Driving on Hard Shoulders - a Good Idea?
British MPs have today passed a bill to allow drivers to travel on the hard shoulder of some motorways during times of congestion, but is this a safe and responsible thing to do? And, if it is, what on earth did road builders make hard shoulders for in the first place?
The hard shoulder has long been an emergency area: it allows emergency services access even during times of heavy traffic; a safe place to stop after accident or breakdown. Now, it would seem, an extra lane is more necessary than this road safety.
Please forgive my naivety here, but surely this additional safety zone, or “hard shoulder” is a good and necessary thing? And what’s more, will an extra lane even reduce congestion, given that four lane motorways still become gridlocked with idiot motorists switching lanes unnecessarily…
Crazy legislation.
It might sound crackers, but works in the Netherlands and Northern Germany. They have little pull off places along the hard shoulder for break-downs and reduce the speed during the 3 or 4 lane areas… it was very useful around Hamelin last October and did seem to move the traffic along well..
A bigger problem is the British tendancy to drive nose to tail in the two overtaking lanes, which blocks the flow of traffic. It should become mandatory to return to the innermost lane as soon as possible, not to drive in the BMW/Porsche lane permenantly.