What the hell is a smart motorway? All seem to be upgrading to them…but what exactly will they do that non smart ones wont?
Allow hard shoulder running during peak congestion times, plus variable speed limits. That in a nutshell is it.
Make it easy to charge per mile.
Smart or Managed motorways have variable speed limits, lots of speed cameras and they let you use the hard shoulder sometimes.
a smart motorway smartly creates congestion and tailbacks which wasn’t their before it smartly created it 
smart moterway created by a smart arse in a suit NOT, what a ■■■■ country this is, boils down to toooo many people when britain really did rule the waves why didnt we steal a larger country so not that SMART after all eh
green456:
a smart motorway smartly creates congestion and tailbacks which wasn’t their before it smartly created it
+1
iceman1:
smart moterway created by a smart arse in a suit NOT, what a [zb] country this is, boils down to toooo many people when britain really did rule the waves why didnt we steal a larger country so not that SMART after all eh
Yeah, what he said…^^^
green456:
a smart motorway smartly creates congestion and tailbacks which wasn’t their before it smartly created it
Or creates greater throughput by increasing capacity as vehicles travelling slower will probably travel closer together (if that’s physically possible with tailgating/convoying truckers 
) ?
degsy4wheels:
What the hell is a smart motorway? All seem to be upgrading to them…but what exactly will they do that non smart ones wont?
Correct me if I’m wrong but are these smart motorways not computer controlled rather controlled by humans sat in the control centres? If that is so then it is them that are the smart ones making the decisions when to reduce speeds. open and close lanes. etc. To follow on from that then it could be conceivable that some control room operators are more cautious than others displaying signs like "Queue Caution " miles ahead of any incident which will cause ANOTHER queue. Just an observation.
IMO - the new M4/M5 MSart Motorway set-up is designed purely to create more congestion, so that the Major of Bristol can justify & press ahead with his plans to bring Congestion Charging to Bristol
Last time I looked at an atlas Australia appeared to be a tad bigger than the U.K.We also stole India and Africa as well.How smart was that?
Cronus:
Correct me if I’m wrong but are these smart motorways not computer controlled rather controlled by humans sat in the control centres? If that is so then it is them that are the smart ones making the decisions when to reduce speeds. open and close lanes. etc. To follow on from that then it could be conceivable that some control room operators are more cautious than others displaying signs like "Queue Caution " miles ahead of any incident which will cause ANOTHER queue. Just an observation.
A computer program is only as smart as the person that designed it (and the thought of a computer programmer controlling the motorway really really scares me!).
Herongate:
IMO - the new M4/M5 MSart Motorway set-up is designed purely to create more congestion, so that the Major of Bristol can justify & press ahead with his plans to bring Congestion Charging to Bristol
He’s not a Major, he’s a Colonel!
Seriously, the managed stretch south of J11 on the M6 has improved the flow of traffic. There are some dinosaurs on here who say they won’t use the inside lane when it’s a managed hard shoulder “live lane” but if they haven’t noticed the undertaking traffic then they really should start taking notice of the road! Think what this stretch was like 15 years ago…it’s much better now!
I can see pro’s and con’s.
Pros, another lane and flow of traffic
Cons, your screwed if you break down and everyone else is screwed if you are still alive to care.
Now in my cynical mind smart motorways are to give big contracts out to big construction companies and create wealth for a firm which owns a firm that is owned or a leading politician either owns or has substantial shares in 
Me cynical,bitter and twisted?..yer all three really 
Or when the extra lane is running you move over to be informed about 1 minute later that such lane is for the next junction then have to move back out why doesnt it just say use hard shoulder for next junction
Drift:
I can see pro’s and con’s.
Pros, another lane and flow of traffic
Cons, your screwed if you break down and everyone else is screwed if you are still alive to care.Now in my cynical mind smart motorways are to give big contracts out to big construction companies and create wealth for a firm which owns a firm that is owned or a leading politician either owns or has substantial shares in
Me cynical,bitter and twisted?..yer all three really
So you remember Ernest Marples do ya
peterm:
Drift:
I can see pro’s and con’s.
Pros, another lane and flow of traffic
Cons, your screwed if you break down and everyone else is screwed if you are still alive to care.Now in my cynical mind smart motorways are to give big contracts out to big construction companies and create wealth for a firm which owns a firm that is owned or a leading politician either owns or has substantial shares in
Me cynical,bitter and twisted?..yer all three really
So you remember Ernest Marples do ya
I was a bit young but yes lol.
An example was the deregulation of buses in 1986, the government as we know broke up all the companies to privatise them and a lot of these now small companies where bought up by a company called British Bus, British Bus was owned by a holding company called Endless Holdings, and one Mr Dennis Thatcher was for a while on the board of Endless Holdings.
They built up the collection of companies and sold most onto Cowies, who went on to be come Arriva.
I have no doubt there where many more snouts in that trough from ministers and mp’s.