Re: Speed limiters

On 7/7/2024 2:56 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

Investment in "smart motorways" which allows them to use all 4 lanes as live running lanes (3 properly designed to be running lanes and one hard shoulder intended as a refuge for broken down vehicles).

How does "smart" make that possible but "not-smart" doesn't?
Do your roadways "change directions" based on time of day?
(we have center lanes that do so to expedite traffic into
or out of busy areas based on traffic patterns -- but, they
are time driven)
[IIRC, DC? had similar roads that would change direction
based on time of day]
Most roads have predefined lanes in each direction.  Some roadways
are further (physically) "divided" to isolate traffic from each
direction.

It didn't take account of dumb drivers or of the need to properly maintain the camera systems used to monitor the road situation. As a result they are having to add a lot of extra refuges to the "smart" motorways to make them safer after several very high profile nasty high speed collisions between motorway traffic and broken down vehicles.

Stopping *on* the roadway is often forbidden.  Your vehicle must be
pulled off, onto a shoulder (outside the outside lane -- far right in
our case).
A patrolman encountering such a vehicle will likely park his vehicle
upstream of it to further alert oncoming traffic to the hazard.
Work on the roadways (overhead signage, pavement, etc.) usually results in
overly long stretches being cordoned off ("dunce cones") to ensure traffic
is clear of the work area BEFORE encountering it.
And, most roadways enter and exit on the outside (right) lane so you
can predict where the "varying" traffic will originate.

The smart motorways I drive regularly I have such totally misleading and misguided signs that I no longer trust them to tell the truth. Worst example I saw was alternate gantries showing 40mph speed limit(as low as it actually goes on a motorway) and 60mph. I think the control room were messing about to see what traffic chaos they could cause.

The closest thing to "smart" here is signage that may dynamically
reflect some condition of interest (amber/silver alert, construction
ahead, etc.).  We have some automated technology that warns of haboobs
in areas prone to them as they instantiate in time frames too short to
erect manual signage (radar).  I'd wager there are parts of the midwest
where similar systems warn of tornados.

Every other trip there is a claim of "animals on the road" but I have yet to see one.