Re:UK government scraps all smart motorway plans
by adhesive_wombat on Sunday April 16, 2023 @09:12AM
(#35589764)
From daily experience of 10 miles of the M25, the all-lane-running has had a broken-down car in a live lane (i.e. the lane is not closed with a red X) about twice a year for me.
Also there are vague electronic signs saying "reports of obstruction", "report of blocked lane" or "reports of pedestrians" with no further actions (like a lane closure) maybe twice a week. There very rarely actually is an obstruction to be seen in the end, so the signs get ignored, even when there is an actually dangerous hazard like a car in the middle of a lane.
> British drivers have terrible lane discipline on motorways
They certainly do. They even made it illegal a few years ago, but it's virtually never enforced. For a start, there aren't very many road police to enforce it.
A small but significant number of people also completely disregard the red X markers and zoom down closed lanes towards, presumably since they don't usually do the red X for fun, a broken down vehicle or accident. This is very much illegal (though it's only a £100 fine), but again seems not to be enforced sufficiently to prevent it.
Also there are vague electronic signs saying "reports of obstruction", "report of blocked lane" or "reports of pedestrians" with no further actions (like a lane closure) maybe twice a week. There very rarely actually is an obstruction to be seen in the end, so the signs get ignored, even when there is an actually dangerous hazard like a car in the middle of a lane.
> British drivers have terrible lane discipline on motorways
They certainly do. They even made it illegal a few years ago, but it's virtually never enforced. For a start, there aren't very many road police to enforce it.
A small but significant number of people also completely disregard the red X markers and zoom down closed lanes towards, presumably since they don't usually do the red X for fun, a broken down vehicle or accident. This is very much illegal (though it's only a £100 fine), but again seems not to be enforced sufficiently to prevent it.