AA withdraws breakdown cover from smart motorways (1 Viewer)

[romany]

Just heard this on tv this morning apparently there is a program on 5 talking about this tonight, didn't catch it all but it looks like the AA has stated smart motorways don't work and constitute a life threatening risk to anyone who breaks down or they have to try and recover.
I know when I had a blow out on the M25 breakdown refused to attend until the traffic police were in attendance

 

[Pausim]

The bits of the M25 I use have variable speed limits but are not smart i.e. they still have a hard shoulder. Perhaps the recovery firms are demanding traffic support more widely?

 

[PhilandMena]

Yes! Just saw a clip on the news. Breakdown people go to a safe place and Highways people take vehicle to said safe place.

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[SpeedyDux]

Message to Boris Johnson - instead of HS2 widen the most congested motorways and always keep a hard shoulder.

 

[David and Sally]

I can understand the AA. The M42, and now the M5, near where I live are frightening!

 

[Spriddler]

I agree. If I was a breakdown worker I wouldn't attend a vehicle on a no-hard shoulder motorway. Neither would I work on a vehicle stuck in the inside (aka 'Slow') lane either until it had been moved to a safer place.

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[pagey]

another case of not joined up thinking by the highways people so the not smart motorways are useless a bit like hs2 rock on its only our money

 

[Ivory55]

On paper and if we was all robots it could work, but we are humans and motorway driving is monotonous and people can not concentrate on a boring job.

 

[Sus3v]

we had a tyre hit something on the m25 a couple of years ago by that tall fencing at Chertsey. Unexpectedly Very scary waiting as there was no embankment to climb and we stood between the fence and the Armco barrier. We feared for the recovery bloke who had to change the tyre on the outside with no protection and only a little cone or two. I would not want that job!

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[PhilG]

This is the result of something that anyone with an ounce of common sense could see coming.

However, that appears to have escaped the powers that be.

Now the AA have made this stance, which as an Employer, with a duty of care to their employees, they are duty bound to enforce, if you watch the 'recovery' programs on TV , now they wont operate without lanes being shut, which effectively makes the whole problem worse , not better.

Will be interesting to see the response.

 

[RowleyBirkinQC]

Haven’t the powers that be already acknowledged these so called smart motorways are flawed and potentially unsafe, leading to them ceasing the scheme? Yet they are soldiering on with the M4 conversion regardless...

 

[PhilG]

Haven’t the powers that be already acknowledged these so called smart motorways are flawed and potentially unsafe, leading to them ceasing the scheme? Yet they are soldiering on with the M4 conversion regardless...

It appears 'common sense' isn't that common. It has cost $1.5 billion ( estimate ) so far .. to quote the great Frankie Boyle 'for that much money you could write F%^% Off on the Moon'

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[Wagoneer]

To be fair to the Highway Agencies, widening existing motorways is fraught with problems. Purchasing extra land and widening bridges are the main issues. The land issue can take years to resolve, probably involving a Public Inquiry.

One byproduct of Smart Motorways is the improved monitoring of traffic with variable speed signs.

I'm not saying that Smart Motorways are safer than traditional motorways but given the public demand for greater capacity in the system, it's not surprising the Highway Agencies have taken this route.

The alternative to Smart Motorways is years and years of congestion - take your pick.

Mind you, in 10 years time when Smart Motorways have reached their capacity and slowed to a crawl - what then ? They'll probably be turned into toll roads, to lessen demand

 

[pagey]

To be fair to the Highway Agencies, widening existing motorways is fraught with problems. Purchasing extra land and widening bridges are the main issues. The land issue can take years to resolve, probably involving a Public Inquiry.

One byproduct of Smart Motorways is the improved monitoring of traffic with variable speed signs.

I'm not saying that Smart Motorways are safer than traditional motorways but given the public demand for greater capacity in the system, it's not surprising the Highway Agencies have taken this route.

The alternative to Smart Motorways is years and years of congestion - take your pick.

Mind you, in 10 years time when Smart Motorways have reached their capacity and slowed to a crawl - what then ? They'll probably be turned into toll roads, to lessen demand

easy they will have to put an upstairs on the motorways clockwise on the bottom anticlockwise on the top sorted now where is my pie gone

 

[Theonlysue]

Even the minister responsible for smart roads said he was given info on some low used motorway out of rush hour!
How do these stupid people make these awful life endangering decisions?
They should keep the hard shoulder as such, for emergencies.

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[Kannon Fodda]

I dunno which idiot coined the term Smart. It may somehow describe the technology for the signage and cameras, but in no way does it describe the actual road use. Unless we are all required to have big brother in our vehicles linking controls to some automation the absence of a hard shoulder can never be safe. Having said that is it any worse than many of our dual carriageways where there will not be signage, regular lay bys and such like?

Remember some drivers switched on engine, and switch off brain. They just want to get there, regardless. Signs and rules of the road mean nothing, they just want to get there. We've all been in those queues in restricted lanes when the idiot flies past on the inside or outside way past that red X.

The real issue that no-one seems to have wanted to consider is that many genuine breakdowns, happen with limited warning. The mile and a half or whatever spacing is far too far if all you have got is the momentum of your otherwise dead stick vehicle, and if it were a tyre failure, no hope.

Yes a roadside repair should never have been in the live lane of any motorway, so you'd have to be dragged to a suitable spot, but even hooking up, lifting, or whatever that stranded vehicle will take too much time, and a lot of risk.

It's only surprising that the AA and other breakdown companies have taken so long to make this an official policy.

 

[tonyidle]

A possible long-term solution is smart vehicles that are able to travel autonomously with very small gaps between each vehicle. Two lanes would almost certainly be enough with a third for joining & leaving the "train" and for the rare breakdowns. It may be the one place high speed autonomous vehicles make sense.

 

[gus-lopez]

The mile and a half or whatever spacing is far too far if all you have got is the momentum of your otherwise dead stick vehicle,

That is why here they are every 500m

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[Camdoon]

A possible long-term solution is smart vehicles that are able to travel autonomously with very small gaps between each vehicle. Two lanes would almost certainly be enough with a third for joining & leaving the "train" and for the rare breakdowns. It may be the one place high speed autonomous vehicles make sense.

Just about to write the same thing.
This will happen in most of our lifetimes.

 

[Camdoon]

It is costing £1.5bn to upgrade an A class road to not even motorway standard - 4 years of turmoil and only 21 miles.

A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon - National Highways

The A14 provides a vital road transport corridor between the North, the Midlands and the East of England, and is of local, regional, national and international significance.

highwaysengland.co.uk

 

[maison]

Yesterday, heading from South Wales to the Scottish Border we were in fog on the M5 and M6 for well over one hundred miles.

It was noticeable that many drivers, myself included, avoided the previous hard shoulder, now a motorway lane, on the smart sections.

The thought of coming across a stationary vehicle in your path, or being that vehicle in some-one else’s way, in fog, was worrying enough to try to avoid it.

We are simply not accustomed to having stationary vehicles in a driving lane. Smart Motorways are an accident waiting to happen.

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[Ivory55]

Didn’t they float the idea of an M25 bypass from the M20 round to the M4 at one time.

 

[tacr2man]

What is so smart about moving more vehicles quicker to the next bottleneck ?
I live near J10 of the M40 every morning and evening there are queues where 5 lanes are trying to get into two or three depending on direction , needless to say it doesn't work well

 

[Ivory55]

What is so smart about moving more vehicles quicker to the next bottleneck ?
I live near J10 of the M40 every morning and evening there are queues where 5 lanes are trying to get into two or three depending on direction , needless to say it doesn't work well

Basically to many people in to smaller space. But nobody is brave enough to admit it.

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[Deneb]

The government was told that smart motorways would result in more fatalities by the police when they were first considered many years ago. They decided that the projected increase was acceptable balanced against the increased traffic capacity and ease of widening

 

[7735]

If I was a driver with a baby in the car I would not use a smart motorway, can you imagine breaking down on even the inside lane, getting your baby and pram out in a live lane and then having to push the pram and baby perhaps a mile along the motorway to a safe place.
spongy

 

[PeteH]

Removing the "hard shoulder" also makes it far harder for emergency services to reach an RTA!. That was also one on the reasoning's for their construction in the first place!. The RAC where reluctant to carry out a wheel replacement on our R-V on the M25 back in 2008!, when I lost a rear inner. I was asked to drive slowly with an RAC and VOSA escort to J8 and into a lay-by on the Brighton Road, where the tyre was changed.

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[Ivory55]

Removing the "hard shoulder" also makes it far harder for emergency services to reach an RTA!. That was also one on the reasoning's for their construction in the first place!. The RAC where reluctant to carry out a wheel replacement on our R-V on the M25 back in 2008!, when I lost a rear inner. I was asked to drive slowly with an RAC and VOSA escort to J8 and into a lay-by on the Brighton Road, where the tyre was changed.

If it’s hgv wheel change they often shut a lane even with a hard shoulder

 

[TheBig1]

recovering broken down cars can be made easier using the American trucks with automated lift. Back up to disabled vehicle with towing boom lowered to the ground. arms then power out and lock round front tyres. lift boom and drive on. It takes a skilled operator 20 seconds to hitch and drag a car. a skill sharpened by repossessing cars from delinquent payers, some with guns

 

[romany]

That is why here they are every 500m

They were supposed to be here as well Gus but was overruled as not necessary translated too expensive

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