Are you scared of Smart Motorways?

[bridgetjones1]

I never used to be, I thought they were a fab idea and really eased traffic at peak times, but they now scare the bejesus out of me.

I have this fear of breaking down on the motorway, I get to the left hand lane but there is no hard shoulder.

I have 10 month old twins and I think it’s this that scares me. I know we’d all have to get out of the car and onto the grass verge pronto, but it’s the fear that I won’t get everyone out in time.

I saw on breakfast tv this week that the roll out of smart motorways has been suspended.

Should they be scrapped altogether?

Very scary! I've never liked driving on motorways and now we're surrounded by "smart" ones I'll probably never drive on one again. Fortunately we have a good choice of decent A roads around so there's no real need for me to use the motorway

The mechanic I know refuses to carry out his vehicle recovery service on motorway with no hard shoulder - as it's too dangerous. He is independent but if he worked for a national chain he might not have a choice about it without losing his job.

Lack of a hard shoulder is IMO incredibly dangerous. I don’t know what criminally stupid idiot ever thought it’d be a good idea.,
My dd’s car broke down the other day - with 3 very little ones in the back. Luckily she was still in a vaguely residential area, but would soon have been on the M25 at a busy time.

Doesn’t bear thinking about.

And whatever supposed ‘safeguards’ or speed limits they put in place, there will always be boy-racer cretins who will recklessly ignore them. It’s crazy to assume otherwise.

I do not understand why after paying at the toll booth on the M6 there are no lanes for a while? which I think is dangerous too.

I feel like the change in speed limit is distracting.

40mph, 60mph, 50mph, NSL, 40mph.

It’s bloody awful when everyone is travelling at the exact same speed either side, and having two lorrys samwiching you in.

Plus it makes driving very very dull.

When they work they are effective. I have to travel on them - I drive for work and have no choice.

The distance between refuge areas needs to be lessened though. I was driving home last weekend - fortunately it was a quiet Sunday. A car had broken down in the left lane which becomes a slip road for the junction exit. No hard shoulder. He'd pulled his car as close into the barrier as he could and had his hazards on, but there was still 3/4 of the car sticking out into the lane. Luckily I have hands free and also voice activation, so got the number for Highways England, told them where he was and that they needed to close the lane and put a speed restriction on.

He must have been bloody terrified though and it did make me think that the refuge areas need to be much more frequent and closer together.

You sit there Screamer in the lane you break down, only the M25 is monitored so unlucky if you are anywhere else you have to notify or hope they notice and close the lane. Before something hits you.....

I've driven many years and miles on Mway but this is a step too far for me.

LakieLady that's awful, I am so sorry about your friend.

I have never used a smart motorway and will try very hard to keep it that way as they sound very dangerous.

I’m a confident driver but they scare the crap out of me. Breaking down in the car seems bad enough but the idea of breaking down in my horsebox with my horse on board genuinely terrifies me, to the point that I would avoid a smart motorway. They are converting the motorway near me and I’m hoping very much that the plans will be shelved.

I live just off the m23 which is being turned into a smart motorway at the moment. That’s much more dangerous than a smart motorway!
Recovery services have stopped recovering on there as they refuse to put their staff at risk apparently (posted on our local fb group so not 100% sure if it’s actually true) but as a regular user I wouldn’t like to break down on it.

My dh said he saw an accident the other day as an hgv suddenly pulled out the first lane and the car behind then crashed into a broken down car.

There are no overhead signs on the road so no way for them to show there is a broken down car at the moment which is far less safe for all concerned. They change the road layout (and no one uses the current layout as is) so lots of near misses and I’ve had a car written off due to a car pulling out of a junction turn off last minute in front of the car in front of me, she slammed on her brakes from 50-0 and I couldn’t stop despite being 2 car lengths behind her.

And now they have suspended opening it until the government review is over and it may have to all be changed again. Pointless waste of the last 3 years.

I drive on a stretch of the M1 in Wakefield that is a Smart Motorway twice a day and it can be terrifying at times. On a 5 mile stretch there are only 2 lay-bys which is not enough so there are regularly stranded vehicles. The problem is that the highways agency is not quick enough to realise there is a stranded car and regularly they haven’t updated the boards.

I had one particularly scary experience following a lorry (so couldn’t see what was going on ahead) - he pulled sharply into the next lane and I nearly went into the back of a stranded car that I couldn’t see until the last moment - I missed it by a hairs width. I was a shaking mess after that and had to pull off at the next junction to stop the car and calm down. They should be reverted to normal motorways.

There is a petition about smart motorways on change.org

Yes agree with you-the thought of breaking down on one makes me feel ill-im sure theyre doing a review on them but it was a dangerous idea in the first place

No. I've used them many times and they're excellent. What scares me more are the number drivers paying no attention to the road, particularly drivers with children in the car and the number of old bangers on the road that are only fit for scrap yards.

Do any other countries have "smart" motorways?

Thanks for that tip, @GiveHerHellFromUs. It has been 4 lanes whatever time we have driven on it, but I will look into that.

The car isn't unreliable, no, Gin. Cars can and do break down though regardless of past reliability, and accidents happen. I am concerned because the evidence is there that Smart motorways are statistically more dangerous, and because I travel with precious cargo. There is a lot of concern about them on this thread and elsewhere - are you going to tell everyone else expressing concern that they've got too much of it too? Or say the same to all those who have had near misses or lost loved ones?

They don't bother me, no different in terms of lack of hard shoulder to plenty of dual carriageways which have the same speed limit.

lily would you not feel frightened if you eg. had a tyre blow out and had to sit in a live lane for ( average) 17 minutes hoping that every single lorry thundering up that lane would be able to swerve into the next lane ( possibly causing an accident in that lane/ meaning the next lorry/ car would see the sitting duck you till the last second)

I do not understand why after paying at the toll booth on the M6 there are no lanes for a while?

That's quite normal at tolls (I lived in the US for a while in an area with a lot of toll roads). I guess it would be quite hard to organise lanes diverging (to booths with different payment methods) and then re-merging, in a reasonable amount of space. In that situation you know you have to be extra vigilant about people to either side of you.

@Lily193 the point is that smart motorways work very well in perfect conditions. That includes proper signage and no user error on behalf of other drivers. To be honest, driving in general would be substantially safer without user error on behalf of drivers! However, other drivers are human and therefore fallible. Personally I would prefer to have a road system that worked as best it could in real conditions as opposed to one that works brilliantly in test conditions that bear no relation to the reality of the situation.

I agree that the most important thing would be to weed out poor, distracted and dangerous drivers. But until that happens smart motorways are not fit for purpose.

There has been a distinct lack of education and targeted publicity about how these are meant to work.

Its a programme that has been pushed through without any real regard for querying voices and it is only since there have been more and more dramatic incidents that notice has finally been taken. What works on computer modelling doesn't necessarily work in real life.

They are death traps.

A monumentally stupid idea. Think about it for a second, motorway designers put the hard shoulder there for a reason. The government has decided to use them as live lanes only because it's cheaper than building a new motorway, not because they though they were a good idea.

If you have a breakdown and can't get to a refuge area, you are in serious trouble. Your only hope is to literally run from the vehicle, jump over the crash barrier (if there is one). Some stretches I've passed through just have a twenty foot concrete wall, trapping people on the carriageway.

If you have young children who are strapped into child seats then the chances of anybody getting out alive are slim. That's not an exaggeration, the vehicle following yours may well be travelling at 70mph, with literally no way of avoiding a collision. Anybody sitting inside, or standing next to that broken down vehicle, has almost no chance of survival.

That's how serious the situation is. The official advice, if you break down on a smart motorway and can't get to the refuge area, is to call 999. Yes, that's how serious the situation is, 999, defined as an immediate threat to life or property.

A dual carriageway isn't the same situation as the volume of traffic is lower and the speed limit is also lower too. That's why people haven't been killed after breaking down on them.

If you are going to use one then you MUST practice how to evacuate your vehicle. You and your passengers absolutely have to be able to react instantly and get out of the vehicle. You must also practice what to do once you actually get outside. Best advice is to get inside the crash barrier and walk back in the opposite direction that you were travelling in. You MUST move away from the rear of your vehicle, NEVER, EVERN EVER wait next to or in front of a broken down car. If it does get hit by another vehicle, it will be like a bomb going off, pieces of wreckage will fly like shrapnel and you do not want to be standing in the way, wheels, engine blocks, even passengers who get ejected can kill you if you get hit by them. Sorry to sound grim but that's the reality of a high speed collision.

If you are travelling with a partner or another adult and you have children strapped into child seats, decide BEFORE you set off, who will take responsibility for which child. This will avoid wasting time standing in the live carriageway with both people trying to do the same job.

If you breakdown on the live lane of one of these motorways . .

GET OUT. GET AWAY. CALL 999.

DO NOT call from your car.

If you have a dog, leave them in the car.

Good luck.

winter according to DS the AA have now started to refuse to attend live lane breakdowns on smart motorways until highways England have closed the lanes.

DP is a HGV driver and him driving on smart scares me incase anything goes wrong. I avoid them where possible.

It isn’t the smart motorway which is the issue but the lack of somewhere safe to pull up in an emergency and the lack of clear access route of emergency services

I don't drive but I hate being driven on them. Was on it in the car with my dad once and we almost had 2 accidents in the space of 30 minutes. My 3yo has a hospital appointment in a city miles and miles away and I get buses, trains and metros on purpose to avoid it - even though I get offered free lifts.