one rather then reversing to the last.

[LoonR1]

CallorFold said:

Some sort of mechanical failure, limp mode or similar which was severely restricting your speed. Flat tyre, no spare? Something along those lines.

Why would reversing be a better option than either stopping or continuing to go forwards?

[Nigel_O]

being on the hard shoulder in a slow / stationary vehicle is dangerous enough already (why do you think the strong recommendation is to get out of the car and stand well back?)

Reversing (and thus increasing the closing speed of the rest of the traffic) is simply making matters worse.

It would be a truly bizarre mechanical failure that would only allow a car to reverse, so on the assumption it still has forward motion, that's the only direction to travel.

[hopeydaze]

It can happen when you have missed your exit because your boss who was driving was too busy on his phone, drives past the exit, decides to reverse along the shoulder, crossing the live exit in order to save the 5 minutes it would have taken to drive to the next exit.

I was not happy

[Stevoox]

My brother was saying he spotted a women the other weekend missed her exit, do a u-turn on the M25, drive the wrong way then head off down her exit. Mental.

[iandc]

Stevoox said:

My brother was saying he spotted a women the other weekend missed her exit, do a u-turn on the M25, drive the wrong way then head off down her exit. Mental.

Ah but at least she was not reversing!!

[youngsyr]

I've seen it a couple of times, both times late at night and just after the slip road off of a motorway.

Being a good PHer, I was of course in lane 1, flying along with next to no traffic around, only to suddenly see a car in the hard shoulder with its reverse lights on heading toward me.

I'm sure we've all had moments where our driving has been left than perfect, but sometimes other people's driving does leave me exasperated.

[Super Slo Mo]

CallorFold said:

Just to throw another question in -

Can you reverse down the hard shoulder? In fact, can you travel down the hard shoulder at all?

Assuming the motorway is moving at "normal speed", hard shoulder not in use (by primary motorway traffic), can you reverse/travel along it to find an SOS phone? Presuming there's an issue with your car, a speed of 10-20mph? Are there any implications? Other than being generally dangerous.

I worry sometimes about what standards people are being trained to.

The hard shoulder is for emergencies. Of course you can use it if you are unable to travel at normal speed, and 10-20 mph is not normal speed for the motorway. If your car has just enough power to limp along, I'd suggest you do just that until you reach a phone, or an exit.

It also means you should use the hard shoulder to get back up to speed once your problem is fixed, whatever that problem is. The amount of times over the years I've seen people pull off from the hard shoulder, straight into lane one in first gear is both terrifying and worrying.
There's absolutely no reason why you can't build up speed to around 60 mph on the hard shoulder before merging safely with traffic.

Reversing though, as has been pointed out already, is a no-no.

[CallorFold]

I completely understand the safety aspects involved, personally if it was me, I'd be sitting at the top of the bank awaiting rescue come rain or snow.

My question was more to the legality of it. Is there any penalty for example for reversing down the hard shoulder other than police throwing dangerous driving at you? driving without due care maybe? Would plod be likely to just ask WTF you're trying to do and offer assistance?

[youngsyr]

Super Slo Mo said:

There's absolutely no reason why you can't build up speed to around 60 mph on the hard shoulder before merging safely with traffic.

Generally speaking, I agree. However, I've accelerated up to motorway speed in hard shoulders and been surprised by the amount of debris there is in them, so there are circumstances where I'd move out of the hard shoulder before reaching 60 mph, if it were safe to, of course.

[R8VXF]

Super Slo Mo said:

It also means you should use the hard shoulder to get back up to speed once your problem is fixed, whatever that problem is. The amount of times over the years I've seen people pull off from the hard shoulder, straight into lane one in first gear is both terrifying and worrying.
There's absolutely no reason why you can't build up speed to around 60 mph on the hard shoulder before merging safely with traffic.

It's a great place for testing your 0-60 times

[Stevoox]

Super Slo Mo said:

I worry sometimes about what standards people are being trained to.

The hard shoulder is for emergencies. Of course you can use it if you are unable to travel at normal speed, and 10-20 mph is not normal speed for the motorway. If your car has just enough power to limp along, I'd suggest you do just that until you reach a phone, or an exit.

It also means you should use the hard shoulder to get back up to speed once your problem is fixed, whatever that problem is. The amount of times over the years I've seen people pull off from the hard shoulder, straight into lane one in first gear is both terrifying and worrying.
There's absolutely no reason why you can't build up speed to around 60 mph on the hard shoulder before merging safely with traffic.

Reversing though, as has been pointed out already, is a no-no.

I was heading down the M23 a couple of weeks back, the usual people just sitting in lanes etc etc I then approached a bit more of an open area.

Lorry in lane 1, car in lane 2 and me in lane 3. The car in lane 2 was doing the same speed as the lorry in lane 1. There was a learner driver in Lane 1 (had obviously passed and must've been doing the pass plus). They signaled to come over and due to the open area, i let them in.

My thought was "Well obviously the instructor will have them complete the overtake then head back over to lane 1 or 2 as its clear. But no... the learner proceeded to just stay put at around 60 in lane 3 (after quite some time i decided to undertake...)

Just thought to myself - we don't stand much chance if that is how new drivers are being taught to drive on the motor way.

Again on the M23 last week, spotted a blue clio on the hard shoulder with their right indicator on, stationary and just edging their way out into lane 1!

[trashbat]

What about if you're forced to stop in one of those refuge areas (or at the end of a hard shoulder, for whatever reason) and need to rejoin the motorway?

It's a very narrow edge case, but wouldn't the prudent thing to do be back up a little and then take a run up, rather than trying to accelerate from 0-60 in lane one?

[LoonR1]

CallorFold said:

I completely understand the safety aspects involved, personally if it was me, I'd be sitting at the top of the bank awaiting rescue come rain or snow.

My question was more to the legality of it. Is there any penalty for example for reversing down the hard shoulder other than police throwing dangerous driving at you? driving without due care maybe? Would plod be likely to just ask WTF you're trying to do and offer assistance?

The answer to your question is probably "all of the above" depending on the specifics of the situation