Ditto, if all motorways are to have this technology, avoiding them will be the the only option.
There are no more smart motorways to be built, radar cameras that should have been installed to quickly detect a broken down vehicle in a live lane, were only fitted on some motorways, but not all, the refuge areas were supposed to be every 500 meters but many were at 1.5 miles away, some as far apart as 2.5 miles, the transport secretary said he was misled by Highways England in the correct requirements of the program.
I hope you’re right. I read recently that they’re planning to extend them!
The law can not be retrospectively changed simply by public sentiment.
It can if the party in government is afraid of losing the next general election!
Very true but I can’t see enough pressure from the great unwashed to be anywhere big enough to be a threat.
BREXIT was a unique case.
While on the subject of BREXIT I see that a guy by the name of Dominic Frisby has published a song for BREXIT to the tune of Widecombe Fair (Old Uncle Tom Cobley an’ All) - tad rude but very telling!
Worth a Google.
So it is only the ‘great unwashed’ who drive on motorways?
I learn something new every day!
Yes. Heard it. It is very pertinent today and, incidentally, a nice tune.
I really must remember that what might be ok in my past isn’t ok now.
I should have written “vox populi”
Sorry, my bad (as my grand son says!)
Oh, that’s OK. I’m one of the great unwashed and I’m not offended!
If it’s called ‘Smart’ ‘Eco’ ‘Energy Saving’ ‘Environmentally Friendly’ ‘Sustainable’ it must be good…Right?
And, let’s not forget, ‘Money Raising’.
I wouldn’t use an electric car on a smart motorway… no way.
Ah yes JB, now we’re getting to the crux of the matter…
I wouldn’t use an electric car anywhere Bread, except for delivering milk and driving round the golf course…
I think smart motorways are a very unsmart idea, and very dangerous too.
Smart motorways plan aims to boost safety
Smart motorways plan aims to boost safety
Under the plan, opening motorway hard shoulders for traffic in busy periods will be scrapped.
On those smart motorways where the hard shoulder has been removed entirely, there will be an increase in the number of places for vehicles to stop in an emergency.
Thirty-eight people have been killed on smart motorways in the last five years.
Announcing the plan to improve smart motorway safety, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he had been “greatly concerned by a number of deaths on smart motorways, and moved by the accounts of families who’ve lost loved ones in these tragic incidents”.
“The overall evidence shows that in most ways smart motorways are as safe or safer than conventional ones - but they are not in every way,” he said.
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request sent by the BBC’s Panorama to Highways England revealed that in one section of the M25, outside London, the number of near misses had risen 20-fold since the hard shoulder was removed in April 2014.
A welcome move but the plan does not go far enough … “smart” motorways will remain in operation … :!:
Smart motorways were introduced with the aim of increasing capacity and easing congestion by using the hard shoulder as an extra lane.
But they have been criticised by the government minister who originally approved the roll-out in 2010.
Speaking to Panorama in January, Sir Mike Penning, who is no longer a minister, said he had been misled about the risks of taking away the hard shoulder.
The Conservative MP said he had agreed to the expansion in 2010 after a successful pilot on the M42 near Birmingham.
The pilot worked well because there were safe stopping points for motorists, called emergency safety refuges, on average every 600 metres.
But when the scheme was expanded across the country, the safety refuges were placed further apart - on some sections, they are 2.5 miles apart.
“They are endangering people’s lives,” said Sir Mike. “There are people that are being killed and seriously injured on these roads, and it should never have happened.”
It’s insanity . If you don’t make a safe zone you are dead.
New “all-lane running” smart motorways have been paused while their safety is assessed, the government has said
Using the hard shoulder as a permanent live traffic lane increases capacity, but critics say it has contributed to road deaths.
Five years of safety and economic data for the schemes will now be collected. However, hard shoulders will not be reinstated on current stretches of all-lane running motorway. The government’s move comes after MPs said in November there was not enough safety and economic data to justify this type of smart motorway.
In the event that a car breaks down on all-lane running smart motorways, drivers are meant to aim for emergency refuge areas. But critics say the schemes can leave cars stranded in fast-moving traffic.
There are about 375 miles of smart motorway, roads which use technology to maintain the flow of traffic and give information on overhead displays, in England, including 235 miles without a hard shoulder.
According to government figures, 38 people were killed on smart motorways between 2014 and 2019.
Common sense prevails … for now … 
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Makes a change, Omah, it’s not an election year is it?? 