Forum

[Chris [Stockport]]

"Reducing casualties
Highways England, which oversees the motorway network insisted smart motorways are designed to be “at least as safe as the conventional motorways they replace” and said removing hard shoulders eliminates the risks associated with cars stopping in them."

Interested to find the above comment. I'm considering stopping wearing a seat belt in my car, so that it can't possibly bruise my chest if I have an accident while wearing it.

[Adrian]

So-called smart motorways have been coming under fire as some not-so-smart motorists can't get their heads round how to use them.

A.

[Wheaters]

I do 90 motorway miles on the so-called smart M1 every working day. For much of it there is no hard shoulder at all so it's four active lanes. By 0600 in the morning there are often three lanes full of HGVs, many of which are driving bunched up. If you suffer a breakdown anywhere on the worst stretches at busy times I think you would be very lucky to stop without getting tail-ended. There are not many emergency lay-bys.

[stinkwheel]

They were first designed so you could always see the next emergency laybye. Generally speaking, with the majority of breakdowns, if you can see it, you manage to get to it. Even if it's with a flat tyre or a stuttering engine.

They've since pushed the distance between them out to the point where you can't see the next one and people land up stuck.

[Beezabryan]

Smart motorways that vary speed limits to smooth out the effects of congestion is an excellent scheme, to make an extra lane from a safety zone was no.
Perhaps there may now be some realisation of the dangers associated with hardshoulderless roads.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50169527

[Bullet Whisperer]

I remember a few years back, being on the M5 in a hired Transit which was quite new at the time. Changing down from 5th to 4th to overtake, I moved into the outside [3rd] lane, where the 'engine management system' decided to stop the engine - as it had done on the A40, a couple of hours earlier and with not much other traffic around at just before 5 am. On the M5, it was a case of trying to move over to the hard shoulder while being undertaken by other drivers who clearly thought I was a bit of a knob while still rolling, and finally stopping on the hard shoulder where I could switch off then switch on again and restart. I would have probably been mangled if it were a 'smart' stretch of motorway, it was traumatic enough as it was. To cap it all, I told the hire company what had happened and that maybe they would like to get it fixed and got the reply 'Yes, other people who have driven that van have said the same happened to them'. Great. This is why I still have a beaten up old 'Smiley Face' Transit and avoid modern bikes as well. Not everything is changing for the better as we move further into the future.

[Bullet Whisperer]

I remember a few years back, being on the M5 in a hired Transit which was quite new at the time. Changing down from 5th to 4th to overtake, I moved into the outside [3rd] lane, where the 'engine management system' decided to stop the engine - as it had done on the A40, a couple of hours earlier and with not much other traffic around at just before 5 am. On the M5, it was a case of trying to move over to the hard shoulder while being undertaken by other drivers, who clearly thought I was a bit of a knob, while still rolling, and finally stopping on the hard shoulder where I could switch off then switch on again and restart. I would have probably been mangled if it were a 'smart' stretch of motorway, it was traumatic enough as it was. To cap it all, I told the hire company what had happened and that maybe they would like to get it fixed and got the reply 'Yes, other people who have driven that van have said the same happened to them'. Great. This is why I still have a beaten up old 'Smiley Face' Transit and avoid modern bikes as well. Not everything is changing for the better as we move further into the future.

[Wheaters]

This is why I still have a beaten up old 'Smiley Face' Transit and avoid modern bikes as well. Not everything is changing for the better as we move further into the future.

Agreed! The most reliable car we have in the family is our "spare", an old (year 2000) Suzuki Swift with a 1.0, 3 cylinder engine. It has "proper" clunky switches and the only relatively modern thing on it is electronic distributor ignition. It's rescued family with problematical (and much newer) BMW's, Citroens, Renaults, Hondas. It also goes very well in the snow, as my embarrassed son discovered when his BMW got stranded and Dad was called out to help him get to work and back. It's only ever failed to start once and that was after it hadn't been driven since the winter and was on the driveway at home due to a corroded ignition lead brass contact; I fixed that in five minutes by fitting a spare I had in the garage. Our last three family cars were all moved on because of electronics problems which involved a great deal of time and expense to fix.

[Aethelric]

That's the problem with electronics. It's much easier to find and fix a blocked jet in a carb than find a dry joint on a densely packed circuit board.
The usual solution is to change the entire engine management control unit if there is a faulty component. Garages simply don't have the technology to trace faults to component level.
It's a bit like changing the complete cylinder top end because the spark plug has whiskered.
I feel a lot more in control with the older technology and it's what stops me buying a newer bike.

(I'm a retired electronic engineer BTW)

[Duke of Wybourne.]

Reading this makes me grateful for two things.

I. don't have a car.

2. the nearest motorway is over 100 miles away.

Apologies for sounding smug.