109LWB:
Whoever signed off smart motorways should be in court.
Utter, utter madness.Essentially, if you break down anywhere but right next to the refuge area, you are screwed.
I’ve always told my wife, if she breaks down, even with hard shoulder, stand as far away as possible, BEHIND the car. If a lorry rear ends it, that whole lot is going forward and if you are stood in front, even up a bank you are at risk.
I often see people leaning against the boot of the car or against the bonnet on a hard shoulder. If something hits your car, you are dead.
70 years (or so) ago:
We’re going to build roads where vehicles can travel at high speeds. We better dedicate one lane for emergency stops
Today:
We’re going to spend billions over a decade to remove those emergency lanes
…
I used to be a fan of Smart motorways but I’ve changed my mind. You can argue that today cars are more reliable and less prone to breakdowns (I wouldn’t know as I only drive old clunkers) but you will always have things like flat tyres (well tehre are run flat tyres but no one bothers) and medical emergencies forcing people to stop or travel at very low speeds until they can leave the M-way.
Then there’s roadside and barrier maintenance which if you drive at night you will see they now need to close 1 or 2 NS lanes to perform any work/maintenance causing more congestion where if there is a HS they only close off the HS itself, no HS means no chance for ES to get to the scene so a heli must be dispatched which means closing the entire M-way section both ways pretty much the day/night is over for anyone caught inside
Then you have weak technology warning of a queue where there is none but then failing to warn of one when it is there (after a nasty bend - very nice…)
IMO the best solution would be the managed M-ways where the HS can be used if unoccupied but it must be monitored constantly on the cameras for broken down vehicles - it would still be risky but not as much because at night the HS would be closed for traffic which is when an accident involving a stationary vehicle is more likely to happen I would think