Plans to use the hard shoulder on busy motorways!

[Julia]

The full story is here, http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1307834,00.html?f=rss personally I think this is a daft idea, how will the emergency services get through in the event of an accident or emergency situation if the hard shoulder is full of vehicles?

[xx_chickie]

It's ridiculous! How could the idea of compromising driver safety to save a few minutes in a traffic jam be a good idea?

[Boozeburglar]

The tests so far have apparently not supported the idea that it compromises safety.

Personally, I don't like the idea at all.

When I have to use the hard shoulder I get out of the car and off the motorway completely, it is an inherently dangerous place to be.

We have to do something to get cars off the road.

[xx_chickie]

The tests so far have apparently not supported the idea that it compromises safety.

Be interesting to see a conclusive result :confused

As you said about getting out of the hard shoulder, I agree - would not like to be there longer than necessary.

[skimeister]

Since I have been in the RN, I have driven up and down the M6 and M42 for the last 22 yrs. Recently, the use of the hard shoulder is a chuffing miracle in heavy traffic.

They reduce the lane speed to 50mph and if there is an accident or a breakdown there are emergency layby's every 500 yds and the hard shoulder is closed a minimum of 1 mile back and the signs indicate the same.

It does work and eleviate the dreaded M6 and M42 slog :Razz

[sphinx]

The full story is here, http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1307834,00.html?f=rss (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1307834,00.html?f=rss) personally I think this is a daft idea, how will the emergency services get through in the event of an accident or emergency situation if the hard shoulder is full of vehicles?
some time the goverment bend the rules to suit themselves any other time u would b charged by the police for doing so ....................:D

[percy toboggan]

This is nothing more than a stop-gap measure borne from desperation.
The economy cannot keep growing if it means ever higher traffic levels.
Penalising motorists is unfair because inevitably the poor man will be forced off the road. No easy answer to this but these plans are downright dangerous unless speeds across all lanes, and the shoulder are dramatically reduced.

[Big G]

"The minister also announced that she is looking at options such as having a motorway lane which cannot be used by cars with only one person inside."

WHAT?
Does it matter how many people you have in your car (within the legal amount, ofcourse) as to what lane you use? :confused

[Dusty]

"The minister also announced that she is looking at options such as having a motorway lane which cannot be used by cars with only one person inside."

WHAT?
Does it matter how many people you have in your car (within the legal amount, ofcourse) as to what lane you use? :confused

This is an idea which is in use in parts of the USA where vehicles with (I think) 4 or more people in it are allowed to use a "reserved fast lane" in order to encourage car sharing.

As we are often told and can see for ourselves, how many 4 or 5 seater vehicles are there on the road every day with only the driver in it?

[Julia]

"The minister also announced that she is looking at options such as having a motorway lane which cannot be used by cars with only one person inside."

WHAT?
Does it matter how many people you have in your car (within the legal amount, ofcourse) as to what lane you use? :confused

I so don't agree with restricting cars with only one occupant, we all pay road tax for the privilege of driving on the roads so why shouldn't we use the road the same as everybody else.

[MadPict]

Utter and complete madness...

[Big G]

I so don't agree with restricting cars with only one occupant, we all pay road tax for the privilege of driving on the roads so why shouldn't we use the road the same as everybody else.

Exactly!!!!

[George Brims]

But are you willing to cough up more road tax to build wider and wider roads? The car pool lane is used here in California to (a) cut the total number of cars to clean up the air and (b) cut congestion. In some places the carpool lane rules only apply at peak hours.

Or would you prefer the idea I saw suggested today of having "Lexus lanes" which are express lanes for the rich? We have those here too, as well as commercially-operated toll roads which roughly parallel the other freeways.

The big flaw in the way they do it here is that they widen the road to make the car pool lane, instead of just going out one night and painting on the lane markings and adding signs. So those of us who rideshare to work anyway and would love to use a carpool lane wait two or three years for the new lane to appear and put up with road works all that time. And the people who doggedly insist on their right to take three tons of metal with them wherever they go and not share it with anyone *get a faster commute* because of the carpool people moving out of the original set of lanes, so they're not changing their ways any time soon.

By the way, nowhere in the US does a carpool lane require 4 or 5 people. Most places it just requires more than one. In a very few places it's three or more. Sometimes there are two carpool lanes side by side with the 3 and up lane alongside the 2 and up.

[DeHaviLand]

I wonder how many people in Caithness this is going to affect :D

[Tony]

While in the south of Ireland I noticed the hard shoulder is used for overtaking. If you are driving along and the car behind wants to pass you are obliged to pull over to the left to allow the one behind to overtake. Obviously not a very safe practice judging by the amount of shrines at various points of the road.
Incidentally I notice Dounreay workers have hit the BBC headlines with driving skills.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7276629.stm