Smart Motorways

[steve2006]

Once again this evening the usual overhead speed limit signs were illuminated on the M1 between junctions 25 and 28, we were all reduced to 60 even though there were no queues and lane 4 was almost empty of the usual german vehicles that tend to frequent the lane.

I have now worked out that the word SMART stands for Start Making Additional Revenue Today!

[steveledzep]

Shaft Motorists Achieve Revenue Targets.

Unlike you Steve, I have nothing against those German vehicles.....it's the arrogant, selfish drivers of said vehicles I can't stand. 

[Verbout]

Yep, it's the drivers that are the tw@s, not the cars.

[rayaans]

I never understood these - Ive never slowed down for them and also never got any fines. They seem to go off after a few miles anyway... odd

[gdh300]

Having had a bit of involvement in traffic modelling, 'smart' motorways do work; in theory. How it's applied by humans, that's a different matter...

As for German cars, yes they do seem to exclusively occupy the outside lane which is clearly the responsibility of the b*ll*nds that drive them. Worry though that they will soon be autonomous and self-aware (God help us, can you imagine the algorithm they are working on?). However, what I object to with German cars is the myth - endlessly perpetuated by the motoring press and lovingly reinforced by the manufacturers - that their 'perceived quality' is considered the same as actual 'quality'; pure showroom showmanship. Read a few pages of Honest John's (award winning) website and you can see the difference between soft touch plastics and real engineering quality. IS or A4? No contest.

[rayaans]

The way I see it, lowering speed limits just causes congestion. If the speed limit is 100mph, there is a greater gap between the slowest trucks, cars at 70-80 and those at 100mph.

With smart motorways all you see is 60 or 50mph and everyone is going at the same speed with a lot more congestion and personally it requires much more concentration for me in these situations compared to going at higher speeds.

[Assa1974]

I live a few miles off the smart section of the M42. Congestion is far better along the section than it was before. There are occassions when the speed limit is on despite no apparent congestion but that's usually to regulate the flow of traffic towards a congestion bottle-neck a few miles further on. I also use the M25 around Heathrow a lot. That is much. much better with the smart system than it was before. I'm a big fan. The cameras are usually set a good 15-20mph above the signalled limit anyway so it's not about revenues.

[steve2006]

Talking of the M42, at the other end where it joins the M1 as the A42 there is a matrix sign which commonly has the following display

M1 1 MILES 2 MINUTES.

A little embarrassing that a government department can't be grammatically correct.

[Assa1974]

A little embarrassing that a sign is being used to give travel info for a junction that is 1 mile away and presumably there's no alternative route by then!

[rayaans]

They always seem to put speed restrictions for no reason. No crashes, no roadworks etc etc they're just there

[Linas.P]

I was attending Speed Awareness Course recently ... usual bu***** telling that car takes 96m to stop from 70MPH (correct in 1935 thought, when it was tested on cars which could barely reach such speeds). What's more .. they always seems to be stuck with the idea that all cars are the same and if it is true for the car traveling in the first lane at 70mph it is as well true for the car in mid-lane traveling at 85 and the car in the outside lane is again the same just traveling at 100mph. So then they assume that by the time car traveling at 70mph will stop, the car in outside lane would still be traveling at 78mph..

The presenter got quite upset when I pointed out that "if car in outside lane is ... lets say Porsche or McLaren - it could probably stop twice quicker than both other cars and would have some time to spare"... My point - 70mph speed limit for modern car is utter nonsense, even bigger nonsense is to apply it to all cars regardless of their actual capabilities .. both to accelerate and to stop.

When it comes to SMART money making machine... it is possible that it works in certain isolated cases, but in majority of the cases it only creates unnecessary congestion and queues, and lets not forget pollution. It works very well to cover up total failure to invest in crucial infrastructure as well... yes it does help to slow down the traffic coming towards "bottle neck"... BUT wait... what is "bottle neck"... it is simple road network planning failure which meant to be improved, but isn't and never will be... just because there is SMART way to slow everyone down and "save" money on otherwise crucial projects and maybe as well generate some revenue for more SMART madness to be installed... so we can safely do 20mph on motorways. It does save some embarrassment for government, what it doesn't do.. it doesn't save our time, our taxes and our money.