Motorway is pitch black

Most of the M40 through Oxfordshire has never been lit.

Try breaking down on an unlit section of the M5 in Gloucestershire. At 17. In the middle of the night. Before mobile phones.

Yeah, when I was driving my 20 year old Skoda it was basically like having two dinner candles on my bonnet. If it was raining hard I didn’t feel safe driving above around 50mph (don’t worry, I wasn’t in the middle lane…) Had some really white knuckle drives on the M4 on rainy nights.

Oh, and when I was driving it wasn't between midnight and 5am. It was about 9pm.

Reading comprehension is a dying art.

Those of us complaining about specific motorways are not talking about long stretches between junctions. They are not lit and never have been. Nobody wants lights all the way from Birmingham to Glasgow on the M6/M74.

What we are complaining about is that there are parts of the motorway network which are unlit at junctions, slip roads, intersections. On the part of the M53 I was on I definitely did not see cats eyes as guidance. Signs were not reflective. Yes, I had to use full beams for a short while (nobody coming the other way, I'm not an idiot).

OP, you need to get out more…………not ALL the motorways have lighting during the night………the highways agency expect vehicle drivers to have functioning lights!

I rarely drive on motorways anymore and never in the dark. The state of some of them are shocking,. These new bright white headlights are appalling.
The standards of driving over the past 10 years is atrocious.
So motorway lighting or no motorway lighting, I steer well clear

It has a soporific effect unfortunately and is dazzling with the other cars on the other side, it would help if the central reservation barrier was higher so you dont see them

M6 in Lancashire never had lights. Back in the 80s, coming back from Gran's it was how we knew we were nearly home.

I prefer an unlit motorway at night to the unlit country roads I’ve had to detour a couple of times offf M5 round Gloucestershire, I rarely get scared driving but I was petrified of those narrow pitch black roads! My biggest bugbear is those awful dazzling lights a lot of new cars have! They’re probably great for the driver but horrendous for everyone else!!

It’s probably fine in one of the massive, high new cars with headlights that are super bright and blind everyone else but in a smaller, older car it is horrible driving in the dark these days even on normal unlit roads. I try to avoid night driving and this winter was awful.

Don't come to Scotland then!

Reducing energy consumption should be a priority for all of us and the answer if you’re not confident driving in the dark with no street lights is not to do it.

I did an unfamiliar journey on the motorway at night once and didn’t feel confident so try to stick to day light (not always possible I know).
Nothing wrong with saying that you aren’t keen and it certainly doesn’t make you a bad driver!

Nobody "likes it", but it's not treacherous.

I’ve been driving on dark motorways and roads most of my life.

We don’t want any more light pollution than currently inflicted on us.

Most motorways have huge stretches with no lights. I don’t think it’s new.

This. 70 is the limit, not the goal. You can, y'know, drive within your capabilities.

YANBU

It's cost cutting. There may be environmental justifications behind it as well, but don't tell me it's a safety improvement.

Here in Canada we don’t even have cat’s eyes so you’re lucky to have those.

@Unfortunatelynot

Maybe large open spaces like motorways can be a bit disorientating, more so than a dark country lane where your view is limited but you know that you can see everything in that little envelope, whereas on the m-way the light just disappears into the distance. You will just have to get used to it, driving on dark roads is a skill you need to have.

Not sure why you need lights on motorways. You have headlights and cats eyes, plus every road sign is luminous. Plus modern cars have lane drift alarms.

Our council turns off all lights on A roads between midnight and 5am as well. Less power wastage, less light pollution, rural households get more/better sleep, and it encourages people on A roads to slow down.

I hate driving on the motorway at night and I simply don't do it for any long journey. It's pitch black.DH doesn't have an issue with it.

Yes, of course dark motorways mean less light pollution, and I knew there'd be the inevitable slew of "you shouldn't be on the road" posts from the more experienced than thou brigade, but there's no doubt that it's safer when visibility is better, especially when highway maintenance (reflective paint, cats eyes etc) is suboptimal and headlights coming in the opposite direction are so ridiculously bright nowadays. It's also less tiring for drivers, which is a safety issue too. I've been driving for years but I think yanbu.

M6 has been doing this for as long as I remember.
Although I'm not sure if it's just me, but I can think of at least two sections of road (one a motorway) that are unlit but feel utterly pitch black compared to other roads. Obviously my car has headlights and obviously I can see, but it's always the same two stretches of road, they have such a strange feel.