I’m actually putting this up in the hope someone will read it whether an LB member or just shows up in general on the Internet!
If you have had to stop, then feel you will carry on, PLEASE get up to speed in the hard shoulder before pulling back on.
This morning as i’m doing 70mph and on the outside lane, I see a stationary car on the hard shoulder, it then indicates and pulls straight into my lane from a standing start.
I had just enough time to move over! but the Van behind very nearly ploughed into the car as he had no where to go and a lot of speed to shed.
I would see the above as common sense, but I don’t think we are all gifted with this trait which was quiet clear for all to see this morning! so as mentioned, hopefully someone will see this one day and could save someones life…..
I bet that was a shot of adrenalin. Probably someone who was never taught how to drive on the motorway. I’ve seen people stopped at the end of a slip road with their indictor on too.
The sheer lack of motorway discipline I see every day is absurd, I really do think they need to make motorways part of the actual driving test, or even if the made the pass plus (or whatever it might be called now) a mandatory part of getting your license it could save a lot of time, effort, stress and lives.
Another reason not to like ‘smart’ motorways. They have short emergency bays but you then have to pull out into a live lane without the chance to get up to motorway speed.
The same has happened to me. Ironically it happened back in the day I had a reputation for not exactly adhering to speed limits and on that particular day I had time to spare and decided to be a good boy, slow down, and behave in lane 1.
Then I nearly got wiped out, as above.
I decided it was safer to ‘make progress’ in lanes 2 and 3.
On my section of smart Motorways they immediately close lane 1and the cameras are in permanent operation.
The KSI rate is down something like 85% compared to non smart Motorway’s and most issues occur simply because 99% of people have no idea how to drive on a Motorway.
I could bang on about Smart Motorway’s positively for hours but you would soon get very bored, but suffice to say that most people who slag them off have never worked on them, have no understanding of them and have been sucked in by the drivel that has been written about them,
There are issues regarding some of the older smart motorways such as the M42 in the West Midlands, but the newer ones such as the M4 and M£ do not have the same issues.
Back to the original point made, even when I used to stop someone on the Motorway for whatever reason, the driver would be instructed to build up speed on the shoulder to match main carriageway speed before merging back into the main flow of traffic.
How many listened? Very few.
How many drivers and riders show good lane discipline? Very few.
What makes it worse that driving instructors are allowed to take learners onto the motorway, but they know even less as a professional but are allowed to charge silly money.
My brother in law is an ADI. I spent a whole day teaching him about motorway driving and he struggled (and still does which is why he keeps bending my ear for advice) but the point is many ADI’s have the same lack of knowledge and are considered experts.
The camera’s are used to enforce and many a driver has received an NIP for failing to comply (same with speed limits) which are different to standard matrix warnings which are advisory only and are not monitored, and action can only be taken for careless of dangerous driving if a driver is seen by a Traffic cop to be blatantly ignoring said matrix.
