Steve wrote:
ed_m wrote:
well thats rather the point of hard shoulder monitoring .... isn't it ?
you don't want cars running on it if theres a stationary vehicle on it.
I have no doubt the monitoring works, but what of the instant when someone breaks down - during that time there is going to be lots of fast traffic in the same lane as one who is stranded. Cue the iffy lane changing and emergency braking.
I guess I'll have to see an actual event to see how it is handled, but until then I remain very sceptical that this is at least as safe as a dedicated breakdown lane.
its actually pretty rare to see a breakdown on the m42 section on the hard shoulder.... most often the vehicle has made it to one of the refuges.
i can understand your concern but ive not seen anything to suggest its any worse than a car breaking down / slowing in L2 or 3 and having to make it to the hard shoulder normally.... or any worse than a line of trucks getting to a slight incline and backing all the traffic up into L3.
so there are the refuges, there's the signage, cameras, in road sensors, there's the typically reduced speed during hard shoulder running anyway, hatos on standby, the fact that most breakdowns will be gradual not dead stops.... quite alot of mitigations.
everyone seems to assume these things haven't been thought about, which i expect to the responsible traffic/highways engineer is quite insulting! that list of mitigations seems to imply it is quite fully thought out.