Driving on the hard shoulder to beat congestion - am I missing something here?

[tortoiseSHELL]

So Ruth Kelly has announced that motorists are to be allowed to drive on the hard shoulder in some places - is this not INCREDIBLY dangerous and stupid? What happens when you break down? It will be the equivalent of leaving your car in the middle of a lane of the M1.

Imagine pulling on to the hard shoulder because of a break down. The first thing that would happen is a large articulated lorry would plough into you.

Have the Government completely lost their marbles? Or am I missing something vital here?

Not to mention the ambulances / fire engines and police cars which will then be stuck and not able to race to the cause of the hold-up in some cases.

Not to mention the fact that the surface of the hard shoulder was never intended to be driven on at any speed by anything, let alone thundering great lorries.

It has worked pretty well on the M42 around Birmingham.

Very careful law abiding drivers on the M42 though - they have those constant speed camera thingies, don't they

If they do it on the M42 ajandjjmum, what do you do if you break down? It's a scary thought - imagine having kids in the car and a car that is about to break down and no hard shoulder....or a burst tyre. By the time you got round to the back to get the kids out of their car seats the car would have been hit by a lorry travelling at 60mph.

They have a little layby every 500 mts, so that you can pull off the hard shoulder. Realistically, you would need some time to pull off the motorway if you had a burst tyre, so you'd have to aim for one of the recesses. I was surprised it worked, but the flow of the traffic does seem much more constant now, without the 'stop start' problem.

can also vouch for how well it has worked on m42

absolutely fntastic, especailly with those average speed cameras, although they are a bitch when the motorway ic clear!

there are laybythings every 500 yards at least and there have been far fewer/less accidents

Other countries seem to cope without a hard shoulder.

I agree - the M42 scheme has been really good. I use it nearly everyday and there are lots of lay bys and the speed is incredibly slow along there. I tootle along at 50 mph and find it much less stressful than it used to be.

If someone breaks down they close the hard shoulder to traffic - a big red cross appears. They have lots of cameras along the road. I am sure that they won't do it on the M6/M25 until they have installed speed cameras, etc - I don't think it will be a free for all.

It prevents the traffic jams at junctions becuase being able to drive on the hard shoulder gives you longer to pull onto the motorway preventing others from slowing down. I give it a big thumbs up as it has revolutionised my drive to work.