Hello!
WOW this is NEWS to ME!
NEW POLICY AT NATIONAL HIGHWAYS! DISGUSTING!
When we used to leave an ERA BAY emergency refuge area after a breakdown or repair, we USED to ring up the emergency phone and get lane 1 CLOSED electronically so you could rejoin safely…
THIS HAS NOW CHANGED!
They will NO LONGER put a red x on FOR LANE 1, they will NOW ONLY set an ARROW DIVERT, which you are under 0 OBLIGATION to legally move over.
AS you know most people will stay in that lane, until they see a RED X! ❌
I actually can’t believe highways have changed this and this will soon result in an accident or even worse a fatality when leaving an ERA BAY, simply down to the fact they are no longer allowed to close lane 1 temporarily whilst you build up your speed to leave.
PRIME EXAMPLE in this video.
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS PLAYING WITH OTHER PEOPLES LIVES!
This needs to be told to the press and media, this is NOT A SMART MOVE!!
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I drive up and down the motorway network it scarse me that a vehicle may pull out of a refugees with me doing 70 in lane 2 what is the driver in lain 1 going to do when you pull out of the refugees doing 20 mph. I'm just as scared as you let alone how is responsible when it all goes wrong. I hope that they get this sorted out soon. Best of luck for all of us. 😢
It's disgraceful..
I'd love to see you doing an interview with one of the high up mandarins who decided on this stupid policy
Then half way through it,. you both go out in his car, and stop in one of these bays and see hopw he does pulling back out under the new conditions. (after thought… knowing this lot, the people doing the signage would probably be given the nod to applyan X in that one case)
Get yourself and other recovery heros to stage a protest at there all there hq's / branches at the same time, fill up there carpark with trucks. May lose a days wage but, deffo worth it, call in the media aswell to film the events
I think you recovery drivers need to band together. A second safety vehicle would need to be travelling with lights and markings to help you guys out and the costs loaded onto the insurance companies, they've got a lot more clout and when you're having to charge an extra £500+ each time they'll get off their asses to do something IMO.
It seems national highways are totally pointless and a complete waste of taxpayers money.
All breakdown recovery companies needs say no to breakdowns on all motorways across the uk. National highways should be forced to recover all vehicles. To a safe point in which the recovery companies can collect them.
Your very quickly see National Highways change and do what they are meant to do, ie put a red x when asked to do so.
Smart motorway’s are not smart they have been shown to be more dangerous than a standard motorway.
Smart motorways are a way to cut costs, so they don’t have to build a new lane and keep the hard shoulder.
It’s not a new process it’s total incompetence by National Highways, sack the lot of them asap. Incompetence in a public office serving the people (taxpayers).
It’s what happens when you have a labour government, every thing goes woke or broke, the clowns start running everything. Haven’t you notice the uk going down hill fast.
Why is that not open to the public, it’s funded by the taxpayers, so the public should have access to it.
Mate please be safe and let the highway sort out the breakdown there will soon sort it out
Mate please raise it from a disabled person as well it is dangerous
I definitely will be interested in definitely supporting you i spoke to you on the phone on the 31st july about the situation mate it definitely needs sorting out as soon as possible
Recovery driver here covering Lincs and Cambs, A14 is my main “smart motorway” and they refuse to do it for us to, I was even told they won’t even put an arrow on. It’s ridiculous and totally unacceptable, how am I driving a 12tn truck supposed to join a 70mph carriageway from a standing start safely utterly ridiculous
It looks like you need two vehicles just to do one job and to be safe . Stop well back till you are ready to pull out, and they come in Lain one so you can pull out. Stay safe, mate
All recovery opps need to refuse to service any breakdown on these smart motorways
Untill they either change the dumb protocols or employ enoth wombles to deal with what the recovery opps wont
Jeez that guy bartering for a free tyre on your previous video I think he thought he was still in Afghanistan 😉
Is it me or if they put lane 1 at 40mph and the rest at 70. people would just think it's an error and still do 70
Until its changed you could always ring Highways to attend when ever you are in an ERA doin a job, same for all the other recovery lads/lasses until they go back to the old policy.
Mad
If you are taking your driving theory test, there are questions which require the answer wait for highways to close the lane.
SMART MOTORWAYS- NOT SMART. I totally agree with you
That's my complaint sent. Terrible.
I am not sure which is worse, The idiots who ignore all the warnings on Smort Motorways or the idiots controlling the Smort Motorways.
If you had asked me a week ago where I place most of the blame for the failings of a Smart Motorway I would have said it would mostly be on the idiots that use them that go out of their way to ignore all the warnings, leaving lane changes until the X etc etc…
But this policy change is just dangerously dumb and doubling down on the levels of stupid.
You just know that some accountant at highways has done all the calculations and worked out it is more cost effective for people to risk their lives than it is to close that lane for 60 seconds, OK this is speculation on my part but I really would not put it past someone to come to thins conclusion to be fair because moniez.
First person was right, second person was wrong. You are just manufacturing distain for views. If you pulled out in from of the silver VW that would 100% be on you because you need to use your own judgment of when to rejoin, that would obviously not have been a safe time to rejoin. There may be lots of genuine reasons to complain about safety on the motorways. This was not one of them.
What happens with a LHD lorry? The situation will be even worse.
Then there follows police fire and ambulance after a major accident
National highways are playing with peoples lives. They should have a red Xl and job done 90% of the public on British motorways. Haven’t got a clue how they work anyway.
Typical National Highways. "Informed customers"? Or not. How are they intending to communicate this to an unsure or nervous driver broken down on a SM section at 6:30 on a dark winters morning or evening in heavy traffic. Will it take even more blood on the road, like it did before they folded and started the current NEAR programme?
At 11am they are all on tea break.
The guy on the phone is so painfully bad at his job.
Tweeted it to Highways, this is sick! As for the bloke on the phone, was he on fucking meth?! How many times did you have to fucking explain it to the thick shit? Fucking hell, you've got some patience, man!
Now, if it were me, I'd refuse to leave (apologies to my client), and tell them either close the lane, or send a patrol officer out. If they refused to do either of those, I'd call the police and tell them there's a dangerous situation here, and I need a traffic officer out ASAP, before there is a collision. If they're free, they'll be out. Then, you can explain the matter to the officer and, hopefully, they're fully understanding and willing to put on a rolling road block for you. This will then cause congestion, as they'll do it for all live lanes, which will piss Highways off, and thus the circle of life is complete.
I bet the traffic officers get a BIG ❌ when they need to rejoin if they phone there friends in the call centre with no problem
I think i would have on that second job seen the customer away and then phoned up again and refused to move and say they need to either close the lane or get a traffic officer to close the lane… Thats just not safe…
If only the drivers followed the instructions to move out the lane when instructed too it would be safer
Will get rebranded again soon, ‘National Hell Highways’ 😂
Shocking!
I'm a lorry driver and to me they seem all about not causing traffic delays…. But how much would the traffic be delayed if there was an accident 😕
Might be worth getting in touch with the guys at the AA and RAC and see if they’ve heard of this new policy, I’m betting they’ll have something public to say on the matter.
Vicky doesn't care if you are road kill
People don't nessaarislly slow dowm for a speed especially if they dont see a reason
Working in an ERC is a safety critical job. There's no room for errors when lives are at stake. Imagine the response if LAS told someone with a life threatening condition to drive themselves to A&E
What I am guessing has happened here is, some politician or whatever have taken interest in road closure stats, which of course they want to keep as low as possible as it means traffic is flowing.
So when the lane is closed, even if just for 2 minutes, it ticks up the "closure counter" by 1, meaning it may as well have been the ENTIRE highway was closed, so they do not want to ruin their "stats" of reliability by closing the highway.
That leaves the dangerous workaround, the "divert" which doesn't trigger the counter, as such they can keep the high "stats".
Why? Well if I were to hazard a guess, the "Smart highway" is experimental with building a narrower road (Omitting the shoulder) and using "smart technology" to fix the issues of crashes.
But, they have a much higher closing statistics due to minor incidents from the emergency areas (Flat tires, overheats, etc) rather than crashes.
It is all an effort to ensure they can get to build more "Smart highways" in the future, and possibly sell the concept to other countries.