You don’t need a hard shoulder on a motorway right up until you do, and no tech is quick enough for a truck behind that didn’t see you pull over. End this nonsense.
FormerIntroduction23 on
The thing is, more lanes doesn’t help traffic. It’s madness.
No_Weakness8999 on
I remember doing a speed awareness course and some pompous dickhead leading it was telling me about how great they are, despite the early evidence already showing how dangerous they were during breakdowns, collisions and traffic calming.
Fail to improve the alternative methods of travel, allow more people into the country, don’t widen the motorways or bud new ones and what do you think will happen?
We desperately need a motorway between the M5 and M54 in the Midlands, while opening up the toll road to general use and alleviate pressure on the M6. It shouldn’t take an hour to get from one side of Birmingham to the other.
Living_Board_9169 on
“I can tell you that I received assurances that the fault or problem is resolved and sufficient balances and checks were put in place to ensure that that didn’t happen again.”
Article didn’t say what they’d do in the future to prevent the signs not working. I’ve seen plenty of times where a single lane isn’t showing the speed limit of the other lanes, and it’s always confusing. In my head I know it’s not like a single lane has a different speed limit, but you do look at it and wonder if the lane is meant to be closed, or what’s going on when a single sign isn’t on
There’s also the times when you see a new speed limit, but the next set of lights isn’t showing anything, making you wonder whether the speed is continued or the lower speed limit has ended and you missed a sign for it
Don’t know how you can reasonably ensure this doesn’t happen to be honest. You almost need a light to say when a light isn’t working. Or you need every sign by default to show the national speed limit, so that you can tell when one isn’t on. Just madness to rely on this stuff sometimes
Glad_Librarian_3553 on
Well no shit sherlock, they never do lol.
The amount of times you sit in traffic with it telling you there’s an obstruction and the lane is shut and there is nothing there, and as soon as the signs are clear you see a broken down car with no warning whatsoever. Ridiculous.
SignalButterscotch73 on
I’m not a driver and I rarely pay much attention to the road when getting a lift somewhere so I’ve never heard of smart motorway’s.
Just from the description of the one from this incident, it sounds like an incredibly stupid idea. Get rid of this nonsense and have a hard shoulder again.
Technology can and will fail, especially software. For something that is designed to save lives, a physical thing that can’t fail so easily is by far the best option.
mutexsprinkles on
It’s frustrating how responsible drivers are (rightly) expected to be in comparison. Even if you follow the theoretical rules but contribute to a dangerous situation you can get in shit. Having had “right of way” (such that anyone ever has it) isn’t a defence if you could have avoided something.
Meanwhile the people who design roads, while they do generally do a good job on the whole, sometimes let some real clangers past and then double down on them being “fine actually people just need to not fuck up”, people get injured or dead and somehow that’s not liability.
GodsBicep on
A life lost and a life ruined due to sheer stupidity of a system that clearly doesn’t work.
dzielny_tabalug on
Unfortunately that shit will work untill family of 4 will die in flames caused by crash, then people will be angry and maybe protest (not so) smart motorways.
M90Motorway on
I used to use the “Smart” section of the M90 a lot. I saw speeds limits change erratically (it was like the newer part of the system that went in when the Queensferry Crossing opened wasn’t always in sync with the older part that went in late 2012), frequent congestion with nothing on the gantries to warn about it-likely why rear end collision seem to happen on a weekly basis there and most worryingly of all lots of cars stopped on the former hard shoulder (which is now a bus lane) with completely black gantries.
My theory is that someone simply looks at the cameras every five minutes and checks if there is any congestion or issues and updates the gantries accordingly instead of the system being constantly monitored. Bear in mind at one point driverless buses were using this road and bus lane!
I now come off before and use the back roads to avoid it. It’s much more reliable and you don’t have to worry about any sudden congestion!
10 Comments
You don’t need a hard shoulder on a motorway right up until you do, and no tech is quick enough for a truck behind that didn’t see you pull over. End this nonsense.
The thing is, more lanes doesn’t help traffic. It’s madness.
I remember doing a speed awareness course and some pompous dickhead leading it was telling me about how great they are, despite the early evidence already showing how dangerous they were during breakdowns, collisions and traffic calming.
Fail to improve the alternative methods of travel, allow more people into the country, don’t widen the motorways or bud new ones and what do you think will happen?
We desperately need a motorway between the M5 and M54 in the Midlands, while opening up the toll road to general use and alleviate pressure on the M6. It shouldn’t take an hour to get from one side of Birmingham to the other.
“I can tell you that I received assurances that the fault or problem is resolved and sufficient balances and checks were put in place to ensure that that didn’t happen again.”
Article didn’t say what they’d do in the future to prevent the signs not working. I’ve seen plenty of times where a single lane isn’t showing the speed limit of the other lanes, and it’s always confusing. In my head I know it’s not like a single lane has a different speed limit, but you do look at it and wonder if the lane is meant to be closed, or what’s going on when a single sign isn’t on
There’s also the times when you see a new speed limit, but the next set of lights isn’t showing anything, making you wonder whether the speed is continued or the lower speed limit has ended and you missed a sign for it
Don’t know how you can reasonably ensure this doesn’t happen to be honest. You almost need a light to say when a light isn’t working. Or you need every sign by default to show the national speed limit, so that you can tell when one isn’t on. Just madness to rely on this stuff sometimes
Well no shit sherlock, they never do lol.
The amount of times you sit in traffic with it telling you there’s an obstruction and the lane is shut and there is nothing there, and as soon as the signs are clear you see a broken down car with no warning whatsoever. Ridiculous.
I’m not a driver and I rarely pay much attention to the road when getting a lift somewhere so I’ve never heard of smart motorway’s.
Just from the description of the one from this incident, it sounds like an incredibly stupid idea. Get rid of this nonsense and have a hard shoulder again.
Technology can and will fail, especially software. For something that is designed to save lives, a physical thing that can’t fail so easily is by far the best option.
It’s frustrating how responsible drivers are (rightly) expected to be in comparison. Even if you follow the theoretical rules but contribute to a dangerous situation you can get in shit. Having had “right of way” (such that anyone ever has it) isn’t a defence if you could have avoided something.
Meanwhile the people who design roads, while they do generally do a good job on the whole, sometimes let some real clangers past and then double down on them being “fine actually people just need to not fuck up”, people get injured or dead and somehow that’s not liability.
A life lost and a life ruined due to sheer stupidity of a system that clearly doesn’t work.
Unfortunately that shit will work untill family of 4 will die in flames caused by crash, then people will be angry and maybe protest (not so) smart motorways.
I used to use the “Smart” section of the M90 a lot. I saw speeds limits change erratically (it was like the newer part of the system that went in when the Queensferry Crossing opened wasn’t always in sync with the older part that went in late 2012), frequent congestion with nothing on the gantries to warn about it-likely why rear end collision seem to happen on a weekly basis there and most worryingly of all lots of cars stopped on the former hard shoulder (which is now a bus lane) with completely black gantries.
My theory is that someone simply looks at the cameras every five minutes and checks if there is any congestion or issues and updates the gantries accordingly instead of the system being constantly monitored. Bear in mind at one point driverless buses were using this road and bus lane!
I now come off before and use the back roads to avoid it. It’s much more reliable and you don’t have to worry about any sudden congestion!