Removing the hard shoulder - bad idea?
In the West Midlands, the hard shoulder on the M6 has been taken out and replaced with a 'part time' lane that is opened up during busy times. There are a few laybys scattered around if someone is unfortunate to breakdown, but they are only of use if your breakdown type allows you to 'coast' into them and then you will be slowing all the traffic behind you to get into them.
The section is in an industrialised area and always very busy, having had a toll bypass road built a few years ago, so traffic flow is generally not that fast anyway. The light signals over the lanes do seem to cause an immense amount of confusion with drivers travelling in the 'part time' lane when they are not supposed to and vice versa.
They are now planning on putting these hard shoulder closures on longer and busier sections of motorway and I was wondering what others thoughts were on them? Can others perhaps see the potential for accidents where cars break down and have nowhere to pull over now?