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?

I was on a smart bit of the M3 last night. Cars in lane 2 were 50 metres apart, so busy-ish. Nobody in lane 1. I just can't get past the thought that if I'm in lane 1 that I might suddenly come across a break down, so I avoid it.

@Mysterian highlighting why we need more education. You must stay in the inside lane unless overtaking. Cars 50m apart isn't busy. Fucking does my head in.

Perhaps we should all stage a direct action protest and actually treat the hard shoulder still as the hard shoulder at all times by not driving in it!

I hope everyone has signed and shared the petition at change.org

@GinnyStrupac people do that anyway and it's stupid and dangerous, and just frustrates drivers who know how to use the road properly

As someone who 'knows how to use the road properly' I think the 'stupid and dangerous' in this equation is the criminal loss of the hard shoulder. I know so many good, experienced drivers who feel the same.

People don’t use them correctly though, if they breakdown they need to get out and over the barrier and call the police/999 to activate the lane closure signs and speed restrictions.

I drive every day on the m3 Smart motorway, it’s not smart, but as long as you are smart you are fine! I often call the police when others haven’t let them know they have broken down and the lane signs almost then come on and highways come out to recover the vehicle.

Having seen so many hgv drivers ignore red crosses above lanes it does really concern me if I were to have a breakdown.

Yeah. Easy. Breakdown. Get out and over the barrier. Plus your passengers including children and babies in car seats. Call the police. All the while praying that all the other cars and lorries using the old hard shoulder as an inside lane are fully concentrating and have left enough stopping distance that they can pull out suddenly into lane 2 without causing an accident! Simple as .

Yes, and if the 38 people who have been tragically killed on Smart motorways had just been smarter, they would have been ok?

Yes. All those stupid people who don't know how to drive properly like GiveHerHellFromUs.

If you break down next to the verge you should always get out and over the barrier even if there is a hard shoulder. There are many frequent strikes of vehicles on traditional hard shoulders. If you break down in an outside lane on any motorway you should ring 999 and if you can see a distance marker or give them your position accurately from your satnav it will speed up getting the lane closed.

I can see the concerns but my first thought was the rate of fatalities reported is similar for smart and normal motorway (38 in 5 yrs is 8 per year for 10% of the network vs 90 per year on all motorways). Some of those accidents like people using their phone whilst driving and slamming into traffic ahead, would probably have happened regardless of the smart motorway.
Having said that I am lucky to mostly drive on the M42 where the refuges are more frequent.

I think 'smart' motorways are a crap idea.
I can see them helping with congestion when the traffic is moving at say 30mph but at other times the risk doesn't out way the benefits.

I am a very confident motorway driver and with a newish car (although the amount of new BMWs and LandRovers you see broken down on the hard shoulder, it seems that age of a car is not always a factor in whether your car is likely to breakdown).

I've only had to use the hard shoulder once in my life (puncture) and it was so terrifying (as I have said I am a confident driver normally - I drive abroad and different vehicles regularly) that I decided to carry on driving very slowly on the hard shoulder with my hazards on until the next junction where I could get help changing my tire, the motorway I was on was really quiet too.

I often travel with my dog in the car, which worries me because I would hate make the choice to leave them in the car.... but I would be genuinely terrified if I had to evacuate young children or elderly/disabled passengers.

I'm not saying Smart motorways are a great idea or that the people killed on them should have been smarter - stop taking my words out of context.

I'm saying you wouldn't be making them any safer by intentionally using them incorrectly. You'd be making them more dangerous, and killing more people.

A reminder that Ryan Ridgway's petition on change.org Scrap Dangerous Smart Motorways is still active to sign. It has received over 285k signatures, with a current target of 300k. Will you help?

I am not a driver, but when I fully understood what smart motorways entailed I thought WTF

I hate them. A broken down car took my quite by surprise on one not that long ago. I was following another car that pulled out suddenly at the last minute meaning I hadn’t seen it and also had to pull out at the last minute. Terrified me. I’ve been uncomfortable on them ever since.

Yes - and I can't even drive. I hate going on them.

Yes I am. I’ve worked taking breakdown calls and been unfortunate enough to have been on a call when someone got rear ended. It was dreadful. I’ve also been in the nasty position of having my cam belt snap whilst travelling on the M1 and everything in the car just instantly stops working. Thank goodness there was somewhere to get off the road. I’m disabled and am unable to quickly leap out of the car and vault over the crash barrier so I’d be a bit of a sitting duck if I broke down on a smart motorway. I understand the point of them, but other drivers scare me.

They are extremely dangerous.

I was on a long drive (10 hours) when a sickness bug started suddenly - my only option was to vomit violently down my own self on the M3 with two children in the back.

Obviously this is small fry in comparison to road deaths but in credibly dangerous and could have resulted in a serious accident.

I don’t use them and certainly wouldn’t let me children travel on one.

Very recently when I had to travel on a more dangerous motorway with a 'Smart' section, I rearranged travel times to as quieter time as possible and rearranged my route to avoid as much of the 'Smart' section as possible. It was really inconvenient but necessary to reduce the risk. I'm an experienced driver and not over-anxious, but I did worry until that section was over with on the outward and return journeys. It spoilt the anticipation of the trip to some extent. It added significantly to the sense of responsibility for keeping everyone in my full car safe, including children, a disabled person and a pet. How ever would I get everyone out and over the barrier?! It shouldn't be this way.

I saw in the news that two women who have tragically lost relatives to 'Smart' motorways are appealing to the government to speed up the release of the full report into them, especially as more people have died since they lost their mother and husband.

A mother who lost her 8 year old son spoke out against Smart Motorways on BBC News today. The recent Panorama programme on them is available to view on BBC iPlayer.

YANBU.

The gear box fell out of my car when half way through a 200 mile journey taking my 8 week old twins to visit family. We waited an hour on the hard shoulder before we were towed to the nearest services, then at least 3 hours before we got towed to my mum’s house.

Husband isn’t a driver and wanted to stay in the car (it was January! And there was snow on the ground!) but I refused and made us get out and go half way up the embankment.

I still use them, but I don’t think the overall convenience of them necessarily makes them any safer.

Having said that, last time I was on one, there had been an accident where a small hatchback had undertaken a artic lorry then tried to nip in front - completely unsuccessful and of course the tiny car was totalled. It must have happened only a few minutes before we got there because there was no police on scene yet but we were well guided into appropriate lanes and told to slow down with lots of notice.

So I guess I’m conflicted. It worked then. But it is scary when there’s nowhere to potentially pull over.

The news item said that on average it takes 17 minutes for someone to be rescued, which of course means that it can be longer, and that the cameras are not all monitored all of the time.