Motoring offence on motorway

[Deleted User]

The police really are pretty sometimes.

In any case, the problem now is that lane 1 is incredibly dangerous on smart motorways. Especially when there is a lot of traffic, so if a vehicle has stopped it can be very difficult to change lane to go around it, and you risk getting crushed between it and an HGV. If you get stuck behind it you can't easily pull out into 70 MPH traffic from a standing start.

The reasonable thing to do is avoid that lane when you can't see far enough ahead to avoid those situations, i.e. 90% of the time.

400ixl

Motorways, including Smart Motorways are statistically the safest roads in the country. If you can't be observant enough to use a motorway in the right way (as per the highway code) then don't drive on one.

Petty to some is dealing with ignorant road users to them.

dil1976

[Deleted User] said:

The police really are pretty sometimes.

In any case, the problem now is that lane 1 is incredibly dangerous on smart motorways. Especially when there is a lot of traffic, so if a vehicle has stopped it can be very difficult to change lane to go around it, and you risk getting crushed between it and an HGV. If you get stuck behind it you can't easily pull out into 70 MPH traffic from a standing start.

The reasonable thing to do is avoid that lane when you can't see far enough ahead to avoid those situations, i.e. 90% of the time.

Well you should be driving to the road conditions and your visibility at the time. I f you fail to see a vehicle stopped then you are driving without due care and attention. As for getting upto 70 MPH that is the maximum not a target, if you need to change lane then you simply wait until it is safe to do so.

[Deleted User]

400ixl said:

Motorways, including Smart Motorways are statistically the safest roads in the country. If you can't be observant enough to use a motorway in the right way (as per the highway code) then don't drive on one.

Petty to some is dealing with ignorant road users to them.

This is just daft. The design is unsafe. You would have to be driving dangerously slow to mitigate the danger in all conditions, which is itself an offense.

The government has admitted that smart motorways are unsafe, and begun retrofitting radar that only somewhat improves the situation.

dil1976

[Deleted User] said:

400ixl said:

Motorways, including Smart Motorways are statistically the safest roads in the country. If you can't be observant enough to use a motorway in the right way (as per the highway code) then don't drive on one.

Petty to some is dealing with ignorant road users to them.

This is just daft. The design is unsafe. You would have to be driving dangerously slow to mitigate the danger in all conditions, which is itself an offense.

The government has admitted that smart motorways are unsafe, and begun retrofitting radar that only somewhat improves the situation.

I am not saying they cant be safer, but a lot of road safety is down to the drivers themselves not the actual roads. Plenty of dual carriageways without a hard shoulder that are very busy yet they are not deemed to be unsafe? 

Freecall

[Deleted User] said:

The police really are pretty sometimes.

I am sure that is true but beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

  

That_Sinking_Feeling

I do a lot of motorway driving at night.

I'm sick of encountering other cars in the middle lane on otherwise deserted motorways. If I am travelling faster, I either have to leave the left-hand lane in which I'm quite happily cruising to make four lane changes, or undertake.

It seems particularly rife on the M6 Toll.

Just pull over for goodness' sake. And read your Highway Code when you get home.

MX5huggy

400ixl said:

forgotmyname said:

If I do not change lanes then its not undertaking my lane is just moving faster than theirs. Not switching lanes to gain an extra 20 feet so not undertaking?

You may want to go back and remind yourself on the highway code.

Rule 268

Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. 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.

Undertaking is passing on the inside, there are specific scenarios where this is allowed (e.g. congested traffic) and what you describe is not covered by those exceptions. So unless you are in very heavy traffic with lanes queuing then you are undertaking.

Your adding your own qualification to “congested traffic” being very heavy with queuing lanes. The congested traffic does not need to be queuing for undertaking to be considered acceptable. 

[Deleted User]

dil1976 said:

[Deleted User] said:

400ixl said:

Motorways, including Smart Motorways are statistically the safest roads in the country. If you can't be observant enough to use a motorway in the right way (as per the highway code) then don't drive on one.

Petty to some is dealing with ignorant road users to them.

This is just daft. The design is unsafe. You would have to be driving dangerously slow to mitigate the danger in all conditions, which is itself an offense.

The government has admitted that smart motorways are unsafe, and begun retrofitting radar that only somewhat improves the situation.

I am not saying they cant be safer, but a lot of road safety is down to the drivers themselves not the actual roads. Plenty of dual carriageways without a hard shoulder that are very busy yet they are not deemed to be unsafe? 

Because they are laid out with enough visibility. If there isn't visibility they have a lower speed limit applied.

Motorways were never designed for this, and don't have permanent speed limits under 70.

dil1976

[Deleted User] said:

dil1976 said:

[Deleted User] said:

400ixl said:

Motorways, including Smart Motorways are statistically the safest roads in the country. If you can't be observant enough to use a motorway in the right way (as per the highway code) then don't drive on one.

Petty to some is dealing with ignorant road users to them.

This is just daft. The design is unsafe. You would have to be driving dangerously slow to mitigate the danger in all conditions, which is itself an offense.

The government has admitted that smart motorways are unsafe, and begun retrofitting radar that only somewhat improves the situation.

I am not saying they cant be safer, but a lot of road safety is down to the drivers themselves not the actual roads. Plenty of dual carriageways without a hard shoulder that are very busy yet they are not deemed to be unsafe? 

Because they are laid out with enough visibility. If there isn't visibility they have a lower speed limit applied.

Motorways were never designed for this, and don't have permanent speed limits under 70.

Motorways will have variable speed limits on them, some have been in place long before smart motorways came along, so what is your point?