No more hard shoulders - crazy or what!
No more hard shoulders - crazy or what!
Author
Discussion

gilberninvader

Original Poster:

262 posts

247 months

Saturday 13th May 2006
quotequote all
Are you all aware of this crazy Government idea for 'improvements to the motorways....take away the hard shoulder!!!
What incompetent threewat came up with this idea -'Darling'!

www.rac.co.uk/web/racworld/hard_shoulder;jsessionid=2A6AA5B77A2453BE5F5EEF9CE8FE7399

>> Edited by gilberninvader on Saturday 13th May 18:19

Parrot of Doom

23,075 posts

264 months

Saturday 13th May 2006
quotequote all
IIRC thats quite an old idea, and was roundly abused by........everyone.

Scraggles

7,619 posts

254 months

Sunday 14th May 2006
quotequote all
should be fun on the m25 in the areas where it was widened, the hard shoulder is cut off by the bridges every now and then. guess when one has a blow out and the car needs to stop, where would you stop ?

maybe in the lane taht you are driving in or drive onto the grass bank ?

Deltafox

3,839 posts

262 months

Sunday 14th May 2006
quotequote all
"Darling, you really are a cock. "

matchless

1,105 posts

252 months

Sunday 14th May 2006
quotequote all
or on the other hand, why not actually spend some of the Billions of Pounds sucessive Governments have stolen of Motorists for years in the form of Road Fund Licence monies and actually build 14 lane Motorways, after all it is the Government that has increased the population is it not by letting all and sundry live here

if you think about it the 3 lane Motorway is a 1960's thing, going on the population increase since then I reckon at least a 14 laner is needed to cope with the amount of traffic nowadays!
(rant mode off)

jasandjules

72,622 posts

259 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
There is absolutely NO need to increase motorways to more than 3 lanes IMHO. What is needed is some enforcement of the f***ing highway code..

The Middle lane is not to be sat in at all costs you middle aged lentil eating fruit...IN your 2CV/Merc/Mondeo (delete as applicable). Oh, and at 60mph too.....

Perhaps if plod spent more time cautioning these prats and giving them 3 points for undue care the roads might start moving a bit more freely.

turbobloke

117,301 posts

290 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
Motorists & Highway Code United vs Traffic Mismanagers Causing Congestion To Justify Road Pricing Albion

Panel result - away win

dcb

6,068 posts

295 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
jasandjules said:

Perhaps if plod spent more time cautioning these prats and giving
them 3 points for undue care the roads might start moving a bit
more freely.


To be fair, with one of the lowest motorway speed limits in Europe,
and one of the smallest mway networks [ pound for pound], it's
not too surprising that lots of bunching occurs.

Folks are bored senseless driving on the motorway. Sitting in
lane 2 for hours isn't fun.

Flat in Fifth

48,862 posts

281 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
turbobloke said:
Motorists & Highway Code United vs Traffic Mismanagers Causing Congestion To Justify Road Pricing Albion

Panel result - away win

Shamelessly nicking turbobloke's idea.

2nd round, 2nd leg

Road Provision Disunited 0 Air Travel Facilities Predict and Provide Harriers 12

Air Travel Facilities Predict and Provide Harriers win 54 goals to nil on aggregate.

Played a blinder:- Nobody at all.
Stinker: Darling, Ladyman, Dunwoody, Begg, .....

Peter Ward

2,097 posts

286 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
I've said this before, but I think we have to be careful. On the one hand, yes it's stupid to get rid of the safety feature that is the hard shoulder. Where do you go with a breakdown? On the other hand, the main difference between motorways and dual carriageways is the hard shoulder and yet d/cs have 70 limits too. If there's too much of an outcry about losing hard shoulders, the response will be that d/c speed limits must come down to compensate for their higher level of inherent danger.

Talking of which, the A452 from Balsall Common out to the M42 is now all 50 limit. It used to be a great NSL road but is now deemed to be dangerous. As well, all right turn gaps have been closed. Now my guess is that closing those gaps will improve safety along the road, while the 50 limit will be the thing that gets the credit.

victormeldrew

8,293 posts

307 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
Ain't that the truth. Near here on the A45 the junction with the A452 (?) to Leamington has always been a black spot, and after safety campaigns we got a/ speed cameras and a 40mph limit as a stopgap, and b/ a long term engineered solution, a roundabout. Guess which temporary measure is still there after the roundabout is complete? And of course the roundabout will be contibuting nothing to reducing the accident rates.

The scameraship quote on this was amazing - "Well we wouldn't want to take the cameras away and find that accidents rose, would we?". Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

turbobloke

117,301 posts

290 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
Following from Peter's comment... "Talking of which, the A452 from Balsall Common out to the M42 is now all 50 limit. It used to be a great NSL road but is now deemed to be dangerous. As well, all right turn gaps have been closed. Now my guess is that closing those gaps will improve safety along the road, while the 50 limit will be the thing that gets the credit."

...truer to form they'll install a speed camera or two (goven the rich pickings of a silly lower limit) and give THEM the credit for everything

anonymous-user

84 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
jasandjules said:
There is absolutely NO need to increase motorways to more than 3 lanes IMHO. What is needed is some enforcement of the f***ing highway code..

The Middle lane is not to be sat in at all costs you middle aged lentil eating fruit...IN your 2CV/Merc/Mondeo (delete as applicable). Oh, and at 60mph too.....

Perhaps if plod spent more time cautioning these prats and giving them 3 points for undue care the roads might start moving a bit more freely.


here here

mr9lt

50 posts

253 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
francisb said:
jasandjules said:
There is absolutely NO need to increase motorways to more than 3 lanes IMHO. What is needed is some enforcement of the f***ing highway code..

The Middle lane is not to be sat in at all costs you middle aged lentil eating fruit...IN your 2CV/Merc/Mondeo (delete as applicable). Oh, and at 60mph too.....

Perhaps if plod spent more time cautioning these prats and giving them 3 points for undue care the roads might start moving a bit more freely.


here here


Can't agree more! Plus remind the members of the Highways Agency in their 4*4's to move over as well, they aren't the BiB!

mmm-five

12,386 posts

314 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
The lorry driver in front of me on the M6 at 6:00am this morning must have read the same thing, as he was trying to join the motorway from the slip road and stubbornly refused to move off the hard shoulder onto the inside lane.

By the time he was just a dot in my rear-view mirror, he was still there.

GasMonkey

475 posts

251 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
Peter Ward said:
Talking of which, the A452 from Balsall Common out to the M42 is now all 50 limit. It used to be a great NSL road but is now deemed to be dangerous. As well, all right turn gaps have been closed. Now my guess is that closing those gaps will improve safety along the road, while the 50 limit will be the thing that gets the credit.


Since they closed the 'turn gaps' along the A452 the volume of traffic through the local villages has increased ten fold. I live in Hampton which has now become a rat run to avoid the 50 MPH limit and inability to turn off at Barston / Bradnocks. Ironically, the 'dangerous' junction at the truckers cafe is still open !!

Back to the original thread : Losing slip roads : On the M42 J4, heading from M40 towards NEC there is now no hard shoulder, no 3,2,1 markers. I think the new M42 'hard shoulder ends' signs and the new slip road approaches are more dangerous than the old ones

Rant over, sorry

GasMonkey

475 posts

251 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
turbobloke said:


...truer to form they'll install a speed camera or two (goven the rich pickings of a silly lower limit) and give THEM the credit for everything


They have stuck one of those flashing red 50 limit signs (from balsall to A45), do these things count the number of times they go off, ie) justifying the need for a camera ?

That road has got 'scammera van' written all over it, loads of bushes / verges (hopefully ditches) for them to hide in, though not sure if all of those flashes would be allowed on the flight path to the airport

turbobloke

117,301 posts

290 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
GasMonkey said:
turbobloke said:


...truer to form they'll install a speed camera or two (goven the rich pickings of a silly lower limit) and give THEM the credit for everything


They have stuck one of those flashing red 50 limit signs (from balsall to A45), do these things count the number of times they go off, ie) justifying the need for a camera ?
Some are said to have logging capability. They also have a track record of improving safety so not all bad and there's no 3 points and cash extraction
GasMonkey said:
That road has got 'scammera van' written all over it, loads of bushes / verges (hopefully ditches) for them to hide in, though not sure if all of those flashes would be allowed on the flight path to the airport
That doesn't stop them on the roads around my local airport...

Pigeon

18,535 posts

276 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
jasandjules said:
There is absolutely NO need to increase motorways to more than 3 lanes IMHO. What is needed is some enforcement of the f***ing highway code..

The Middle lane is not to be sat in at all costs you middle aged lentil eating fruit...IN your 2CV/Merc/Mondeo (delete as applicable). Oh, and at 60mph too.....

Perhaps if plod spent more time cautioning these prats and giving them 3 points for undue care the roads might start moving a bit more freely.

Don't forget taking the limiters off the trucks. (And off the motorways, nuke the 40mph truck limit.)

GasMonkey

475 posts

251 months

Monday 15th May 2006
quotequote all
turbobloke said:
GasMonkey said:
turbobloke said:


...truer to form they'll install a speed camera or two (goven the rich pickings of a silly lower limit) and give THEM the credit for everything


They have stuck one of those flashing red 50 limit signs (from balsall to A45), do these things count the number of times they go off, ie) justifying the need for a camera ?
Some are said to have logging capability. They also have a track record of improving safety so not all bad and there's no 3 points and cash extraction


Yes, I would agree that the flashing speed limit signs are far more effective than a camera that people slow down for and accelerate away from. The 50mph speed on the A452 road suggested above is often flouted and the sign is almost constantly lit up, so I guess its only a matter of time before the 'clicker' inside the sign justifies another camera