Smart Motorways

[#1]

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@wotsup wrote:

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@Minivanman wrote:

Apparently there is now an app that as you have your head down looking at your phone it shows you what is in front of you.  

Neat eh. 😋

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Having nearly run over two girls ( on seperate occasions ) who just stepped into the road without looking because they were looking at their phones i would say have an app on the phone that it won't work while you are moving so that people have to be stationary while using their phones..... much safer

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@wotsup   trouble is,.... with that app.... they won`t really be, "mobile" phones anymore ! ..

Perhaps the yanks , and just about every other country, had the right idea  "CELL" phones !

[#2]

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@TeeGee wrote:

@RobPN 

Sensors on modern cars are a nightmare. Only last week a sensor failed (the one that tells you the wheels are going round!) on my wife's car and put the car into no power but keep going mode.  Fortunately we made it a few miles to the services and were only 30 miles from home so we limped back and changed cars for one twice its age and reasonably sensor free.

My confidence is now at a low point for both Smart motorways and German engineering quality.

P S the tyre pressure warning light on BMWs is either Off or Red with apparently nothing inbetween.  With a slow leak on runflats it can trigger at 25 psi which is not a great danger and the engine does keep going too!

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A sensor to tell you the wheel is going round.....have I read that correctly ?
I thought it would be B obvious if the wheel was going round or not.

As for tyre pressure sensors am I not correct in thinking there are some type of dust caps that change colour from green to red if the pressure in the tyre falls below the recommended PSI.

Thank goodness I have a older car minus these silly gadgets....

The only thing I do find handy on my car is the mirrors fold in when the ignition is switched off.

[#3]

Watched the Panorama 'our killer motorways' last night and was shocked ( but not surprised )

that when the reporter was at motorway services asking people about smart motorways pretty

much every woman he asked looked blank,  but the blokes knew what he was talking about...

( I will now put on steel helmet and wait for certain posters to accuse me of misogyny ).

I well remember a woman a few years ago stopping her Audi Q7 in the fast lane of the

motorway because the low fuel light came on - people could get away with stopping for

trivial reasons on hard shoulder of normal motorway,  but not any more,  they are

extremely dangerous places to stop now.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dozy-driver-caused-m25-chaos-4949525

another one charged with deadly driving.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5272687/Deadly-driving-charge-running-fuel-motorway.html

[#4]

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@shutter wrote: @wotsup   trouble is,.... with that app.... they won`t really be, "mobile" phones anymore ! ..

Perhaps the yanks , and just about every other country, had the right idea  "CELL" phones !

They will still be mobile because you can carry them around with you....

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[#5]

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@Mav wrote:

@RobPN 

I've said it many times within this forum that all these gadgets and sensors are creating drivers unable to think for themselves. If something feels/sounds different/wrong then pull over at the first convenient time and check things out. For some people a warning light flashing means stop at all costs!

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@Mav 

You may be right of course, but in the situation I described, had the tyre really been deflating, I'd rather be warned sooner and take action rather than detect/feel the effects via the steering even just a few minutes later, which in that particular episode would probably have meant driving past the exit described.

On some cars the tyre pressure sensors can tell you the actual pressures which may be more useful, whilst others just calculate a pressure difference by comparing the readings from the ABS sensors at each wheel.  AFAIK mine uses the latter. rather than the more exoensive former method.

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@wotsup wrote:

Panorama on BBC tonight ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dtqv

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Regarding the Panorama program last night, as expected there were some truly shocking accounts, most of which could have been avoided had there been a hard shoulder in use.

I was tempted to forecast one particular incident yesterday when the scheduled TV program was mentioned but refrained.  As it happens I would have been right.  I'm referring to the incident where an HGV driver had parked up in the live left-hand lane for a rest, and even though the drivers nationality wasn't mentioned I'd srtck my neck out and say s/he was Eastern European as many of them seem to have a completely different outlook on such behaviour.  They'd probably (and often do) have used the hard-shoulder for the same purpose had it been there which is what they probably think it's there for - still dangerous but not as bad as 'parking up' in a live lane!

Edit: typo

[#6]

Anybody remember those motorway information cartoons where a caravan with parents and kids would pull over onto the hard shoulder to have a picnic!

Don't know if anybody can dig one out from YouTube or somehwhere. 

Two lanes, no saftey barrier, and sausage and chips at the Blue Boar Watford Gap service station on the M1. 😝

[#7]

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@gleneagles wrote:

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@TeeGee wrote:

@RobPN 

Sensors on modern cars are a nightmare. Only last week a sensor failed (the one that tells you the wheels are going round!) on my wife's car and put the car into no power but keep going mode.  Fortunately we made it a few miles to the services and were only 30 miles from home so we limped back and changed cars for one twice its age and reasonably sensor free.

My confidence is now at a low point for both Smart motorways and German engineering quality.

P S the tyre pressure warning light on BMWs is either Off or Red with apparently nothing inbetween.  With a slow leak on runflats it can trigger at 25 psi which is not a great danger and the engine does keep going too!

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A sensor to tell you the wheel is going round.....have I read that correctly ?
I thought it would be B obvious if the wheel was going round or not.

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@gleneagles 

Not as daft as it's been made to sound; you're right inferring that the sensor doesn't generate a message saying "your wheel is going round", but using the combination of sensors at each wheel the cars systems can determine if some wheels are turning at a different speed than expected thus taking some action such as warning of tyre pressure loss, or applying/releasing brake pressure for ABS or Traction Control for example.

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As for tyre pressure sensors am I not correct in thinking there are some type of dust caps that change colour from green to red if the pressure in the tyre falls below the recommended PSI.

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They might be OK for Tescos car park but not useful or recommended at 70mph on a motorway!  

[#8]

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@RobPN wrote:

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As for tyre pressure sensors am I not correct in thinking there are some type of dust caps that change colour from green to red if the pressure in the tyre falls below the recommended PSI.

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They might be OK for Tescos car park but not useful or recommended at 70mph on a motorway!  

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I did look at those colour changing pressure caps years ago but the main problem with them seems to be

that to monitor the pressure they have to hold the valve open, and then air leaks around the cap and

you get the equivalent of a slow puncture - many people tried them and found their tyres did indeed go down.

[#9]

From their introduction I've always had a dread of so called 'smart motorways'.

On narrow country lanes there are few laybys and no hard shoulders.

However traffic is light and drivers are travelling more slowly and are very aware of tight bends and oncoming vehicles.

On a motorway, drivers are generally travelling much faster and are less aware especially after a long drive.

There needs to be a serious review of 'smart motorways' and their continued use.

[#10]

Smart motorways being used by dumb drivers far to reliant on buttons, beeps and gadgets in their cars. Maybe fully electric hands free cars in sync and in tune with 'smart' motorways is the answer.

Imagine being in a car that refuses to go over a certain speed, stays in the right line, does not hog the middle one and does not undertake added to which if any lane is blocked it will automatically avoid it... and prevent you the dumb driver trying to overrule it.

Now why does all this remind me of that 80s film The Flight of the Navigator. 😃

[#11]

How are motorways any different to dual carriageways 9except for the extra lane)? They both have the same speed limit, dual carriageway has no hard shoulder plus laybys are often closed off.Breaking down in a live lane on a dual carriageway can be just as disastrous, but a motorway should have a hard shoulder? Perhaps drivers should get their heads out of their little cocoons and pay attention to what is going on around them....  I drive 100's of miles on these motorways every week and don't find them any more dangerous than any other strtech of road.

That said, if the idea is so great, how come we are the only country to do it?

[#12]

It's currently under trial in Germany too on large stretches of the A9.

[#13]

@Marksfish 

Maybe not any more dangerous but that does not make them any more better.

Never liked UK motorways, ever. Far to busy, far to long between service stations, not enough rest stops or overnight parking and never ever a decent cup of coffee. 

As for those total rip off fuel prices...

[#14]

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@Minivanman wrote:

As for those total rip off fuel prices...

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Don't get me started. I passed a service area today with diesel at £1.55 litre today. Esso garage up the road from me is £1.33!! I remember when service areas used to charge 2 per GALLON more than a local. 23p a litre (£1.04 GALLON) is just daylight robbery and not justified. Funny how all the price "investigtions" forget about these service areas!

[#15]

Most dual carriageways have a continuous central crash barrier but an intermittent barrier on the nearside ( just where there is a steep slope etc to the side ) and even a wide verge that can be used as a refuge, they probably have more frequent opportunities to turn off onto a side road.  The frightening thing about smart motorways is that there is only a few feet between edge of (what used to be the hard shoulder) nearside lane and the crash barrier - they could at least have moved the crash barrier to create more room,  but even that is not an option on elevated sections of M6 where the crash barrier is the edge of the road and that is it...

Personally I have never liked even 'dumb' motorways with a hard shoulder,  it is so much of a rat race where if you try to stay in inside lane you get slowed down to much and have to keep pulling back into centre lane, which is dicy if you are travelling at 50 and middle lane is doing 70 or 80, lorries overtaking at about an inch an hour often block up both inside lanes. Any  driver worth their salt will pull into centre lane when approaching a junction to allow more acces for joining traffic. Drivers in overtaking lane ( BMW lane ) are doing 90, so getting past a lorry that has just pulled out into middle lane front of you after 2 flashes of its indicators means you either have to brake quite hard or risk pulling into fast lane in front of speeding traffic,  it is all very frustrating,  and I have spent a lot of time driving on motorways in the Midlands, which are the busiest in the country if not Europe.