Driving on Hard Shoulder

[Meldrew2]

I seem to recall that this idea was mooted 10-15 years ago, but came to nothing. Now, the source of all truthful reporting (!) has spoken......

Motorways to be widened to four lanes by opening up hard shoulders | Mail Online

Has anyone considered that the traction co-efficient of the hard shoulder is less than that of the traffic lanes?

Obviously resurfacing will be needed...

Maybe lay-bys near emergency phones could also be worth considering.

Will the cost of all the signalling equipment etc be much less than simply widening the road?

 

[Howard]

What do you do if you break down then ?

It'll only take on knob piling into the back of a broken down car at 70mph to kill the idea dead ( no pun intended )

 

[st4]

I thought the idea of the hard shoulder was for emergency vehicles to use in the event of a motorway blockage to get to an accident scene, and for broken down vehicles to be able to stop without getting in the way of fast moving traffic.

 

[developer]

They do it currently on sections of the M42 during peak periods.

 

[Howard]

Where do people who break down in peak periods on the M42 go ?

 

[developer]

Where do people who break down in peak periods on the M42 go ?

I've often wondered but don't know.

The overhead gantries instruct you to use the hard shoulder.

There do seem to be more refuges in those sections.

 

[timk]

Where do people who break down in peak periods on the M42 go ?

There are little escape areas - like additional laybys, off the hard shoulder in certain areas.

 

[developer]

Here you go...

BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | M42 hard shoulder open to drivers

 

[flango]

They resurface the hard shoulder to normal carriageway spec, this is just about to happen on the M1 and the M62 shoulder scheme goes live next year, the refuge bays and resurfacing work has already been done just the overhead gantry signs and traffic flow cameras to install now,

 

[Deleted member 6183]

M42 works well, very few cars brakedown these days.

Variable speed limits work well on this road too, I rarely have to stop - at worst slow down.

 

[BTB 500]

I wondered what all those gantries were on the M1. I assumed variable speed limit.

 

[Benzmanc]

Not forgetting the section of the M6 through Birmingham which went live a short while ago. The M60 is to get it too :bannana:

Daz

 

[Stratman]

What will the Middle Lane Owners Club do?

 

[srefre]

Doesn't it get a bit messy, when approaching an exit slip?

Some people on the hard shoulder will want to exit, so will stay there. Some won't so will have to cut across at least 1 lane of traffic.
Whilst this is happening, some people using the standard lanes may also want to exit and will be crossing over people coming from the shoulder.
Add to this that the hard shoulder will end at some point on the slip, so you have a bottleneck of two lanes merging into one.

In theory these are just minor issues, but in practice, based on the terrible driving often seen in completely normal situations, I can just see this going wrong.

I do wonder the same thing as the OP, is the cost of all the infrastructure to do this, significantly less, or long term, even less at all than to add a permanent lane?

 

[Mblinko]

What will the Middle Lane Owners Club do?

Use both the middle lanes no doubt

 

[scumbag]

Has anyone considered that the traction co-efficient of the hard shoulder is less than that of the traffic lanes?

It isn't. The hard shoulders are often the bits they have you drive on when they resurface middle bits of the motorways. As stated by someone else. all built to the same standard.

The hardshoulder on some may be a off camber to help with water runoff and may not be resurfaced at the same time of other areas due to less wear and tear but it has to meet a minimum grip level. (I can't remember what it is but I have seen it somewhere)

The main issue is the debris on hardshoulders which collects and doesn't get blown off, or mashed into the road surface.

Some of the motorways, M42 is one, has had a new surface treatement rather than a resurface, the reason is to extend the life of the existing surface for a few years longer than it currently has. Long term this should reduce the overall cost of road upkeep.

That said, in March this year, I was watching them spray the surface of a runway with it (northolt) and the engineer watching it with me, called the product (snakeoil)....

It doesn't reduce the grip level of the surface so it's not all bad.

 

[Charles Morgan]

I have certainly experienced it in Germany and on the M42 and M6. Great idea.

 

[Benzmanc]

Doesn't it get a bit messy, when approaching an exit slip?

Some people on the hard shoulder will want to exit, so will stay there. Some won't so will have to cut across at least 1 lane of traffic.
Whilst this is happening, some people using the standard lanes may also want to exit and will be crossing over people coming from the shoulder.
Add to this that the hard shoulder will end at some point on the slip, so you have a bottleneck of two lanes merging into one.

In theory these are just minor issues, but in practice, based on the terrible driving often seen in completely normal situations, I can just see this going wrong.

I do wonder the same thing as the OP, is the cost of all the infrastructure to do this, significantly less, or long term, even less at all than to add a permanent lane?

It works quite well as the hard shoulder is not continous between junctions the matrix signs usually say "use hard shoulder for jct 9 only' etc. It then does not become active again until after the next on slip has finished. I travel through Birmingham regularly and the difference this has made equates to around 30-45 mins saved as before the queues started before junction 11a.

There are no 2 into 1 bottlenecks and as for cars cutting across to exit, this happens at every single motorway junction in the country.

Daz