There are currently 44 stretches of smart motorway in operation or under construction in England, but do you think the hard shoulder should be reinstated? Vote below.
10 thoughts on “POLL: Would you welcome the end of smart motorways in the UK?”
Paul Houghton
I have contacted both my MP’s (con lab) as well as Highways Agency and have asked this question:
As a motorcycle user of over 40yrs and regular user of the motorway what can they suggest I should do if I break down in a live lane?
(I have broke down twice before in the past and it’s not that nice experience)
Answer was, both MP’s quoted Highways information, “go left, or keep in your car with seat belt on ect”
though pointing out I am a motorcycle rider, no one could offer any helpful information I presume is that they don’t know.
Now if I have to access a motorway I only keep in the lane on the left just in case.
People need to be educated how to use a motorway properly by using lane courtesy. Driving with an instructor on a motorway should be part of a driving test then nobody would have an excuse for not knowing that there is one lane on a 3 or 4 lane motorway and the others are for overtaking only.
I think Claire deserves serious recognition for the tireless way she has battled on this issue.
Our leaders instead of acknowledging the serious danger of these smart motorways spent their time belittling Claire and producing ridiculous arguments both in the the House of Commons and House of Lords.
No one in the Civil Service who pushed this scheme has been punished….in fact they have promoted and given awards. Disgusting!!!
It’s not just the road users affected, the emergency services are put at terrible risk.
Well done Claire. You are a hero to have the strength to keep going.
I am so pleased someone is standing up to these stupid dangerous motorways. The speed rules change, lanes come to an end. And no hard shoulder. Well done for what you are doing and I am so sorry for the loss you had to endure in order to get the government to listen.
How can I get involved and help
Under Common Law, as explained by Richard Vobes on You Tube, individual public officials can be held personally liable for any harm they cause to others through their negligent policies. Can this be investigated as a way of stopping all “smart” motorways and bringing our public officials back into public accountability?
The reason for hard shoulders in the first place us to provide a safe refuge for vehicle drivers broken down and to prevent collisions and deaths that would otherwise be caused. The idea of making these a live lane that can be “switched off” with overhead warning signs dies not work because the techmology thats supposed to enable this cannot respond quickly enough to a vehicle breaking down and drivers either do not pay attention to the signs or cannot react quickly enough to avoid a broken down vehicle and even if they do they are risking causing am accident by suddenly changing lane, especially a string of vehicles in succession. Alp the government has not put the safety lay-bys in at anywhere near the distance between them as recommended in the initial feasibility study, they are about four times the distance apart, to save cost, so you have little chance of cruising safely into these if your engine cuts out. At the very least they need to introduce many more safety lay bys to existing smart mortorways but really they need to reinstate the hard shoulders. Better to be late than dead.
I am completely opposed to Smart motorways as I think that they are very dangerous.
I live in Manchester and until the death of my father in 2021 used to commute regularly to Crewe using the M56 and M6 junctions 19 to 16 which is a Smart motorway.
On one of my journeys I had an issue with my car which rendered my vehicle undrivable. Fortunately this happened on the M56 which had a hard shoulder so I was able to stop safely. Had the same problem happened on the M6 with no hard shoulder I don’t think that I would have been so lucky due amongst other things to the volume of traffic.
We were travelling along the M5 last Thursday evening on our way back from holiday when the car lost all power, I was fortunately able to pull into the hard shoulder 100 yards away from the street h that becomes a smart motorway. As the car had lost all power we were unable to signal or apply hazard lights. The experience was frightening enough being stranded on the hard shoulder, but I have been in a state of shock and realisation that if this had happened 100 yards further on I may not be in a position to write this email.
Smart motorways are NOT smart they are death traps to drivers passengers and emergency response units.
Smart motorway slowed my journey today because of a
stranded vehicle. All traffic backed up because they had to shut that lane. On a motorway with a hard shoulder traffic would not been affected. SMART MOTOWAYS =. DEATH TRAPS.
I think the brainless people didn’t think it through properly. How do they sleep at night.
I have contacted both my MP’s (con lab) as well as Highways Agency and have asked this question:
As a motorcycle user of over 40yrs and regular user of the motorway what can they suggest I should do if I break down in a live lane?
(I have broke down twice before in the past and it’s not that nice experience)
Answer was, both MP’s quoted Highways information, “go left, or keep in your car with seat belt on ect”
though pointing out I am a motorcycle rider, no one could offer any helpful information I presume is that they don’t know.
Now if I have to access a motorway I only keep in the lane on the left just in case.
People need to be educated how to use a motorway properly by using lane courtesy. Driving with an instructor on a motorway should be part of a driving test then nobody would have an excuse for not knowing that there is one lane on a 3 or 4 lane motorway and the others are for overtaking only.
I think Claire deserves serious recognition for the tireless way she has battled on this issue.
Our leaders instead of acknowledging the serious danger of these smart motorways spent their time belittling Claire and producing ridiculous arguments both in the the House of Commons and House of Lords.
No one in the Civil Service who pushed this scheme has been punished….in fact they have promoted and given awards. Disgusting!!!
It’s not just the road users affected, the emergency services are put at terrible risk.
Well done Claire. You are a hero to have the strength to keep going.
I am so pleased someone is standing up to these stupid dangerous motorways. The speed rules change, lanes come to an end. And no hard shoulder. Well done for what you are doing and I am so sorry for the loss you had to endure in order to get the government to listen.
How can I get involved and help
Under Common Law, as explained by Richard Vobes on You Tube, individual public officials can be held personally liable for any harm they cause to others through their negligent policies. Can this be investigated as a way of stopping all “smart” motorways and bringing our public officials back into public accountability?
bd1953@hotmail.com
The reason for hard shoulders in the first place us to provide a safe refuge for vehicle drivers broken down and to prevent collisions and deaths that would otherwise be caused. The idea of making these a live lane that can be “switched off” with overhead warning signs dies not work because the techmology thats supposed to enable this cannot respond quickly enough to a vehicle breaking down and drivers either do not pay attention to the signs or cannot react quickly enough to avoid a broken down vehicle and even if they do they are risking causing am accident by suddenly changing lane, especially a string of vehicles in succession. Alp the government has not put the safety lay-bys in at anywhere near the distance between them as recommended in the initial feasibility study, they are about four times the distance apart, to save cost, so you have little chance of cruising safely into these if your engine cuts out. At the very least they need to introduce many more safety lay bys to existing smart mortorways but really they need to reinstate the hard shoulders. Better to be late than dead.
I am completely opposed to Smart motorways as I think that they are very dangerous.
I live in Manchester and until the death of my father in 2021 used to commute regularly to Crewe using the M56 and M6 junctions 19 to 16 which is a Smart motorway.
On one of my journeys I had an issue with my car which rendered my vehicle undrivable. Fortunately this happened on the M56 which had a hard shoulder so I was able to stop safely. Had the same problem happened on the M6 with no hard shoulder I don’t think that I would have been so lucky due amongst other things to the volume of traffic.
We were travelling along the M5 last Thursday evening on our way back from holiday when the car lost all power, I was fortunately able to pull into the hard shoulder 100 yards away from the street h that becomes a smart motorway. As the car had lost all power we were unable to signal or apply hazard lights. The experience was frightening enough being stranded on the hard shoulder, but I have been in a state of shock and realisation that if this had happened 100 yards further on I may not be in a position to write this email.
Smart motorways are NOT smart they are death traps to drivers passengers and emergency response units.
Smart motorway slowed my journey today because of a
stranded vehicle. All traffic backed up because they had to shut that lane. On a motorway with a hard shoulder traffic would not been affected. SMART MOTOWAYS =. DEATH TRAPS.
I think the brainless people didn’t think it through properly. How do they sleep at night.