Paul Humphreys's Weblog

Paul Humphreys's Weblog
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Tuesday September 19, 2006

An accident waiting to happen

So the threatened use of the hard shoulder as a real lane has finally been rolled out It will be found on the M42 between Junction 3A for the M40, and junction 7 for the M6 and is called Active Traffic Management. When it is operational a 50mph speed limit will appear above the hard shoulder and a maximum 50mph speed limit will also be applied to all lanes on the carriageway. The Highways agency claim safety is a priority and if a motorist develops a problem with their vehicle, they should pull into the emergency refuge areas which have been provided beside the hard shoulder approximately every 500 metres. If the driver cannot get into one of these safe places they say comprehensive CCTV coverage means that Traffic Officers in the control room will be able to spot any incident or break down in a carriageway and close the affected lane by displaying a red X above it.

For me it is an accident waiting to happen. I don't use that road and will make sure I avoid it in the future taking the M42 the other way to skirt around Birmingham

( Sep 19 2006, 12:00:01 AM PDT ) Permalink