Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
re not wanting to get treatment from someone who is not vaccinated?
Huh?
As we are aware to date, the vaccines don't affect transmission, apart from the decrease in viral load from an asymptomatic carrier (less, if any coughing, sneezing, etc).
So what is the difference between someone who has the virus, has been jabbed and is asymptomatic and someone who has the virus, hasn't been jabbed and is asymptomatic?
This is still the unanswered trillion dollar question on which our economy depends. Can those who have been vaccinated transmit the virus even if they don't get ill themselves? If they can we are in trouble, all sorts of trouble.
No trial or test has been done to say they don't. But there is much less coughing and sneezing so with that decrease in viral load transmission the virus will gradually die out.
So let`s say that 75% of the UK population is vaccinated and therefore very unlikely to transmit to others. Travelling internationally should not then be an issue for the vaccinated ones because they are not putting themselves at risk or putting others at risk. But what about non-Brits seeking to come to UK who have NOT been vaccinated? They could be putting UK non-vaccinated Brits at risk (i.e. the 25%).
This will get widely discussed when the time comes. My feeling that you turn down a vaccination against Covid at your own peril.
I may have missed this, but is data being collected on what proportion of people are saying no to the vaccine? I note that Hancock always refers to x number of vaccinations being 'offered'. Wouldn't it be useful to have the data for jabs completed as well as jabs 'offered', so that we can gauge the % of refuseniks and their characteristics, if any, and then use public policy to drive the % accepted up?
It is owned by the major labels. The major labels 'negotiated' a deal with Spotify that is beneficial to the labels and very bad for the artists.
Spotify "loses" money but it is "losing" money to it's owners. The fact that Spotify is losing money is used as a reason not to increase streaming rates for artists.
That's not true. Sony Music and UMG used to own a fairly reasonable holding, but both have drawn them down to less than half of what they previously had. Their joint shareholding is pretty low now. I think they're at about 3% each at the last declaration.
Spotify works. Spotify works on any platform. Spotify has HQ audio. Spotify has an extensive library. Its bloody marvellous.
I know, it's bloody great. The idea that it's a scam gets all of my eyerolls.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
It's a very fair point that not all Smart Motorways are the same. The view of the industry - and regulator - is that they are safer overall.
When Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu got out to exchange details they were hit by the lorry, and both died at the scene.
What you won't hear is that they shouldn't have stopped (unless you literally can't drive the car). You're supposed to carry on and leave at the next junction and find somewhere safe to pull over. But how many people know to do that? And how many people would assume that the other person was doing a runner?
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Driving on southern motorways is an object lesson in the Lake Wobegone Effect. 75% of drivers think they're faster than average. Watching them all queue up in the outside lanes is baffling.
If I drive from Devon to London, the outside lane of the M5/M4 is often a solid slab of cars doing 90-95. Because
- you get there faster and - there is virtually no chance of a mobile speed trap seeing your number plate
until they reach a bit where someone is in the outside lane doing 65 because someone else is in the middle lane overtaking nothing at all at 60.
Someone at 65 isn't going to get a chance to leave the middle lane, the outside doing 90-95 is so solid.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
The Highway Code also says to keep left unless overtaking.
In over twenty years of driving I've never once seen either law be enforced. 🤷🏻♂️
I think it's only enforced when the motorway is more or less empty. When it doesn't matter.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
I hear you. As I say, the alternative is to join the tailgaters or to brake every time they do. You aren't offering me any alternative ways to drive other than to put myself and my kids in danger by joining the tailgaters.
I am very comfortable that passing people tailgating whilst driving under the speed limit is not going to get me nicked. Especially as so often I was in lane 1, lane 2 was empty and the loons are crowding lanes 3 and 4.
As for being sideswiped that's what big braking gaps are for. You need to assess vehicles you are about to pass even the ones to your left. Too many people don't have a clue how to read conditions or traffic or other drivers. Witness the various dashcam channels where the crash could have been avoided had the dash cam vehicle actually been awake and aware.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
And the West Yorkshire section - there was a terrifying kink north of Wetherby on the northbound, a left right left slalom with a blind summit in the middle. There's still similar stupidity in Lincolnshire - the Foston junction is still unsighted southbound, the roller coaster section south of Colsterworth - two batshit unimproved sections that needed fixing more than the minor tweaking they had.
Then we have the new junctions. OK, so they removed roundabouts and replaced with free flow junctions. But they all seem to be absurdly tight with almost no merge in area so that a truck has to do a gentle 20mph round the spiral and is then dumped directly into lane 1...
Well, quite.
Wetherby was one of the sections I was thinking of - I'd forgotten that was still West Yorkshire as the route crosses in to North Yorkshire before that (heading North).
I wonder when they'll replace the Doncaster section?
The high level bridges will be the hard part I suppose. The Went bridge is a listed structure...
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, unlit, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
Apart from being a relatively cheap way of adding an extra lane, "smart" motorways have the ability to generate a great deal of additional revenue in speeding fines. Someone at the DfT will have done a cost benefit analysis and decided that the extra deaths were worth it due to the savings/extra revenue. Since from their spin it's clear that they're not rowing back on the policy, they must still think that the extra deaths are worth it.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
We want the hard shoulder back. Nothing makes our hearts sink faster than looking town the slip road on the way to an incident than seeing 4 fully stationary lanes on a 3 lane motorway.
Wait, so they don’t even get everyone off the inside ‘lane’ when there’s an incident ahead, leaving your big red truck to have to push through the stationary traffic? That’s bonkers.
Does anyone know any over 80s who haven't been offered a vaccination?
My neighbour's wife hasn't been, she's got mobility problems. He's had his though, hopefully a nurse or some such will come out and do her.
My aunt the same (housebound). Although a District Nurse gave her the flu jab a few weeks ago.
On How to Vaccinate the World yesterday one of the guests said that household vaccinations hadn't begun yet, implying they might at some point. "In the community" apparently means care homes.
My 92 year old Mother in law is in a care home in Herefordshire, no vaccine yet. Mobile residents have been walked down to the cottage hospital.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, unlit, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
They've done the same with the M5 between Worcester and the M42, both ways.
It is a death trap.
It's made worse by the fact that the controller puts up random speed limits and lane closures apparently to show they can, so people ignore them. And then, on one memorable occasion as I was passing, find there really is a heavy lorry stuck in the left hand lane after all.
It is owned by the major labels. The major labels 'negotiated' a deal with Spotify that is beneficial to the labels and very bad for the artists.
Spotify "loses" money but it is "losing" money to it's owners. The fact that Spotify is losing money is used as a reason not to increase streaming rates for artists.
That's not true. Sony Music and UMG used to own a fairly reasonable holding, but both have drawn them down to less than half of what they previously had. Their joint shareholding is pretty low now. I think they're at about 3% each at the last declaration.
Spotify works. Spotify works on any platform. Spotify has HQ audio. Spotify has an extensive library. Its bloody marvellous.
Their video is shite compared to Youtube. Keeps hanging, downscaling, takes several attempts to go fullscreen etc...
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
I don't use the slip roads. You need your wits about you on the A1 but at least you know what to expect. You know there is no hard shoulder and to expect tractors etc occasionally and you and other drivers drive accordingly. Motorways without hard shoulders are neither fish nor fowl. It's not just that though, there's something about the M1 that just leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I like the sense of history and romance on the Great North Road too. And the A1 has my favourite road sign, to the Honeypot Lane Industrial Estate.
New York will be reallocating unused COVID-19 vaccines after more than ten thousand nursing home residents and nearly half of staffers declined the jab, according to Gareth Rhodes, a member of Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 Response Task Force.
I am not too surprised, nor at the news that some ethnic minorities are refusing here too. I know some doctors and nurses who have declined.
I expect it will be the younger age groups rather than the elderly who do not participate in the main. They are generally reluctant about any health care intervention.
How do they get away with declining as a Doctor / Nurse?
I thought that would be a requirement for continued employment.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
And the West Yorkshire section - there was a terrifying kink north of Wetherby on the northbound, a left right left slalom with a blind summit in the middle. There's still similar stupidity in Lincolnshire - the Foston junction is still unsighted southbound, the roller coaster section south of Colsterworth - two batshit unimproved sections that needed fixing more than the minor tweaking they had.
Then we have the new junctions. OK, so they removed roundabouts and replaced with free flow junctions. But they all seem to be absurdly tight with almost no merge in area so that a truck has to do a gentle 20mph round the spiral and is then dumped directly into lane 1...
The Foston junction is bad but the biggest problem there is the change in camber as you come round the chicane just south of the junction. It looks innocuous but there are a huge number of accidents there either with cars drifting across from the outside into the inside lane or with larger vehicles taking it too fast and overturning.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
And the West Yorkshire section - there was a terrifying kink north of Wetherby on the northbound, a left right left slalom with a blind summit in the middle. There's still similar stupidity in Lincolnshire - the Foston junction is still unsighted southbound, the roller coaster section south of Colsterworth - two batshit unimproved sections that needed fixing more than the minor tweaking they had.
Then we have the new junctions. OK, so they removed roundabouts and replaced with free flow junctions. But they all seem to be absurdly tight with almost no merge in area so that a truck has to do a gentle 20mph round the spiral and is then dumped directly into lane 1...
Well, quite.
Wetherby was one of the sections I was thinking of - I'd forgotten that was still West Yorkshire as the route crosses in to North Yorkshire before that (heading North).
I wonder when they'll replace the Doncaster section?
The high level bridges will be the hard part I suppose. The Went bridge is a listed structure...
Now there is a Motorway all the way from London to Gateshead (M1,A1(M)) - I wouldn't hold out much hope of the Doncaster bit being improved given that it was already a post 2025 project.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
Not sure. I suspect they would both be found at fault for lack of awareness since neither was actually doing anything wrong per se.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, unlit, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
Apart from being a relatively cheap way of adding an extra lane, "smart" motorways have the ability to generate a great deal of additional revenue in speeding fines. Someone at the DfT will have done a cost benefit analysis and decided that the extra deaths were worth it due to the savings/extra revenue. Since from their spin it's clear that they're not rowing back on the policy, they must still think that the extra deaths are worth it.
I recently had a client in Stoke on Trent. Over the seven visits I made, I was always late because on every occasion there had been an accident somewhere on the Northbound M6 between Hilton Park and Keele. Even at the front of the queue it could take over an hour to pass even the most minor of sccidents as there was limited ability for the emergency services to access the crash. Those people claiming Smart motorways are a good idea, clearly don't use them.
re not wanting to get treatment from someone who is not vaccinated?
Huh?
As we are aware to date, the vaccines don't affect transmission, apart from the decrease in viral load from an asymptomatic carrier (less, if any coughing, sneezing, etc).
So what is the difference between someone who has the virus, has been jabbed and is asymptomatic and someone who has the virus, hasn't been jabbed and is asymptomatic?
This is still the unanswered trillion dollar question on which our economy depends. Can those who have been vaccinated transmit the virus even if they don't get ill themselves? If they can we are in trouble, all sorts of trouble.
No trial or test has been done to say they don't. But there is much less coughing and sneezing so with that decrease in viral load transmission the virus will gradually die out.
So let`s say that 75% of the UK population is vaccinated and therefore very unlikely to transmit to others. Travelling internationally should not then be an issue for the vaccinated ones because they are not putting themselves at risk or putting others at risk. But what about non-Brits seeking to come to UK who have NOT been vaccinated? They could be putting UK non-vaccinated Brits at risk (i.e. the 25%).
This will get widely discussed when the time comes. My feeling that you turn down a vaccination against Covid at your own peril.
I may have missed this, but is data being collected on what proportion of people are saying no to the vaccine? I note that Hancock always refers to x number of vaccinations being 'offered'. Wouldn't it be useful to have the data for jabs completed as well as jabs 'offered', so that we can gauge the % of refuseniks and their characteristics, if any, and then use public policy to drive the % accepted up?
The government`s vaccination target is linked to the number offered rather than the number who have actually taken a jab. Hancock is repeatedly making this clear so as not to be accused of manipulation later on. This is not as unreasonable as it may sound; they cannot make people have it.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
It's a very fair point that not all Smart Motorways are the same. The view of the industry - and regulator - is that they are safer overall.
When Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu got out to exchange details they were hit by the lorry, and both died at the scene.
What you won't hear is that they shouldn't have stopped (unless you literally can't drive the car). You're supposed to carry on and leave at the next junction and find somewhere safe to pull over. But how many people know to do that? And how many people would assume that the other person was doing a runner?
His widow is an ex-colleague of mine, we've asked that question privately at work. Claire quit her job to focus on going after this - she'll keep fighting this for years.
And quite right too - shop workers, police and teachers should have priority.
Yes, agreed. Home office workers under 50 shouldn't be a priority while the NHS is crumbling.
I don't mind being at the back of the queue as long as I can see that the queue is moving. Early signs are good.
Would expect the Amber rain warning this week to slow things down compared to where they would otherwise be, but no sign of a big freeze coming after the SSW.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
Presumably if the collision was front to back the presumption would be that the rear car was at fault. If it was side to side then both would be at fault. I very rarely change lane when another car is next to me one lane away because I fear precisely this kind of accident. If I overtake a car in the middle lane I wait until there is nothing in the slow lane before returning to the middle lane. Or if that's not possible I would do it slowly after signalling clearly.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
I don't use the slip roads. You need your wits about you on the A1 but at least you know what to expect. You know there is no hard shoulder and to expect tractors etc occasionally and you and other drivers drive accordingly. Motorways without hard shoulders are neither fish nor fowl. It's not just that though, there's something about the M1 that just leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I like the sense of history and romance on the Great North Road too. And the A1 has my favourite road sign, to the Honeypot Lane Industrial Estate.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
I don't use the slip roads. You need your wits about you on the A1 but at least you know what to expect. You know there is no hard shoulder and to expect tractors etc occasionally and you and other drivers drive accordingly. Motorways without hard shoulders are neither fish nor fowl. It's not just that though, there's something about the M1 that just leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I like the sense of history and romance on the Great North Road too. And the A1 has my favourite road sign, to the Honeypot Lane Industrial Estate.
If you think the A1 is bad, you've never driven up the A19 on a day when the A1(M) is closed - it still has farm tracks that connect to the dual carriage way at a 90 degree angle.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, unlit, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
They've done the same with the M5 between Worcester and the M42, both ways.
It is a death trap.
It's made worse by the fact that the controller puts up random speed limits and lane closures apparently to show they can, so people ignore them. And then, on one memorable occasion as I was passing, find there really is a heavy lorry stuck in the left hand lane after all.
Well, today has been an eye-opener. I never really understood all the complaints, had clearly made the naïve assumption that they were all like the M42 pilot scheme.
Does this mean that BT are going to have the exclusive rights to the Ashes this winter?
I believe so.
Stupid, stupid decision. Even worse than taking it off Free to Air in the first place.
I might view it differently had it been decided that the rights for at least some matches had to be free to air, but they didn’t do that.
It's not that difficult to use a VPN and stream it from other sites ...
Just saying.
The TV industry is shooting itself repeatedly in the head at the moment. Pay to stream is getting ridiculous, as every content provider says "I'll have a piece of that".
Put content up on Sky or Netflix for a rights fee? No, lets launch our own platform and keep all the revenue! So the question is how much £ can punters stump up. I pay for BBC, Virgin Media, Netflix, Disney, Prime. I'm on the free trial of Britbox and did the same for Apple TV. I am forced to "borrow" a friend's connection to watch stuff on Sky. Sports fans may need Sky Sports AND BT Sport AND Prime just to cover football.
Which is why, as you point out, pirate VPN streaming is so popular. Once we move north in a few weeks we'll review our packages, but it is frustrating and increasingly unsustainable for yet more things to be put behind yet another bloody paywall. One paywall to rule them all would be fine. But there isn't one. Rights have gone all over the place.
Let me give you an example. Shitbox claims to have all classic British TV in one place. Its clear that they have assembled them from a variety of sources - watching Cracker the aspect ratio jumps from original 4:3 to cropped widescreen to 4:3 within a 3 part story. And classics like Hi-De-Hi? They have the odd episode, but the streaming rights are held by Amazon. Not for free to Prime subscribers, on a pay per season basis.
It is unsustainable. People object to the license fee for understandable reasons and that will have to go. As will the plethora of salami sliced platforms - people will stop paying the money for the stuff they don't have to have, Britbox etc will fail, and content will start coalescing around A platform. Same with Football - one pay platform not three which each at the same price as the original one platform used to be.
You're wrong. Unfortunately media rights for TV are becoming ever more fragmented with each major studio deciding that they want their own streaming service. The US market is a disaster because of this, they have:
Netflix Amazon prime D+ (Disney) Apple TV Peacock (NBC universal) CBS all access (Paramount) Hulu (Fox, owned by Disney) HBO Max (WB) Bravia Core (SPE/Columbia launching in March)
This is coming here too and the market will become more fragmented, not less.
What's interesting is that for sports rights I could see the PL selling their own subscription package soon, maybe £250 per season for all of the televised matches. F1 already does this with F1TV and there's no monopoly concerns. With football to match the income that the PL gets from Sky/BT they would need around 6m subscribers at £250 per season. It also opens up models such as choosing which club you support and having a proportion of your subscription go to them, I know something like that has been looked at previously.
The PL are unlikely to launch their own channel, one of the advantages selling the rights to others is that they get the money via instalments well in advance of the season starting, and the equivalent point of the season. Put it this way they get paid in full for the season by around January.
If they went for a PL subscription model, they'd only get the money linearly throughout the season which would ruin the cashflow of most of the PL clubs.
Are you suggesting the billionaire owners cant organise very cheap finance against reliable recurring revenues in a world of ultra low interest rates? Very strange.
No, the argument is when in times of economic hardship it'll be easier to cancel the PL channel/streaming subscription than it'll be to cancel Sky/BT Sport.
After the ITV Digital fiasco sports rights holders are pretty strong on securing their money via various forms of parental guarantees, something you can't do when you're selling the product to the consumer direct.
Thanks that makes more sense, but still way too cautious considering the ownership group of the PL.
You only have to look to France this season what happens when you change your model.
re not wanting to get treatment from someone who is not vaccinated?
Huh?
As we are aware to date, the vaccines don't affect transmission, apart from the decrease in viral load from an asymptomatic carrier (less, if any coughing, sneezing, etc).
So what is the difference between someone who has the virus, has been jabbed and is asymptomatic and someone who has the virus, hasn't been jabbed and is asymptomatic?
This is still the unanswered trillion dollar question on which our economy depends. Can those who have been vaccinated transmit the virus even if they don't get ill themselves? If they can we are in trouble, all sorts of trouble.
No trial or test has been done to say they don't. But there is much less coughing and sneezing so with that decrease in viral load transmission the virus will gradually die out.
So let`s say that 75% of the UK population is vaccinated and therefore very unlikely to transmit to others. Travelling internationally should not then be an issue for the vaccinated ones because they are not putting themselves at risk or putting others at risk. But what about non-Brits seeking to come to UK who have NOT been vaccinated? They could be putting UK non-vaccinated Brits at risk (i.e. the 25%).
This will get widely discussed when the time comes. My feeling that you turn down a vaccination against Covid at your own peril.
I may have missed this, but is data being collected on what proportion of people are saying no to the vaccine? I note that Hancock always refers to x number of vaccinations being 'offered'. Wouldn't it be useful to have the data for jabs completed as well as jabs 'offered', so that we can gauge the % of refuseniks and their characteristics, if any, and then use public policy to drive the % accepted up?
The government`s vaccination target is linked to the number offered rather than the number who have actually taken a jab. Hancock is repeatedly making this clear so as not to be accused of manipulation later on. This is not as unreasonable as it may sound; they cannot make people have it.
Agreed, but it is still important to know how many have actually been vaccinated.
New York will be reallocating unused COVID-19 vaccines after more than ten thousand nursing home residents and nearly half of staffers declined the jab, according to Gareth Rhodes, a member of Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 Response Task Force.
I am not too surprised, nor at the news that some ethnic minorities are refusing here too. I know some doctors and nurses who have declined.
I expect it will be the younger age groups rather than the elderly who do not participate in the main. They are generally reluctant about any health care intervention.
How do they get away with declining as a Doctor / Nurse?
I thought that would be a requirement for continued employment.
I asked @Foxy the other day about this, but I don`t think he saw my question.
My best guess is that those refusing will have already had Covid and consequently feel that they are already adequately protected, but I`m just guessing.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Surely though there's a point where overtaking on the inside is OK, if when doing so you're just keeping up with the speed of the car in front of you in the same lane amidst congested traffic?
The extreme would be when there are stop start queues and an inside lane is moving when an outside one is not. But what about when traffic is moving at around 60mph in all three lanes amidst general congestion - if the outside lane slows to 50 do the other two inside lanes have to slow as well?
I think in practice there's a grey area which can't be easily defined in law and it is down to the common sense of the driver.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
Presumably if the collision was front to back the presumption would be that the rear car was at fault. If it was side to side then both would be at fault. I very rarely change lane when another car is next to me one lane away because I fear precisely this kind of accident. If I overtake a car in the middle lane I wait until there is nothing in the slow lane before returning to the middle lane. Or if that's not possible I would do it slowly after signalling clearly.
Something you see on French and other European roads but not in the UK is the solid white line alongside junctions which are supposed to tell people not to change lanes at that point. Always struck me as very sensible though I don't know how much they are obeyed.
And quite right too - shop workers, police and teachers should have priority.
Yes, agreed. Home office workers under 50 shouldn't be a priority while the NHS is crumbling.
I don't mind being at the back of the queue as long as I can see that the queue is moving. Early signs are good.
Would expect the Amber rain warning this week to slow things down compared to where they would otherwise be, but no sign of a big freeze coming after the SSW.
Yes if we were doing 300k per week like some European countries then I'd be pretty angry and looking at getting it done privately. At 3.5-5m per week I can sit and wait for a few weeks.
re not wanting to get treatment from someone who is not vaccinated?
Huh?
As we are aware to date, the vaccines don't affect transmission, apart from the decrease in viral load from an asymptomatic carrier (less, if any coughing, sneezing, etc).
So what is the difference between someone who has the virus, has been jabbed and is asymptomatic and someone who has the virus, hasn't been jabbed and is asymptomatic?
This is still the unanswered trillion dollar question on which our economy depends. Can those who have been vaccinated transmit the virus even if they don't get ill themselves? If they can we are in trouble, all sorts of trouble.
No trial or test has been done to say they don't. But there is much less coughing and sneezing so with that decrease in viral load transmission the virus will gradually die out.
So let`s say that 75% of the UK population is vaccinated and therefore very unlikely to transmit to others. Travelling internationally should not then be an issue for the vaccinated ones because they are not putting themselves at risk or putting others at risk. But what about non-Brits seeking to come to UK who have NOT been vaccinated? They could be putting UK non-vaccinated Brits at risk (i.e. the 25%).
This will get widely discussed when the time comes. My feeling that you turn down a vaccination against Covid at your own peril.
I may have missed this, but is data being collected on what proportion of people are saying no to the vaccine? I note that Hancock always refers to x number of vaccinations being 'offered'. Wouldn't it be useful to have the data for jabs completed as well as jabs 'offered', so that we can gauge the % of refuseniks and their characteristics, if any, and then use public policy to drive the % accepted up?
The government`s vaccination target is linked to the number offered rather than the number who have actually taken a jab. Hancock is repeatedly making this clear so as not to be accused of manipulation later on. This is not as unreasonable as it may sound; they cannot make people have it.
Agreed, but it is still important to know how many have actually been vaccinated.
Leaving the safety aspect to one side, the thing I don't like about Smart Motorways is that they smack of being a cash cow for those companies who do the work. It must have taken several years for them to do the M6 stretches through Staffordshire and Cheshire. I was only young at the time, but I reckon the M25 widening past Heathrow was done quicker.
re not wanting to get treatment from someone who is not vaccinated?
Huh?
As we are aware to date, the vaccines don't affect transmission, apart from the decrease in viral load from an asymptomatic carrier (less, if any coughing, sneezing, etc).
So what is the difference between someone who has the virus, has been jabbed and is asymptomatic and someone who has the virus, hasn't been jabbed and is asymptomatic?
This is still the unanswered trillion dollar question on which our economy depends. Can those who have been vaccinated transmit the virus even if they don't get ill themselves? If they can we are in trouble, all sorts of trouble.
No trial or test has been done to say they don't. But there is much less coughing and sneezing so with that decrease in viral load transmission the virus will gradually die out.
So let`s say that 75% of the UK population is vaccinated and therefore very unlikely to transmit to others. Travelling internationally should not then be an issue for the vaccinated ones because they are not putting themselves at risk or putting others at risk. But what about non-Brits seeking to come to UK who have NOT been vaccinated? They could be putting UK non-vaccinated Brits at risk (i.e. the 25%).
This will get widely discussed when the time comes. My feeling that you turn down a vaccination against Covid at your own peril.
I may have missed this, but is data being collected on what proportion of people are saying no to the vaccine? I note that Hancock always refers to x number of vaccinations being 'offered'. Wouldn't it be useful to have the data for jabs completed as well as jabs 'offered', so that we can gauge the % of refuseniks and their characteristics, if any, and then use public policy to drive the % accepted up?
The government`s vaccination target is linked to the number offered rather than the number who have actually taken a jab. Hancock is repeatedly making this clear so as not to be accused of manipulation later on. This is not as unreasonable as it may sound; they cannot make people have it.
Agreed, but it is still important to know how many have actually been vaccinated.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, unlit, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
They've done the same with the M5 between Worcester and the M42, both ways.
It is a death trap.
It's made worse by the fact that the controller puts up random speed limits and lane closures apparently to show they can, so people ignore them. And then, on one memorable occasion as I was passing, find there really is a heavy lorry stuck in the left hand lane after all.
They are slow to react to changes, so it's often the case that the warning signs are no longer valid. Same problem with traffic backing up on all lanes after an incident. By the time the signs change to close lane 1 it's a bit too late.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
In my motorbiking days I would always be looking out for this eventuality when changing lanes. It is not just sufficient to know there is a gap now, you need to know that the "gap will be yours" a few seconds later.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
Presumably if the collision was front to back the presumption would be that the rear car was at fault. If it was side to side then both would be at fault. I very rarely change lane when another car is next to me one lane away because I fear precisely this kind of accident. If I overtake a car in the middle lane I wait until there is nothing in the slow lane before returning to the middle lane. Or if that's not possible I would do it slowly after signalling clearly.
Yes, good situational awareness can avoid situations like that. Always be aware of when you’re in someone else’s blind spot, and look over your shoulder as well as in your mirrors before changing lanes. The lane 1 car moving right at the same time as the lane 3 car moving left, if they’re level then both should back out, otherwise the one behind should give way on the basis that he has the best view of the situation.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
Presumably if the collision was front to back the presumption would be that the rear car was at fault. If it was side to side then both would be at fault. I very rarely change lane when another car is next to me one lane away because I fear precisely this kind of accident. If I overtake a car in the middle lane I wait until there is nothing in the slow lane before returning to the middle lane. Or if that's not possible I would do it slowly after signalling clearly.
Something you see on French and other European roads but not in the UK is the solid white line alongside junctions which are supposed to tell people not to change lanes at that point. Always struck me as very sensible though I don't know how much they are obeyed.
We don't have solid lines in many places, but we do have varying lengths of lines - the longer the line, the more wary you should be about changing lanes.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
We want the hard shoulder back. Nothing makes our hearts sink faster than looking town the slip road on the way to an incident than seeing 4 fully stationary lanes on a 3 lane motorway.
Wait, so they don’t even get everyone off the inside ‘lane’ when there’s an incident ahead, leaving your big red truck to have to push through the stationary traffic? That’s bonkers.
They try, but it happens so fast and drivers react slowly to signs, so it usually turns into a clusterfeck. Plus drivers get confused about the rules and see blue lights behind them and turn into morons.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, unlit, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
They've done the same with the M5 between Worcester and the M42, both ways.
It is a death trap.
It's made worse by the fact that the controller puts up random speed limits and lane closures apparently to show they can, so people ignore them. And then, on one memorable occasion as I was passing, find there really is a heavy lorry stuck in the left hand lane after all.
Well, today has been an eye-opener. I never really understood all the complaints, had clearly made the naïve assumption that they were all like the M42 pilot scheme.
That worked reasonably well because at no point between Shirley and the A45 airport exit can one exceed 5mph due to volume of traffic. Once 30mph is breached on a Smart Motorway dangerous chaos ensues.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
Presumably if the collision was front to back the presumption would be that the rear car was at fault. If it was side to side then both would be at fault. I very rarely change lane when another car is next to me one lane away because I fear precisely this kind of accident. If I overtake a car in the middle lane I wait until there is nothing in the slow lane before returning to the middle lane. Or if that's not possible I would do it slowly after signalling clearly.
I went so far as to pay for the extra "blindspot occupied" alarm buzzer on mine, as I know it is a mistake that I have made every year or two if I rush a manoeuvre.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
I don't use the slip roads. You need your wits about you on the A1 but at least you know what to expect. You know there is no hard shoulder and to expect tractors etc occasionally and you and other drivers drive accordingly. Motorways without hard shoulders are neither fish nor fowl. It's not just that though, there's something about the M1 that just leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I like the sense of history and romance on the Great North Road too. And the A1 has my favourite road sign, to the Honeypot Lane Industrial Estate.
If you think the A1 is bad, you've never driven up the A19 on a day when the A1(M) is closed - it still has farm tracks that connect to the dual carriage way at a 90 degree angle.
I remember a hellish 16 hour drive from Scotland when there was engineering work all over the A1 and A14 and M11 and I had to follow all kind of diversions, the A19 may have been involved that night. At one point I was driving through Harlow Town centre. And then to cap it all they closed the Blackwall Tunnel and we were queuing for an hour to go through the nasty Rotherhithe tunnel instead. The last 6 hours were uninterrupted driving. Terrible experience.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Driving on southern motorways is an object lesson in the Lake Wobegone Effect. 75% of drivers think they're faster than average. Watching them all queue up in the outside lanes is baffling.
If I drive from Devon to London, the outside lane of the M5/M4 is often a solid slab of cars doing 90-95. Because
- you get there faster and - there is virtually no chance of a mobile speed trap seeing your number plate
until they reach a bit where someone is in the outside lane doing 65 because someone else is in the middle lane overtaking nothing at all at 60.
Someone at 65 isn't going to get a chance to leave the middle lane, the outside doing 90-95 is so solid.
Hmmm, what to believe... internet guy, or what I see every time I drive on the motorway down here. Toughie.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
In my motorbiking days I would always be looking out for this eventuality when changing lanes. It is not just sufficient to know there is a gap now, you need to know that the "gap will be yours" a few seconds later.
Bikers were always interesting ones. They came in two types, those who had clearly spent time learning advanced driving techniques, and those who were utter morons - with very few in the middle.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, unlit, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
They've done the same with the M5 between Worcester and the M42, both ways.
It is a death trap.
It's made worse by the fact that the controller puts up random speed limits and lane closures apparently to show they can, so people ignore them. And then, on one memorable occasion as I was passing, find there really is a heavy lorry stuck in the left hand lane after all.
I know that stretch well.
It`s irritating because I used to clip along there at a steady 85 mph along with the rest, the ambient speed in the fastest lane.
Now one doesn`t know whether the cameras are on or not. Often no limit is stated so you may assume that the cameras are switched off but you cannot be sure.
Consequently, 70 mph tends now to be the ambient speed even when traffic light and road dry. Maybe this uncertainty is deliberate?
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
"Driving through Sandwell"? That's more dangerous than partaking in extreme sports!
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
Wow. Four running lanes, no shoulder, only one emergency lay-by between 34 and 35, only two full width gantries, whole road curving and with elevation changes. What a huge mess.
It's a very fair point that not all Smart Motorways are the same. The view of the industry - and regulator - is that they are safer overall.
When Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu got out to exchange details they were hit by the lorry, and both died at the scene.
What you won't hear is that they shouldn't have stopped (unless you literally can't drive the car). You're supposed to carry on and leave at the next junction and find somewhere safe to pull over. But how many people know to do that? And how many people would assume that the other person was doing a runner?
His widow is an ex-colleague of mine, we've asked that question privately at work. Claire quit her job to focus on going after this - she'll keep fighting this for years.
Given that it's been drummed into people for years to stop at an accident and exchange details you can't expect them to do something else because the rules are different there.
Especially when there has never been any education campaign on how to drive on a "Smart" Motorway
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Driving on southern motorways is an object lesson in the Lake Wobegone Effect. 75% of drivers think they're faster than average. Watching them all queue up in the outside lanes is baffling.
If I drive from Devon to London, the outside lane of the M5/M4 is often a solid slab of cars doing 90-95. Because
- you get there faster and - there is virtually no chance of a mobile speed trap seeing your number plate
until they reach a bit where someone is in the outside lane doing 65 because someone else is in the middle lane overtaking nothing at all at 60.
Someone at 65 isn't going to get a chance to leave the middle lane, the outside doing 90-95 is so solid.
Don't believe everything your Chauffeur tells you.
New York will be reallocating unused COVID-19 vaccines after more than ten thousand nursing home residents and nearly half of staffers declined the jab, according to Gareth Rhodes, a member of Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 Response Task Force.
I am not too surprised, nor at the news that some ethnic minorities are refusing here too. I know some doctors and nurses who have declined.
I expect it will be the younger age groups rather than the elderly who do not participate in the main. They are generally reluctant about any health care intervention.
How do they get away with declining as a Doctor / Nurse?
I thought that would be a requirement for continued employment.
I asked @Foxy the other day about this, but I don`t think he saw my question.
My best guess is that those refusing will have already had Covid and consequently feel that they are already adequately protected, but I`m just guessing.
That may be one reason, but it would not touch on those refusing for 'reasons of principle' ... eg believing conspiracy theories, or that vaccine harm, or that it contains some materials that cannot be consumed such as animal extracts in the manufacturing process or the product.
Quite interested how TUs would approach that. The RCN are trying to dance on 2 separate pinheads, of duty to safety and right of conscience. I don't envy them trying to resolve that:
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is worse, especially at night. Have had too many near misses to even think of doing it at night any more. And the A14 between A1 and M11 was practically psychotic until they built the new new A14(notM) to bypass it. Happily our impending move to Scotland means that I will never again have to drive to the mother in law's in Essicks on a Friday night with the kids asleep in the back.
Missed this. The M1 is a million times worse than the A1. Can't believe anyone would choose to go on the former.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Driving on southern motorways is an object lesson in the Lake Wobegone Effect. 75% of drivers think they're faster than average. Watching them all queue up in the outside lanes is baffling.
If I drive from Devon to London, the outside lane of the M5/M4 is often a solid slab of cars doing 90-95. Because
- you get there faster and - there is virtually no chance of a mobile speed trap seeing your number plate
until they reach a bit where someone is in the outside lane doing 65 because someone else is in the middle lane overtaking nothing at all at 60.
Someone at 65 isn't going to get a chance to leave the middle lane, the outside doing 90-95 is so solid.
Hmmm, what to believe... internet guy, or what I see every time I drive on the motorway down here. Toughie.
Internet guy who has driven in excess of a million miles, much of it on motorways.
New York will be reallocating unused COVID-19 vaccines after more than ten thousand nursing home residents and nearly half of staffers declined the jab, according to Gareth Rhodes, a member of Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 Response Task Force.
I am not too surprised, nor at the news that some ethnic minorities are refusing here too. I know some doctors and nurses who have declined.
I expect it will be the younger age groups rather than the elderly who do not participate in the main. They are generally reluctant about any health care intervention.
How do they get away with declining as a Doctor / Nurse?
I thought that would be a requirement for continued employment.
I asked @Foxy the other day about this, but I don`t think he saw my question.
My best guess is that those refusing will have already had Covid and consequently feel that they are already adequately protected, but I`m just guessing.
That may be one reason, but it would not touch on those refusing for 'reasons of principle' ... eg believing conspiracy theories, or that vaccine harm, or that it contains some materials that cannot be consumed such as animal extracts in the manufacturing process or the product.
Quite interested how TUs would approach that. The RCN are trying to dance on 2 separate pinheads, of duty to safety and right of conscience. I don't envy them trying to resolve that:
I saw the comment around a clause in the Equality Act that he thought would allow force majeure overriding of the act. But I'm interested.
For Drs, that would potentially impinge on the Hippocratic Oath.
Local news here reported yesterday a New Jersey nursing school is denying graduation to students who refuse to vaccinate, and at least one area hospital system is considering mandating vaccination as a condition of employment..
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
If all lanes are congested and the car ahead of you is doing 70 but the car to the right of you is doing 60 then why should you slow down?
It says congested and similar speeds, that is congested and similar speeds - I don't see it saying slow-moving congested only. If the car ahead of me is doing 70 then I'm doing 70 too.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Driving on southern motorways is an object lesson in the Lake Wobegone Effect. 75% of drivers think they're faster than average. Watching them all queue up in the outside lanes is baffling.
If I drive from Devon to London, the outside lane of the M5/M4 is often a solid slab of cars doing 90-95. Because
- you get there faster and - there is virtually no chance of a mobile speed trap seeing your number plate
until they reach a bit where someone is in the outside lane doing 65 because someone else is in the middle lane overtaking nothing at all at 60.
Someone at 65 isn't going to get a chance to leave the middle lane, the outside doing 90-95 is so solid.
Hmmm, what to believe... internet guy, or what I see every time I drive on the motorway down here. Toughie.
Internet guy who has driven in excess of a million miles, much of it on motorways.
You?
600 miles a week for 30 years it's quite a lot but not insane.
Only one fleg on Hancock's mask on Sky News. He must fucking despise this country.
Any poppy lapel pin?
Rainbow NHS badge only. Loves the LGBTQ+ community and socialised medicine but hates fallen heroes.
Don't ask why (I've no idea) but I watched the first half hour of Saving Private Ryan again last night.
Still arguably the best opening to a film of any kind and def of a war film.
Shout out for Apocalypse Now! with the Doors/jungle burning/helicopter/ceiling fan montage. Classy cinematography, and a hell of an overture to the story.
Only one fleg on Hancock's mask on Sky News. He must fucking despise this country.
Any poppy lapel pin?
Rainbow NHS badge only. Loves the LGBTQ+ community and socialised medicine but hates fallen heroes.
Don't ask why (I've no idea) but I watched the first half hour of Saving Private Ryan again last night.
Still arguably the best opening to a film of any kind and def of a war film.
Shout out for Apocalypse Now! with the Doors/jungle burning/helicopter/ceiling fan montage. Classy cinematography, and a hell of an overture to the story.
If you want Tories vote Tory. If you don't want Tories and want Labour then vote Labour. If you want to protest and don't want to vote for a party associated with either the Tories or Labour then vote Green or REFUK (what an acronym!).
There's a consistent downward trend in all these recent Tory polling numbers. The only substantial thing that has changed over the last week or two is more Brexit disruption stories emerging around the edges, so that may be the start of that trend.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
Out of interest, supposing a car in the fast lane and a car in the slow lane both try to pull into the middle lane at once and collide, whose fault would that be?
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
Presumably if the collision was front to back the presumption would be that the rear car was at fault. If it was side to side then both would be at fault. I very rarely change lane when another car is next to me one lane away because I fear precisely this kind of accident. If I overtake a car in the middle lane I wait until there is nothing in the slow lane before returning to the middle lane. Or if that's not possible I would do it slowly after signalling clearly.
Yes, good situational awareness can avoid situations like that. Always be aware of when you’re in someone else’s blind spot, and look over your shoulder as well as in your mirrors before changing lanes. The lane 1 car moving right at the same time as the lane 3 car moving left, if they’re level then both should back out, otherwise the one behind should give way on the basis that he has the best view of the situation.
I did once see this happen from behind coming to a motorway island when the RH one was filtering left, and the LH one right.
Neither had noticed the other, and they met in the middle with a crunch, then both went off down the way they didn't want to go.
New York will be reallocating unused COVID-19 vaccines after more than ten thousand nursing home residents and nearly half of staffers declined the jab, according to Gareth Rhodes, a member of Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 Response Task Force.
I am not too surprised, nor at the news that some ethnic minorities are refusing here too. I know some doctors and nurses who have declined.
I expect it will be the younger age groups rather than the elderly who do not participate in the main. They are generally reluctant about any health care intervention.
How do they get away with declining as a Doctor / Nurse?
I thought that would be a requirement for continued employment.
I asked @Foxy the other day about this, but I don`t think he saw my question.
My best guess is that those refusing will have already had Covid and consequently feel that they are already adequately protected, but I`m just guessing.
That may be one reason, but it would not touch on those refusing for 'reasons of principle' ... eg believing conspiracy theories, or that vaccine harm, or that it contains some materials that cannot be consumed such as animal extracts in the manufacturing process or the product.
Quite interested how TUs would approach that. The RCN are trying to dance on 2 separate pinheads, of duty to safety and right of conscience. I don't envy them trying to resolve that:
I saw the comment around a clause in the Equality Act that he thought would allow force majeure overriding of the act. But I'm interested.
For Drs, that would potentially impinge on the Hippocratic Oath.
Local news here reported yesterday a New Jersey nursing school is denying graduation to students who refuse to vaccinate, and at least one area hospital system is considering mandating vaccination as a condition of employment..
To vaccinate others, or refuse to be vaccinated, please?
If you want Tories vote Tory. If you don't want Tories and want Labour then vote Labour. If you want to protest and don't want to vote for a party associated with either the Tories or Labour then vote Green or REFUK (what an acronym!).
What is the purpose that the Lib Dems serve?
They are the voice of reason amongst all the noise from the UKIP light Tories and SWP Labour. We have never needed them more!
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
I travel daily on the M3 (when I'm not working at home right now), and people just don't understand them. The still seem to think that the 'old' hard shoulder isn't a lane, and so pootle in the 2nd or third land under the speed limit. That causes a great deal more undertaking than would be normal, so increases the risk.
TBH thats not a smart motorway thing, thats a southerners driving thing. Dahn Sarf people are kind enough to have a "northerners only" lane. For whatever reason Lane 1 - or lanes 1 AND 2 when its D4 - is a no go zone on southern motorways.
Its a good progressive way to travel - a steady 65 or so passing underneath two busy lanes bunching to your right.
For which you can be prosecuted if the police are feeling so inclined.
From the Driving test:
"Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right."
This is generally interpreted to be only at low speeds such as in congestion.
And those are the conditions I describe. Congested traffic lanes speeding up and slowing down. Our lane doing a nice steady speed with comfortable braking gaps. Should plod be around I would expect them to be pulling the lunatics driving inches off each other's bumpers in the other lanes.
What is the alternative? That I also disobey the law requiring me to drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking? That I sit in lanes 3 and 4 with tailgating wazzocks? Or sit in lane 1 or two and brake every time traffic to my right brakes because they're all tailgating each other?
This isn't a phenomenon I see much on northern motorways. Southerners don't know how to drive on motorways.
Legally the last.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
I think that the coppers will only nab you when you swap lanes to be in front of the car you just passed on the left.
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
I don't use the slip roads. You need your wits about you on the A1 but at least you know what to expect. You know there is no hard shoulder and to expect tractors etc occasionally and you and other drivers drive accordingly. Motorways without hard shoulders are neither fish nor fowl. It's not just that though, there's something about the M1 that just leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I like the sense of history and romance on the Great North Road too. And the A1 has my favourite road sign, to the Honeypot Lane Industrial Estate.
Local dogging site for gay truckers?
There is a massive "adult" shop a bit further up the A1. I think it adds to the A1's retro charm. Not that I have ever browsed its shelves.
If you want Tories vote Tory. If you don't want Tories and want Labour then vote Labour. If you want to protest and don't want to vote for a party associated with either the Tories or Labour then vote Green or REFUK (what an acronym!).
What is the purpose that the Lib Dems serve?
What if you want sensible economic policies plus internationalism plus an increased focus on the environment plus a firm repudiation of the far right? You don't get that from any other party in England. It might not be a mainstream combination at the moment, but there are some people who want that.
Only one fleg on Hancock's mask on Sky News. He must fucking despise this country.
Any poppy lapel pin?
Rainbow NHS badge only. Loves the LGBTQ+ community and socialised medicine but hates fallen heroes.
Don't ask why (I've no idea) but I watched the first half hour of Saving Private Ryan again last night.
Still arguably the best opening to a film of any kind and def of a war film.
9 Rota must have the best ending of any war film. It's a very accurate portrayal of what an extended contact is really like - shouted gibberish and total carnage.
Only one fleg on Hancock's mask on Sky News. He must fucking despise this country.
Any poppy lapel pin?
Rainbow NHS badge only. Loves the LGBTQ+ community and socialised medicine but hates fallen heroes.
Don't ask why (I've no idea) but I watched the first half hour of Saving Private Ryan again last night.
Still arguably the best opening to a film of any kind and def of a war film.
9 Rota must have the best ending of any war film. It's a very accurate portrayal of what an extended contact is really like - shouted gibberish and total carnage.
You really can tell a Meeks article by the title. Only on Planet Meeks would a country disengage from a relationship with the leader of America. I remember when Blair restrained Bush from his excesses - the sensible if not successful course of action for our national interest was to engage as best as possible.
Wait a minute, BJ and co were engaging with Trump?! It seems like I was only just reading that they were pretty much against him and all he stands for. It’s so hard to keep up..
Changing topic slightly, LBC discussing Smart Motorways. There have been a number of horror smashes on these, and frankly it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone other than the DfT and ministers.
When they trialled the concept on the M42 there was a switchable hard shoulder - a solid white line which was turned into a live lane when busy. A lot of cameras, signs on regular gantries. And its lit. Reasonably safe.
And yet the concept has been used and abused to become cheap widening so that as an example the M1 goes from dual 3 plus hard shoulders to dual 4 without shoulders. Had they used the original system (as they have on the M62 in West Yorkshire) and had a switchable hard shoulder then they would be safer.
The danger is when you have 4 running lanes, few refuges, no lights and no overhead signs. They could make a MASSIVE improvement to safety by painting a solid line back in. Psychologically people will not drive in that lane without the signs saying its open, which only happens when its really busy and when there aren't broken down vehicles...
Oh wow, really?
That’s what being away for a while does to you, I’d assumed they were all like the M42, which worked pretty well once people were used to it. The difficulties arose at the junctions, where the hard shoulder was often a must exit lane, so there was a bit of shuffling as people moved right to stay on the motorway.
The problems come with people who don’t do 50k miles a year as I used to, and are not comfortable with the changes compared to a standard motorway. Foreign lorries were always a problem, as they never knew which lane to be in. I imagine there’s a lot more of them around now, than there were 15 years ago when I was pounding the motorways.
If the smart motorways are to work safely, they need to be properly lit up, with CCTV everywhere, the control room quick to respond to incidents, and plenty of recovery trucks around to scrape up breakdowns.
Take a look at this stretch of the M1 as highlighted by @TheScreamingEagles . This is a mile north of the Meadowhall junction, a suburban motorway carrying long distance as well as local traffic. No hard shoulder. No lights. No gantry signs. Whats more its inbetween two exits all of 2.5 miles apart.
To the south is J34. Major weaving southbound to the Meadowhall exit which queues back onto the carriageway when something happens on one of the roundabouts. Northbound joining traffic at runs up a steep long 2 lane slip which merges into 1 lane which becomes lane 1. On a blind brow as steep uphill becomes steep downhill.
In short its a death trap. No shoulder. No lights. Minimal cameras and signs. No emergency refuges. And they call it "Smart"
I try to avoid the M1; go M11, A14 and A1 when heading north. M1 just makes me uncomfortable.
The A1 is surely even worse? You can have tractors and all sorts of stuff on there, the sight lines aren't great, and some of the slip roads are ridiculously short.
At least they've removed the cross junctions, I suppose.
From the M62 north is it much improved though. The North Yorkshire section used to be exciting in the dark.
I don't use the slip roads. You need your wits about you on the A1 but at least you know what to expect. You know there is no hard shoulder and to expect tractors etc occasionally and you and other drivers drive accordingly. Motorways without hard shoulders are neither fish nor fowl. It's not just that though, there's something about the M1 that just leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I like the sense of history and romance on the Great North Road too. And the A1 has my favourite road sign, to the Honeypot Lane Industrial Estate.
Local dogging site for gay truckers?
There is a massive "adult" shop a bit further up the A1. I think it adds to the A1's retro charm. Not that I have ever browsed its shelves.
There was a Radio 4 programme all about the reasons for that (there's more than one shop). They were all a "Little Chef" in times gone by.
Comments
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9161261/Half-million-police-officers-teachers-jump-queue-Covid-19-vaccine.html
And quite right too - shop workers, police and teachers should have priority.
In the late 80s I worked emergency motorway maintenance for South Yorkshire. We were sent out alongside the police to make roads safe whilst they dealt with accidents. The two commonest causes of accidents by miles were people not understanding road conditions - mostly skid pan effects after light rain on hot roads in the summer - and people undertaking just as cars were pulling in and couldn't see them. The law was very clear in those instances. It was the car undertaking that was at fault.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-55708791
When Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu got out to exchange details they were hit by the lorry, and both died at the scene.
What you won't hear is that they shouldn't have stopped (unless you literally can't drive the car). You're supposed to carry on and leave at the next junction and find somewhere safe to pull over. But how many people know to do that? And how many people would assume that the other person was doing a runner?
When it doesn't matter.
I am very comfortable that passing people tailgating whilst driving under the speed limit is not going to get me nicked. Especially as so often I was in lane 1, lane 2 was empty and the loons are crowding lanes 3 and 4.
As for being sideswiped that's what big braking gaps are for. You need to assess vehicles you are about to pass even the ones to your left. Too many people don't have a clue how to read conditions or traffic or other drivers. Witness the various dashcam channels where the crash could have been avoided had the dash cam vehicle actually been awake and aware.
Wetherby was one of the sections I was thinking of - I'd forgotten that was still West Yorkshire as the route crosses in to North Yorkshire before that (heading North).
I wonder when they'll replace the Doncaster section?
The high level bridges will be the hard part I suppose. The Went bridge is a listed structure...
No criticism, just an observation.
It is a death trap.
It's made worse by the fact that the controller puts up random speed limits and lane closures apparently to show they can, so people ignore them. And then, on one memorable occasion as I was passing, find there really is a heavy lorry stuck in the left hand lane after all.
I thought that would be a requirement for continued employment.
Never happened to me, but I once had a very near miss while driving through Sandwell.
I live about 5 miles from there.
Would expect the Amber rain warning this week to slow things down compared to where they would otherwise be, but no sign of a big freeze coming after the SSW.
Sorry - but, cry me a river.
I'd say adjust expenditure to match the market revenue.
Not even slightly a football fan, I'm afraid,
Oh go on then (collects car keys...)
My best guess is that those refusing will have already had Covid and consequently feel that they are already adequately protected, but I`m just guessing.
The extreme would be when there are stop start queues and an inside lane is moving when an outside one is not. But what about when traffic is moving at around 60mph in all three lanes amidst general congestion - if the outside lane slows to 50 do the other two inside lanes have to slow as well?
I think in practice there's a grey area which can't be easily defined in law and it is down to the common sense of the driver.
Just sayin'.....
It`s irritating because I used to clip along there at a steady 85 mph along with the rest, the ambient speed in the fastest lane.
Now one doesn`t know whether the cameras are on or not. Often no limit is stated so you may assume that the cameras are switched off but you cannot be sure.
Consequently, 70 mph tends now to be the ambient speed even when traffic light and road dry. Maybe this uncertainty is deliberate?
Especially when there has never been any education campaign on how to drive on a "Smart" Motorway
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1351488108462800896
Quite interested how TUs would approach that. The RCN are trying to dance on 2 separate pinheads, of duty to safety and right of conscience. I don't envy them trying to resolve that:
"Flu jab: every nurse’s moral duty, or no one’s business but yours?"
https://rcni.com/nursing-standard/newsroom/analysis/flu-jab-every-nurses-moral-duty-or-no-ones-business-yours-153221
I saw the comment around a clause in the Equality Act that he thought would allow force majeure overriding of the act. But I'm interested.
For Drs, that would potentially impinge on the Hippocratic Oath.
"Members" ... he he ...
You?
It says congested and similar speeds, that is congested and similar speeds - I don't see it saying slow-moving congested only. If the car ahead of me is doing 70 then I'm doing 70 too.
Still arguably the best opening to a film of any kind and def of a war film.
If you want Tories vote Tory. If you don't want Tories and want Labour then vote Labour. If you want to protest and don't want to vote for a party associated with either the Tories or Labour then vote Green or REFUK (what an acronym!).
What is the purpose that the Lib Dems serve?
Neither had noticed the other, and they met in the middle with a crunch, then both went off down the way they didn't want to go.
You don't get that from any other party in England. It might not be a mainstream combination at the moment, but there are some people who want that.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1351349524384669698?s=20
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/usercode.py?scotcontrol=Y&CON=38&LAB=39&LIB=5&Brexit=3&Green=6&UKIP=&TVCON=&TVLAB=&TVLIB=&TVBrexit=&TVGreen=&TVUKIP=&SCOTCON=20.5&SCOTLAB=20.5&SCOTLIB=5.5&SCOTBrexit=0&SCOTGreen=2.5&SCOTUKIP=&SCOTNAT=50.5&display=AllChanged&regorseat=(none)&boundary=2019
So Tories largest party in a hung parliament but Starmer UK PM with SNP support
Fortunately for only one more day.
I'm not sure which is/was worse.