Smart motorways drive away classic car owners?

[hanlminiman]

I wouldn't want to be an AA man recovering a car from a two lane dualled A road either.
My point is Smart Motorways are no more dangerous than any other non-Motorway dual carriageway, but they do have monitored CCTV and overhead illuminated signage.
PS I don't think the AA would recover you from a live lane, I think they would wait for the Highways Agency people to tow you to a place of safety.

Many years ago I broke down in my recently restored Mini with a lack of spark but managed to pull off onto the hard shoulder of the M25 just beyond the A10 tunnel going anti clockwise around the right hand bend - during rush hour at dusk. I was terrified so called the AA and stayed well back behind the Armco. The patrol man arrived very quickly and was very upset that he could not fix the problem on the hard shoulder and decided to tow the car to the next junction on a fixed bar behind his van. Luckily, I was able to get him to tow the car to a friend's garage in Potter's Bar. I'll never forget that journey - no vision other than 2 yellow doors. It turned out that when the sheath was cut it also nipped the positive and negative wires which we only identified in the dark garage when we tried to start it causing a short.
My friend was also my navigator and we also broke down with no clutch on the M5 as we entered a roadwork section in Somerset, but I could negotiate between the cones, as I was used to doing that on the rally we had retired from with clutch selection problems.(Pivot mount for clutch arm broke!)
The moral of my story is that if we all wish to enjoy driving our Minis on all types of roads we should at least add hazard lights and perhaps a high intensity brake light like the last 500 Rover Mini Coopers.
To conclude. Last time I took my 1997 mpi for its MOT it spluttered and the engine stopped on the way on a country lane with "white van man" in close pursuit. Luckily the hazard warning light switch worked and I was safe.
Wishing you all a very safe 2023. Keep your wheels in line and accelerate out of danger, if appropriate.
Cliff
ps I will always remember a road trip back from a very icy sideways moment in the mountains near Geneva in 1973 returning from a ski resort. On the motorway approaching Geneva, at motorway speeds, the traffic suddenly stopped ahead of us and my Norwegian driver/host braked hard and hit the hazard switch at the same time. The following cars knew exactly what to do.
pps Maybe periodic driving assessment tests is the way forward rather than the current "I've passed my test so I know how to drive" mentality.

[mab01uk]

It does not matter what way you spin it, the occupants of a broken down stationary car sitting in a motorway live lane are in much more danger of being rear ended than on an old style hard shoulder......a red cross sign is not going to ensure your safety.....no matter how much re-training of drivers there will be plenty who never have a clue and some car/lorry drivers will still be texting, etc...the Police were on TV recently in a special lorry to catch HGV drivers on camera at the same cab height, some were caught watching movies on laptops while driving!
I believe electric vehicles come to a complete stop when broken down and then have to be lifted by a suitable rescue vehicle which won't help matters...
The AA, RAC rescue services and most Police motorway patrols are against smart motorways and think they are dangerous, not to mention the delays for emergency vehicles and ambulances trying to reach the scene of an incident with no clear hard shoulder.....they are just a cheap way of widening a motorway while dressing it up with the words 'Smart motorway' as a way to sell it to the public.

[goff]

My point is Smart Motorways are no more dangerous than any other non-Motorway dual carriageway, but they do have monitored CCTV and overhead illuminated signage.

What a load of bollocks Surfblue , try telling that someone who has lost a loved one through no hard shoulder on the not so smart motorway , the cctv is often not working either.

[surfblue63]

What a load of bollocks Surfblue , try telling that someone who has lost a loved one through no hard shoulder on the not so smart motorway , the cctv is often not working either.

Thanks to your response Goff I will no longer be part of this forum.

[AndyPen]

Am I the only one disappointed to read this?

Sadly, the topic raises quite some emotions, and I know that when my alternator failed on my Cosworth on the way home once I couldn't wait to find somewhere to pull in. It was pretty frightening for a few minutes, wondering what state the battery might be in. Because of the electrics, for some reason no light came on the warn me, using the indicators gave the game away.

On its last trip to the NEC it really got to me again - around Gloucester way. Not an experience I want to have again.

[Exminiman]

Come in Surfblue, your contributions will be sorely missed, dont let one comment stop you.

Reading the comment again, I really dont think the swear word was aimed at you, more to give gravitas to the comment…..

[Glacier white]

It's not a matter of classic or brand new, or electric or whatever cars. All of them can fail without prior warning when least expected, so there must always be enough space to make an emergency stop with some safety margin.

[goff]

What a load of bollocks Surfblue , try telling that someone who has lost a loved one through no hard shoulder on the not so smart motorway , the cctv is often not working either.

Thanks to your response Goff I will no longer be part of this forum.

Bloody hell Surfblue , Sorry if i have upset you , i'll remove the comment , don't go and leave because we don't agree on a subject .

[Striped shirt]

I regularly go up the M20 from Maidstone area upto the M26 and onwards. This bit is mostly Smart Motorway.
The sheer volume of lorries that have come up from Dover is simply staggering at times. The simple truth is that, for whatever reason, if there is an emergency, vehicles have nowhere to go. I've seen some serious incidents myself in that area.
These issues are obviously not caused by the road user, but by the road design. On the M20 there are very few emergency pull-off areas.
Even the best kept vehicle can have an act of random. I had fitted 4 news tyres to my daily driver (Rover) and had a front blow out on a dual carageway on the way to work. No warning, just went pop, and no, I did not hit a pot hole...

[Pete]

The idea that a breakdown is always avoidable or that it’s inherently down to poor maintenance is a much more simplistic view than I’ve got! Blimey, I can think of a miriad of potential problems that could bring you to a stop on a motorway, a rotor arm going, a fuel leak, electrical gremlin, you name it, I wouldn’t want to be brought to a stop in a live lane of a motorway in anything, let alone a Classic Mini and no I don’t like the idea of smart motorways. I’ve personally seen cars totally not see / ignore those matrix signs and carry on regardless! Frightening