Are Smart Motorways Dangerous?
Discussion
Over the last few months I've had to do a regular trip to Nottingham from Oxford and generally I've chosen to go via the A43 and M1. Now that the new Smart section of the M1 has opened I've noticed that the general behaviour of drivers has changed on this section compared with the not so smart bits further north. The trips are normally after morning rush hour in the morning and before rush hour in the afternoon.
On the not so smart bits you get the normal guys in trucks, vans/pickups with trailers and well behaved car drivers perhaps with a caravan doing 50-70MPH in lanes 1 and 2, then you have the "pushing on crowd" doing between 70-80MPH in lanes 2 and 3 punctuated by the odd "I'm in a real hurry" doing over 80MPH in lane 3 moving over every now and then for the "I've robbed a bank" nutters going so fast you're expecting to see them pulled over 3 miles up the road (or at least that's what you're hoping to see).
This is what I see as generally normal behaviour on our Motorway network and over the years I've pretty much got used to it.
Then you have the behaviours displayed on a smart motorway, nearly everyone apart from the restricted trucks seems to be doing 65-75MPH and on several occasions I've found myself in lane 2 doing about 70MPH being overtaken by a car in lane 3 being overtaken by a car in lane 4 that are also doing about 70MPH all because we're all scared of being caught by one of the new speed cameras.
Now some may think that this is perfectly safe and we're all doing the right thing by keeping to the speed limits but that all comes crashing down (thankfully not literally so far) when you come across 3 trucks all doing around 55MPH in lanes 1, 2, and 3 and then suddenly everyone has to brake and so does everyone behind etc. etc. etc.
I suspect M25 regulars will be used to this but after doing these trips I've found myself feeling less safe when surrounded by vehicles all doing about the same speed especially when something unexpected happens and the consequent chain reaction and started choosing M40/M69 as a perceived safer alternative.
Thoughts?
On the not so smart bits you get the normal guys in trucks, vans/pickups with trailers and well behaved car drivers perhaps with a caravan doing 50-70MPH in lanes 1 and 2, then you have the "pushing on crowd" doing between 70-80MPH in lanes 2 and 3 punctuated by the odd "I'm in a real hurry" doing over 80MPH in lane 3 moving over every now and then for the "I've robbed a bank" nutters going so fast you're expecting to see them pulled over 3 miles up the road (or at least that's what you're hoping to see).
This is what I see as generally normal behaviour on our Motorway network and over the years I've pretty much got used to it.
Then you have the behaviours displayed on a smart motorway, nearly everyone apart from the restricted trucks seems to be doing 65-75MPH and on several occasions I've found myself in lane 2 doing about 70MPH being overtaken by a car in lane 3 being overtaken by a car in lane 4 that are also doing about 70MPH all because we're all scared of being caught by one of the new speed cameras.
Now some may think that this is perfectly safe and we're all doing the right thing by keeping to the speed limits but that all comes crashing down (thankfully not literally so far) when you come across 3 trucks all doing around 55MPH in lanes 1, 2, and 3 and then suddenly everyone has to brake and so does everyone behind etc. etc. etc.
I suspect M25 regulars will be used to this but after doing these trips I've found myself feeling less safe when surrounded by vehicles all doing about the same speed especially when something unexpected happens and the consequent chain reaction and started choosing M40/M69 as a perceived safer alternative.
Thoughts?
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