Casually announced on the news at 10

That the plan to start using the hard shoulder of the motorway as an extra
lane to reduce congestion isn't coming in until *next* year.

Maybe a _Ginge. I dunno.

How are the emergency services going to reach crash scenes when that comes in
then?

 

Bugger. I wish I'd waited.

They'll be using helicopters that run on Red Bull.

 

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. A potential deathtrap.

All they'll end up with is *four* lanes of stationary traffic, with
the cunts weaving about with even more choice of lane to go extremely
slowly in.

They *filter*. I've seen fire engines do it up three lanes of solid
standing traffic on the M1, so I have no doubt they'll do it with four
;-)

 

This struck me too, lots more sudden breaking and lots of extra minor
crashes and sudden jams and lane swappers as people swerve out to get past
overheated/punctured/broken down vehicles. Fancy the walk to the emergency
phone anyone?

True, but still, it's gonna make it tougher as nearside vehicles in
distress can't pull in to anything but up the grass... and back on at at
angle....or down the bank into the field or railway line or whatever.

 

There's stuff about this in the Times today.

Apparently in Holland they have laybys off thee hard shoulder
every 1000m. If you get in trouble when it's in 4-lane mode you
head for one of them.

CCTV watches the hard shoulder, and people in the control room
can operate signs to switch the whole lot back to 3 lanes, AIUI.

*eek*

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Remove location from email address to reply

 

Next year is only 5 weeks away.
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Shit! Blowout. Oh well, I'll just wreck my rim driving another kilometre
at 10mph...
or
****! Blown a rod, I'll just write off the rest of the engine thrashing it
to the next layby...
or
Bollox, steam, never mind, I'll risk a sieze-up pushing it another klik up
this hill...

What do they think this is, air traffic control? It's going to be
interesting to see how effective signage is going to be.

 

Don't the Germans do this sort of thing on the autobahns though?
Little signs light up to tell people they can use the hard shoulder.

 

They're doing that on the M42 near me. But I think it's going to be
permanent four lane and they didn't have enough room to put a full
hard shoulder in.

 

snip

On the up side, now at least you can *expect* cages to be driving along the
hard shoulder : )

This is DoT & Highways Agency responding to the flack from Thursday's Audit
Office report saying they're both a bunch of Monkey Spankers for not sorting
all the congestion then?


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Homer (Simpson).

 

Yep

 

The timing of the announcement might be, but according to the Daily
Bigot
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=178404&in_page_id=1770
it's been on the cards since April 2003.

Why don't they just allow overtaking on left & right hand sides?
Then all 3 lanes would be used and traffic might stand a chance of
moving coherently (I know, I know......................)

 

The official version:
http://www.highways.gov.uk/knowledge/tcc/atm/03.htm

David Kemper

 

I never knew that. Wrong move, IMO. They should sort out the existing
public transport infrastructure before doing shit like this (trains,
buses, etc)

It'll only be just as fowled up again in a few years time.

What a complete **** up of a government. <fx: sigh>

 

Ah right. I was only guessing at the permanent four lane version.

That way makes a lot of sense for the traffic using it.

 

Will people be playing chicken in the motorways lanes or will they have
to duck and dive?

I suppose they might just end up being pheasant to one another if there
is a jam.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggghh

<calm>

 

All it'll do is give the middle-lane fuckwits an extra lane to not use,
like on the M25. What they *should* do is position snipers on motorway
bridges with orders to shoot anyone with bad lane discipline. That
should reduce congestion, & flood the market with used BMWs, albeit
ones with damaged windscreens & a few blood stains.

 

What? You mean it's not allowed now?

It must be, northbound on the M1 last night, it seemed to be
compulsory.

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It will still never be used. Even if it went where you wanted it to
go, when you wanted to go there, at a decent price, most drivers
wouldnt use it.
Have you ever tried getting a bus to Bedford Railway Station?
There isnt one on a sensible route to anywhere else.
Joined up public transport? Nah.

Government, a necessary evil.
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Well this is it, innit. The French railway system is excellent.
Efficient, fast and cheap. I can go from Paris to Tarbes (not far from
the Spanish boarder) in five hours, for £60 return and about 800km of
journey (as it does a bit of a dog leg down south).

The metro/RER system and the bus network, I can't say too much about
[1][2], but one thing is for sure and that is that tickets are dirt
cheap compared to the UK. SWMBO uses the RER to get to work and I think
she pays around ¤90 (£60) per month (for an equivalent of zone 2 or 3
in London, I think) AND she gets half the money back from her company
for the travel. I'm pretty certain that this is a government
requirement for companies to subsidise travel in Paris.

If the system was that efficient in the UK, then I'm sure that it'll be
used more by people.

I'll be a bit quieter now, as I can imagine Paul Corfields blood
pressure rising... ;-)

Let's have anarchy. It couldn't do any worse, atm.

[1] As I'm on two wheels more often than not.
[2] Paul C[3] can.
[3] You know which one I mean.