Is it smart enough?

Driving down the M6 yesterday from the junction with M56 to the turnoff to Knutsford, just before roadworks that are installing "Smart" Ms we were astounded to see a man with a helmet on riding on an electric hoverboard down the hard shoulder and texting whilst doing so.😱

We did wonder if he noticed the hard shoulder had disappeared after the Knutsford junction.

As I believe it, WN, that is sufficient reason to use your mobile phone whilst driving in order to possibly save life !!

It's now smart enough to track every driver breaking the frequently altered speed limits as they descend the M5 south towards the Avon bridge through Bristol. The overhead cameras were flashing one car after another last week, mostly those taking the left slipway to the Portway into Bristol.

I noticed the same thing Brue, lots of speed camera flashes for the south bound traffic on bank holiday Saturday, just to add to their misery of miles of tailbacks that lay ahead.   

On Radio 4's Statistical Progamme, More or Less, this evening there was a question concerning the accidents and fatalities on Smart motorways. A Leeds University Professor, Oliver Carston, and his post-graduate student, Claire Murray who has done her dissertation on the subject, concluded that compared to the 5 years before Smart Motorways there have been both less casualties and fatalities, year on year since they were introduced, and the biggest fall has been on the All Lanes Running motorways. They suggested that this was because they smoothed out the traffic, and dampened down speed as drivers were taking less confident in them and because of the additional number of speed cameras.

It is the second item in this broadcast.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09kxjnc

Personally, and unstatistically, I think the enforcement of the Average Speed has a lot to do with it.

I feel safer with everyone driving at roughly my speed but would still feel less safe if I broke down. Still a bad idea when you don't give an escape route.

I bet that Highways England will never publish the statistics on the the number of deaths on the M25 ( amongst recovery people, road repairers,  etc.) for before and after the introduction of 'dumb motorways.'

I watched a bit of a select committee on this very subject on the parliament channel the other day. The testimony from the 'boffins' did not inspire confidence. Hopefully the MP's on the committee will make sufficient noise in the chamber.