Problems with the road network

[Lawrie]

Wasn't it the Newbury bypass, where they had to relocate a near extinct snail?  They were moved to a place that had millions of them.  And my wife has been lost on the Robin Hood roundabout twice, so won't go near it.

But I don't understand why people can't drive in a straight line up the A34 either

[Thrustyjust]

12 minutes ago, Lawrie said:

Wasn't it the Newbury bypass, where they had to relocate a near extinct snail?  They were moved to a place that had millions of them.  And my wife has been lost on the Robin Hood roundabout twice, so won't go near it.

But I don't understand why people can't drive in a straight line up the A34 either

Yep thats the one and sadly the snail didnt survive, but we had the joys of Swampy hanging like a baboon from the trees for a while, which was a bonus as the DSS had to hand deliver 'his benefits' at the tree as he couldnt collect it, or the tree would be chopped down 

The A34 is a major trunk road , which has the talent of all the foreign LHD truckers , fresh from the bar from the ferry at Portsmouth, swiping out innocent punters , who thought they would have a peaceful journey.

[neptune]

I live in Northampton and my folks near nottingham. For most of the past 5 years the M1 from j16 to the M6 has been 50mph and narrow lanes due to smart motorway improvements. It was reopened in nov 17 and the benefit for all those years of disruption ....  signs that tell us to take a break or dont drink and drive and the loss of the hard shoulder.  

Sadly government has a history of mis managing technology projects. By the time these smarts roads are completed the technology will be obsolete.  

My sat nav provides more accurate, more specific and relavent info to me than any smart network can currently.

20 plus years ago traffic master installed sensors on virtually all motorways in just a few years which provided real time traffic data which they sold to major car manufacturers.  Demonstration that viable commercial projects can deliver much more effeciently than governments. 

If government is to focus on tech then they should consult tom tom , google etc and focus on data collection and provision of that data to commercial business who are much better placed to distribute it via apps or products that end users have confidence in. After all the next generation of vehicles will  have the tech to display all the info we need, so why waste money on electronic signs on motorways when the vehicles can already display it? 

[DamperMan]

2 hours ago, Thrustyjust said:

The recent Newbury Bypass was built and has the worlds shortest slip roads to be able to join a 70 mph carriageway. If you 'attempt' to join in our 1ltr Skoda, you would be at 45mph before the chevrons. Even in our Volvo we would just scrape 60 mph. Whoever designed those need there brain cell extracted. 

That makes me chuckle.. A little further south joining from the a303 to head north in our camper was a challenge before the engine upgrade.  We’d use the door handles as stabilisers to enter the slip road and continue to decelerate!  up the slip road while hoping a space would open up. 

[Thrustyjust]

24 minutes ago, DamperMan said:

That makes me chuckle.. A little further south joining from the a303 to head north in our camper was a challenge before the engine upgrade.  We’d use the door handles as stabilisers to enter the slip road and continue to decelerate!  up the slip road while hoping a space would open up. 

Very true Tony. Its where they put a hairpin turn on a 1 in 5 hill for all those hippies fresh from Stonehenge solstices in their variety of 50 year old buses and mk 1 micras blackening the local scenery with smog 

[tolf]

Dont tell us on the overhead gantry signs  CAUTION QUEUE

we know, we are sitting in the bl**** queue!

 

[XTR2Turbo]

on Smart motorways driving through a red cross should result in photo taken and points. 

huge investment in motorway exits.  On most motorways the exits at peak times backing onto the main motorway are what cause the issues.  replace roundabouts with proper slip exits and underpasses etc

use google map data not humans and sensors in the road to set variable speeds

Any vehicle exceeding 3.5 tonnes should be excluded from outside lane.  

Add crawler lanes to any uphill section where lorry speeds might drop below 50 mph

tailgating cameras - they have them in Germany - main issue is lorries in 50 mph sections

[XTR2Turbo]

I don't agree with undertaking .. you have a larger blind spot in your mirrors when pulling to the left so more likely not to see a car undertaking you if changing lanes to left

it is. Correct to overtake and pull left 

the problem is poor lane discipline mainly as a result of the low speed limits we have. 

[Thrustyjust]

7 hours ago, XTR2Turbo said:

on Smart motorways driving through a red cross should result in photo taken and points. 

huge investment in motorway exits.  On most motorways the exits at peak times backing onto the main motorway are what cause the issues.  replace roundabouts with proper slip exits and underpasses etc

use google map data not humans and sensors in the road to set variable speeds

Any vehicle exceeding 3.5 tonnes should be excluded from outside lane.  

Add crawler lanes to any uphill section where lorry speeds might drop below 50 mph

tailgating cameras - they have them in Germany - main issue is lorries in 50 mph sections

Red crosses are great, but in peak times , how many cars will pass the gantry, if an incident has happened between that and the next gantry. Could be hundreds , to face an incident unknown and trust in red crosses to say its all safe. As the cars cant move now to the hard shoulder, means they will stay in live lanes. Same theory on peoples brains relying on sat navs and going through our local 4ft deep ford without thinking and writing their cars off. Cant think why Copart have a depot just up the road from there. Lots of people who drive are stupid and you have to consider that these stupid people dont have a glimmer of common sense to think whats going on around them. 

[DamperMan]

The principle of smart motorways, throttling flow before bottlenecks to keep traffic moving and prevent accidents is good.   Just not sure how well it’s operated.  There’s always invisible debris , etc!   .   Training lorries together sounds a nightmare if your unlucky enough to want to join the motorway.  If they uncouple at every junction it will hardly be worth doing.

Better use of the motorways and better driver training would go a long way towards better flow and safer roads. 

[Steve (sdh2903)]

On 23/01/2018 at 21:20, corsechris said:

I second the vote to allow passing both sides on motorways. If our American cousins can cope, I'm sure we could.

I couldn't disagree more. The level of driving ability witnessed whilst driving in the US makes me shudder at this. The amount of near misses you see because of the non existent lane discipline is unbelievable. 

Lane discipline needs to be toughened up on. Enforce the middle lane idiots with a fixed penalty.

[corsechris]

I think their standards are generally just poor, not specifically the lane discipline. I don't mind the Interstates myself, I find them less stressful than a typical UK motorway for some reason.

I quite agree about enforcing the rules we do have though. Middle lane hogs and tailgaters are my particular pet hates. Undertaking in this country is much more dangerous because people don't expect it.

Given a long hard look, I strongly suspect that most of the issues simply come down to bad driving and I can see little that road technology can do to help with that.

All the gadgets you like, in the car or on the roads, only serve to desensitise drivers even more. I've heard tell of folk regularly using their adaptive cruise control and lane control assist etc to drive for them. They don't even bother to brake, leaving that up to the active brake assist. 

 

[XTR2Turbo]

6 hours ago, Thrustyjust said:

Red crosses are great, but in peak times , how many cars will pass the gantry, if an incident has happened between that and the next gantry. 

My point is different.  On the M25 cars stream through ignoring red crosses.

As the gantries have cameras I don't see why they are not being flashed

[Stuart]

3 hours ago, corsechris said:

I've heard tell of folk regularly using their adaptive cruise control and lane control assist etc to drive for them. They don't even bother to brake, leaving that up to the active brake assist.

Bloke I know did that all the time; then when the dealer gave him a service loan car without it he crashed into another car at the very first roundabout 

[Blatman]

6 hours ago, corsechris said:

I think their standards are generally just poor, not specifically the lane discipline. I don't mind the Interstates myself, I find them less stressful than a typical UK motorway for some reason.

I quite agree about enforcing the rules we do have though. Middle lane hogs and tailgaters are my particular pet hates. Undertaking in this country is much more dangerous because people don't expect it.

Given a long hard look, I strongly suspect that most of the issues simply come down to bad driving and I can see little that road technology can do to help with that.

All the gadgets you like, in the car or on the roads, only serve to desensitise drivers even more. I've heard tell of folk regularly using their adaptive cruise control and lane control assist etc to drive for them. They don't even bother to brake, leaving that up to the active brake assist. 

 

I say make it legal because middle lane hoggers do just that, They sit in the middle lane no matter what. Until they need to leave when they wait until the 100 meter board and dive across 2 lanes. They're going to crash at some point. Lets have legislation that makes it harder for then to blame an innocent party who happens to be obeying lane discipline.