Smart Motorways "Confusing"

Tilt

We still havn't 100% mastered the art of driving on bog standard, normal motorways yet. There are still far too many drivers who obviously havn't got a clue about lane discipline by un-necessarily using the middle lane when lane 1 is clear.

So what chance have we got with these new 'smart' motorways?

AdrianC

Tilt wrote: »

We still havn't 100% mastered the art of driving on bog standard, normal motorways yet. There are still far too many drivers who obviously havn't got a clue about lane discipline by un-necessarily using the middle lane when lane 1 is clear.

So what chance have we got with these new 'smart' motorways?

Figuring out that you can use the lanes that the big shiny bright signs tell you you can use is not the hard bit.

Car_54

Tilt wrote: »

We still havn't 100% mastered the art of driving on bog standard, normal motorways yet. There are still far too many drivers who obviously havn't got a clue about lane discipline by un-necessarily using the middle lane when lane 1 is clear.

So what chance have we got with these new 'smart' motorways?

New? Only for the last ten years.

Tilt

Car_54 wrote: »

New? Only for the last ten years.

Ok but almost 60 years since we had the first motorway and a lot still struggle to use them correctly. In the grand scheme of things, 10 years is still a probation period!

Norman_Castle

phoenix_w wrote: »

I think the principle is sound but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

The bit that always bemuses me is just before M6 J9 southbound - the hard shoulder becomes closed off with a solid white line with no signed warning - cue motorists looking puzzled whether they should be there or not

I joined the M6 northbound from the M5 link road last week. As I joined the M6 the gantry signs showed four lanes in use then the following signs were blank. I stayed on the hard shoulder as I was getting off at J9 and other drivers stayed there. Its unfair to criticise or penalise drivers when the signage is poor or absent.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I had a fair bit of communication over the years over the M42 implementation.

There are errors in the original design (note which junctions don't have a 3-2-1 countdown marker because they put emergency refuges too close to the junctions).

The default was that with no indications the normal rules of a motorway apply. However, people have heard about the smart motorways but there is no rulebook to read before you first encounter them, so there was an increasing amount of people who were just driving down the lard shoulder. The use of the information signs to warn people not to use them was brought in fairly recently to try and deal with the problem.

There is a fundamental issue in my book in that smart motorways require you to break a fundamental rule of road marking in the UK - crossing an unbroken white line, they should have introduced another road marking.

wazza99

The M62 is a disaster in regards smart motorways. The speed limits seem timed so even when its light traffic they come on. Quite often they slow you down to 40 then back to 70 for no reason.

95% of drivers will not use the open hard shoulder when allowed, if you do your looked at like some sort of rogue and invariably blocked from getting back over when the land reverts to junction xx only, which happens after about 100 yds !

The hard shoulder sections are just too short in most cases so people just stay out.

Then of course you get times when the shoulder is closed to normal traffic and some fool just pootles down it anyway !

Junc 27 is probably the worst East bound, invariably the hard shoulder is open at rush hour but everyone joining just indicates crosses over into lane 1, leaving the hard shoulder empty.

Car_54

IanMSpencer wrote: »

There is a fundamental issue in my book in that smart motorways require you to break a fundamental rule of road marking in the UK - crossing an unbroken white line, they should have introduced another road marking.

Can you point us to this "fundemental rule"?

Ectophile

Car_54 wrote: »

Can you point us to this "fundemental rule"?

I can't find one in the Highway Code (2004 edition). It talks about double white lines in the centre of the road, and solid white lines bounding stripy or chevron markings. But a solid white line on the edge of the road is just an "edge line" - no rule associated with it.

Car_54

Ectophile wrote: »

I can't find one in the Highway Code (2004 edition). It talks about double white lines in the centre of the road, and solid white lines bounding stripy or chevron markings. But a solid white line on the edge of the road is just an "edge line" - no rule associated with it.

That'll be because there is no such rule.