Is it smart enough?

I though the Govt said a few weeks ago that the move to smart m/ways was to be halted due to fatalities. No doubt those that are work in progress will continue.

Smart m/ways are a moronic concept in my view.

Yes that's right at present overnight cabling works are continuing so that communications can be used on smart systems already in place. It was a cheap and unsafe way to introduce four lanes.

Nevers, we live a couple of miles from the smart section of the M1 in South Yorkshire, where the fatalities that prompted the halting of the roll out occurred. It’s so dangerous, we actually choose to drive to a lower or higher junction to get on, so that we can limit the time we spend in the “smart” section. Our elected Police Commissioner promised to campaign for the abolition of the smart motorway in his electoral campaign, which he won easily.

The simple fact is that there’s no where to go in a breakdown. Hence traffic is smashing into anything broken down. The promised layby distances were altered, and the cameras supposedly spotting any potential problems do not have sufficient staff overseeing them. The fatalities are the dreadful tip of a much bigger iceberg, many, many more near misses and non fatal incidences. 

They work fine if traffic is light, no one breaks down, and visibility remains perfect at all times, and no one is speeding or inattentive. La La Land indeed.☹️

http://www.transport-network.co.uk/Smart-motorway-deaths-rise-to-record-levels/17147

We still call the M4M5 interchange “Death Alley” Tinny. We have done a couple of unintended trips to Filton as well years ago after not making it all the way across☹️ Bad enough solo, but towing far worse. Last few years we have altered our route down and come to it from Tewkesbury, which is far easier.

For us, it represents the pinnacle of the Civil Engineering mindset. We know what’s best for you, our plans are best, we never get things wrong. Our town is littered with smaller vanity projects that make a daily commute into a circular nightmare. One of my BIL’s used to work for our Planning Dept. (He is lovely, got out years ago) I once suffered a party with some of his then Planning colleagues. Hard to imagine meeting a more arrogant bunch of people. ☹️

We don't find that jcn much of a problem either.

I remember the days before the Avon Bridge was built🤣🤣🤣

It’s seven years now since we last used it Brue, we have taken more scenic routes in that time, so it might have changed. I do recall heading South, you had to get across around four lanes of traffic coming across from M4, to get into right Lane to go straight on down M5. Going North, to get onto M4, the signage always misled us, you got into what you thought was the correct Lane, only to have to switch back to get around onto the M4. All with other lanes coming in from other junctions as well.

It was always easier in heavy traffic, things a lot slower and thankfully driving a big 4x4 helped. 

We didn’t do Filton as a diversion, merely got it wrong. Mind, we did once opt to go straight through Bristol (not towing), an interesting exercise😂

You'll probably find it OK this time round TDA, especially from the north. From the south you need to get in the correct lanes north but it's not too bad. Watch out for speed cameras between the bridge and the M4/5 junctions, they are always in use.

We'll be using the M25 on our next trip, not much choice involved! 

It’s not just no hard shoulder DK, parts have no where to go at all around us, maybe a three foot wide gap between Armco and a river fence. You breakdown, you get out as fast as you can and run to somewhere in front of your broken down vehicle, hopefully before something else ploughs into the rear of it. It really is that bad. Breakdowns, punctures etc.... seldom happen next to laybys. We have already said that if we had a puncture, we just keep going. Better a shredded tyre, ruined wheel than being mashed to bits by an HGV. Our local MPs, local communities, Police Commissioner etc..... all involved in campaign. Highways England have been referred for corporate manslaughter over one death. The fact that all the extra work in terms of making extra refuges, improvements to technology amounts to acknowledgement that things initially weren’t right and in place.  

How many duel carriageways are multilane 70mph roads thousand of miles of dual carriageways are not 70mph

Travelled up from  Cornwall to near Northampton, via Redditch, yesterday.

Staying at a hotel near J15 of the M1, great for Amazon van spotters, and was curious about the seemingly 100s of vans, and huge numbers of heavy plant, plus road closures.

So had a look on Google to find the heavy plant is on anew rail interchange site that’s creating 5 million square feet of storage at a cost of £107 million.

The hundreds of vans are connected with the creation of an ALR-no me neither-which is an All Lanes Running, or Smart Motorway along 23 miles of the M1.

The cost? £373 million. For that money I would expect far better than Smart.