Smart Motorways!

[Golfmmad]

Or are they?

Its been on the news a lot today - they may need a rethink!

Was talking with a colleague today and as I understand ,there is only one Smart motorway with the full technology!
Why? Because the Government wanted to save money and build without all the tech. I find this absolute madness - I travel on the 11 miles of the M23 sometimes 3 or 4 times daily and see all the work and construction at the cost of millions, and it probably wont have all the safety features that it should have.
Sensors to detect multiple braking, an accident or breakdown, in order to warn with speed notifications and lane closure - instantly! Rather than someone viewing a screen and reacting, or a phone call from a motorist.
Obviously those vital early seconds could make all the difference to avoiding a tragedy.

So now the Government are halting any new openings and are carrying out an urgent safety review.

What does the Forum think?

 

[chrisd]

The M20 is being turned into Smart motorway and its caused havoc for absolutely ages and now the government say it could be the last one as motorists dont know how to use them - you couldn't make it up!

 

[USER1999]

Smart bits of the M25 and M3 are a nonsense. The speed limits yoyo up and down, do nothing to relieve congestion, and just generate speeding tickets, as it is next to impossible to keep to a constantly changing limit. Utter garbage in my opinion. At best money making schemes.

 

[Deleted member 18588]

Works fine on the M42.

Perhaps it's just a Southerner problem.

 

[USER1999]

Do your limits go 40, 60, 30, 50, 30, 60, 40? On consecutive gantries, when there is zero traffic, and then flicker from 70 to 60 when you haven't moved for 20 minutes?

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Seem to work fine on M3 and M42 - and indeed any otehr motorway I've been on that is SMART. No issues.

 

[USER1999]

Seem to work fine on M3 and M42 - and indeed any otehr motorway I've been on that is SMART. No issues.

You clearly don't drive on the M3 on Sunday afternoons.

 

[Dando]

Smart bits of the M25 and M3 are a nonsense. The speed limits yoyo up and down, do nothing to relieve congestion, and just generate speeding tickets, as it is next to impossible to keep to a constantly changing limit. Utter garbage in my opinion. At best money making schemes.

It’s all about making money!
Removing the barriers from the dartford tunnel was used as a trial for camera recognition

 

[Tashyboy]

It not that the motorways are now smart, it's that motorists are still thick when using motorways or any highway that has more than one lane. Going to smart/4 lanes just gives blinkered drivers another lane to hog. The problem is in this country is Starting from left to right, inside lane is slowest going out to the fastest. It just does not work. Undertaking should be legalised.
Trouble is as well in this country, speed limit on motorways. Lorrys do what 56mph Max. Maximum is 70 mph. Really. Ave seen cars averaging 80 mph and the rest. Yet when driving in Oz the speed limit Max is 110 kph. And nearly everyone drives at that speed or close to 100 kph. It is strange seeing the same cars alongside you for miles and miles. Yet it works.

 

[rulefan]

The problem is breakdowns on the non existent hard shoulder

 

[SocketRocket]

The M5 and M42 smart motorways seem to work well in our area.

 

[Blue in Munich]

There is nothing SMART about a motorway without a hard shoulder; no safety zones for breakdowns; no emergency service access when there is an issue without going against the flow. Whichever Minister signed this off deserves shooting.

 

[Ross61]

Absolute nightmare on M1. Apart from the illogical speed limits at times, the switching from 3 to 4 lanes also defies logic. I travel south from J12 in the early morning heavy traffic and invariably it is 3 lanes, then mid day with light traffic it is 4 lanes!. Then there is the problem of where at junctions it is always 4 open lanes, but then it goes down to 3 with the near side lane has to get over in heavy traffic causing a bottleneck. On the section I use you have 4 lanes past J12 and toddington services then 3 lanes to J11a when it’s back to 4 then 3 lanes until J11 then 4 again all in the space of about 5 miles!
Don’t even get me going on the safety issue of emergency vehicles trying to weave through 4 standstill lanes when there has been an accident. Argh!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

You clearly don't drive on the M3 on Sunday afternoons.

I mostly avoid the M3 if I have a choice...for historic traffic reasons (grim) I have worked out my alternative routes.

 

[stefanovic]

Works fine on the M42.

Not for me. A nightmare. The screens constantly change. Some don't even work on the same gantry.
Highways England have admitted that smart motorways are too confusing for drivers.
Accidents all the time and fatalities.
This week there was a 90 minute hold up on the smart section of the M42.
Speed cameras are partly hidden on the side of the gantries.
I've been done for speeding there at 70 mph one evening when the motorway was actually clear.
The technology is unreliable.

 

[Fade and Die]

It not that the motorways are now smart, it's that motorists are still thick when using motorways or any highway that has more than one lane. Going to smart/4 lanes just gives blinkered drivers another lane to hog. The problem is in this country is Starting from left to right, inside lane is slowest going out to the fastest. It just does not work. Undertaking should be legalised.
Trouble is as well in this country, speed limit on motorways. Lorrys do what 56mph Max. Maximum is 70 mph. Really. Ave seen cars averaging 80 mph and the rest. Yet when driving in Oz the speed limit Max is 110 kph. And nearly everyone drives at that speed or close to 100 kph. It is strange seeing the same cars alongside you for miles and miles. Yet it works.

Not illegal to undertake if someone is hogging a lane......

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q891.htm

 

[Robster59]

I have tended to find that the variable speed limit on the M6 in the Birmingham area has helped as people tend to stick to the variable speed limit more and it keeps the traffic moving. Without this people go mad, brake at the last minute and it seems to cause more gridlock.

 

[Tashyboy]

Not illegal to undertake if someone is hogging a lane......

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q891.htm

I must of misread that coz the way I read it you would be prosecuted.

 

[Robster59]

Not illegal to undertake if someone is hogging a lane......

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q891.htm

I think you're wrong. Looking at the key phrases in the statement...

do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake.
Pretty self-explanatory to me, you don't overtake on the left.

In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.
This is congested conditions, i.e. very slow moving traffic as in traffic jams. Nowhere here does it say anything about undertaking someone hogging a middle lane.

OFFENCE
Overtaking on the left is lawful if done in accordance with the above guidance. However, whilst there is no specific offence of overtaking on the left, if a driver undertook another vehicle, other than in the circumstances described above e.g. in the case of someone hogging lane 2 on a motorway, they may be prosecuted for careless driving.
You'd be hard-pushed to convince a court that a middle-lane hogger can be classed the same as congested traffic.

 

[Fade and Die]

I think you're wrong. Looking at the key phrases in the statement...

do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake.
Pretty self-explanatory to me, you don't overtake on the left.

In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.
This is congested conditions, i.e. very slow moving traffic as in traffic jams. Nowhere here does it say anything about undertaking someone hogging a middle lane.

OFFENCE
Overtaking on the left is lawful if done in accordance with the above guidance. However, whilst there is no specific offence of overtaking on the left, if a driver undertook another vehicle, other than in the circumstances described above e.g. in the case of someone hogging lane 2 on a motorway, they may be prosecuted for careless driving.
You'd be hard-pushed to convince a court that a middle-lane hogger can be classed the same as congested traffic.

I think the underlined bit is the only relevant part. Has anyone ever heard of anyone ever being prosecuted for "undertaking"? Or even driving without due care and attention due to undertaking? Genuine question as i have not.