Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Smart Motorway - near death experience!

Statistics can be made to prove anything, Now check how many miles of rural roads there are compared to miles of motorways. Don't forget that I patrol motorways on a daily basis and I know where I feel safer.

I think the accepted measure is casualties per passenger mile travelled, isn't it? That way it evens out the densitty and usage pattern of different road types. I don't doubt that you perceive that motorways are dangerous, but as you said you do patrol them and you are attuned to looking for accidents. Sure there are many thousands of miles more rural roads than there are motorways, but the average traffic density is vanishingly small in comparison. But hey, I'm just working from official Government statistics and I presume the Police are the main source of traffic incident reports?

The reason for the enforcement sign is that there was a change in the law from July 2019 so that the Red X was enforced by cameras on the gantries.

I see lots of people jumping queues by entering a Red X lane not knowing the change in the law which was previously ony enforced by the Police

https://www.highwaycivilengineering.co.uk/highways-england-gets-red-x-for-camera-roll-out/

One of the factors is that motorists do not know what the different types of Smart Motorway are and how to use them properly and this is partly due to the Highway Code only just being updated to provide this information.

As the OP says there are barriers and no verges on Smart Motorways so the advice is to get out of your vehicle and over the barrier even if you can get to an Emergency Refuge Area. To push a car 50 yards in a running lane to a ERA must have been a nightmare and highly dangerous.

When you get to an ERA you are told to phone the control centre on the SOS phone and they are supposed to send the Highways Agency to help to you exit the ERA or shut a lane to allow you to exit. It seems in the OPs case that system failed too.

Another problem is that Smart Motorways are supposed to have Standing Traffic Alert to alert the control centre of breakdowns etc but despite this it takes 17 minutes on average for the rescue services to get to you. The reason for STAs is that cameras arenot trained on the spot you are about to breakdown on 24/7 and in some circumstances such as in the dark and in dense fog, cameras are useless or next to useless for locating broken down vehicles.

Also if you break down on a Smart Motorway and you cant get to an ERA or SOS phone you should dial 999 or 112 from your mobile once safely over the barrier.
Use the Driver Location Signs (located every 500 metres in England) to give Motorway, Carriageway and Distance reference or 100 meter marker post info for distance.

Having spent a fair bit of time on Smart Motorways this weekend (visiting the parents in Worcester) I think the majority of motorists think they should drive permanently in lane 3, even if lane 1 and 2 are empty.

But WHY? what the F is this about?? It's so common now, as is pulling out without indicating..............

We are on the M18/M1/A38 every week and it's always the same.

I'm quite pig headed about it. I drive along in Lane 1, indicate and pull into Lane 2 when I meet a slower vehicle then indicate and back into Lane 1 when clear. I tend to ignore the idiots in the other lanes. I'm not going from Lane 1 to Lane 4 just to get round them.

I've done that a time or two.
I've never really bothered about indicating to pull back in, but now with traffic density, it becomes more of a safety issue.

Indicate if your intentions will affect another driver. If there's no-one behind you, indication is not required, unless at a roundabout, once you have passed someone, there is a driver behind you!

The MLOG (Middle Lane Owners Group) have come out to play. They are an exclusive bunch. Too idle to monitor the traffic around them and move back into a more appropriate lane.

I find them infuriating. Cruising along in lane 3 or 4 of the M1 and effectively halving the capacity of the road.