Is it smart enough?

Personally the M25 presents the biggest challenge, multiple lanes and contininuous overhead speed signalling. But when you're crawling along it seems to work. 

It’s seven years now since we last used it Brue, we have taken more scenic routes in that time, so it might have changed. I do recall heading South, you had to get across around four lanes of traffic coming across from M4, to get into right Lane to go straight on down M5. Going North, to get onto M4, the signage always misled us, you got into what you thought was the correct Lane, only to have to switch back to get around onto the M4. All with other lanes coming in from other junctions as well.

It was always easier in heavy traffic, things a lot slower and thankfully driving a big 4x4 helped. 

We didn’t do Filton as a diversion, merely got it wrong. Mind, we did once opt to go straight through Bristol (not towing), an interesting exercise😂

We solved that one. Have never driven on the M25😂

You'll probably find it OK this time round TDA, especially from the north. From the south you need to get in the correct lanes north but it's not too bad. Watch out for speed cameras between the bridge and the M4/5 junctions, they are always in use.

We'll be using the M25 on our next trip, not much choice involved! 

It's interesting that there is such an uproar about Smart Motorways because the don't have hard shoulders. There are thousands of miles of dual carriageways in this country which also don't have hard shoulders but do share the same speed limits. Many of those dual carriageways seem just as busy as many motorways to me? Ideally all motorways would be built with a hard shoulder the problem is that many of those roads wouldn't have been made four lane had they had to build a new hard shoulder. The real issue with Smart Motorways is that the laybys are too far apart, a minimum spacing of one kilometre would be much better.

David

It’s not just no hard shoulder DK, parts have no where to go at all around us, maybe a three foot wide gap between Armco and a river fence. You breakdown, you get out as fast as you can and run to somewhere in front of your broken down vehicle, hopefully before something else ploughs into the rear of it. It really is that bad. Breakdowns, punctures etc.... seldom happen next to laybys. We have already said that if we had a puncture, we just keep going. Better a shredded tyre, ruined wheel than being mashed to bits by an HGV. Our local MPs, local communities, Police Commissioner etc..... all involved in campaign. Highways England have been referred for corporate manslaughter over one death. The fact that all the extra work in terms of making extra refuges, improvements to technology amounts to acknowledgement that things initially weren’t right and in place.  

Two of the sections that are partly converted are 10 miles long and I doubt they will revert back to having a hard shoulder after spending £millions already.

If you are traveling to the South West from the North West you can’t really avoid the motorways.

The RAC are against “smart” motorways on safety grounds but this is an interesting quote from Highways England…..

”Highways England has published statistics from data gathered since the first smart motorway opened in 2006 to say:

Jour­ney reli­a­bil­ity has improved by 22%
Per­sonal injury acci­dents have been reduced by more than half.

It only proves that statistics are only as good as the questions you ask.

How many duel carriageways are multilane 70mph roads thousand of miles of dual carriageways are not 70mph

Nail on the head Nevers. The Highways Agency is using flawed statistics. Another link to the issue here, lots of others to read for those interested.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/transport/dangerous-and-unsafe-smart-motorways-must-be-abandoned-yorkshire-says-top-police-commissioner-after-m1-deaths-3110187

Sitting looking over a section of the M1 near us is a real eye opener in terms of driver behaviour on these four Lane sections. You are constantly asking yourself what would happen if someone breaks down and stops. There’s simply no where to go safely. Hard shoulders were bad enough, OH was always attending RTA’s where other vehicles had shunted stationary vehicles from behind. Now they can do it at 70 mph🤷‍♀️

Smart Motorways? 

Best definition I've come across of an Oxymoron.