Is it smart enough?

One thing that is very noticeable when the hard shoulder has been taken away in favour of another lane ,,is that most are now it seems long slip roads for the next junction,so if using the "extra?"Lane it means pulling out into the next lane at regular intervals which is OK if road  is not busy, vary rare,  we now when towing keep behind HGVs who tend not to use the nearside lane because of that problem 

The distances between "refuges is now a hot topic to get them reduced

I though the Govt said a few weeks ago that the move to smart m/ways was to be halted due to fatalities. No doubt those that are work in progress will continue.

Smart m/ways are a moronic concept in my view.

People keep getting killed due to this motorway style.   I'm glad I live in Scotland where the motorway widening schemes include a new hard shoulder and we have none of this "smart" nonsense.

It is possible to avoid using motorways but this considerably increases journey time. So one has to balance that against what one sees as the increased risk - this is a personal decision and your's could differ from mine. When I do have to drive on one I keep an extra lookout for where the next lay-by is coming up (though there is no guarantee it will be empty) since things are too busy to keep looking at the odometer - and anyway they could be further apart than the claimed 1.6 miles.

An extra lookout is especially necessary where the left lane is only in use at certain times, or on certain stretches, as signage for folk who have not been that way in a long time seems to be lacking. 

Yes that's right at present overnight cabling works are continuing so that communications can be used on smart systems already in place. It was a cheap and unsafe way to introduce four lanes.

I did notice that fewer drivers were going over the speed limit probably due to there being so many cameras, this caused a lot of congestion in the two right lanes, they were both going the maximum speed. It sort of made having four lanes pointless

Nevers, we live a couple of miles from the smart section of the M1 in South Yorkshire, where the fatalities that prompted the halting of the roll out occurred. It’s so dangerous, we actually choose to drive to a lower or higher junction to get on, so that we can limit the time we spend in the “smart” section. Our elected Police Commissioner promised to campaign for the abolition of the smart motorway in his electoral campaign, which he won easily.

The simple fact is that there’s no where to go in a breakdown. Hence traffic is smashing into anything broken down. The promised layby distances were altered, and the cameras supposedly spotting any potential problems do not have sufficient staff overseeing them. The fatalities are the dreadful tip of a much bigger iceberg, many, many more near misses and non fatal incidences. 

They work fine if traffic is light, no one breaks down, and visibility remains perfect at all times, and no one is speeding or inattentive. La La Land indeed.☹️

http://www.transport-network.co.uk/Smart-motorway-deaths-rise-to-record-levels/17147

We do tend to avoid m/ways more than we used to but it's often not sensible to detour and time is a factor. Those of us who have to reach Bristol before the northern hemisphere opens up to us don't have a lot of choice.

We still call the M4M5 interchange “Death Alley” Tinny. We have done a couple of unintended trips to Filton as well years ago after not making it all the way across☹️ Bad enough solo, but towing far worse. Last few years we have altered our route down and come to it from Tewkesbury, which is far easier.

For us, it represents the pinnacle of the Civil Engineering mindset. We know what’s best for you, our plans are best, we never get things wrong. Our town is littered with smaller vanity projects that make a daily commute into a circular nightmare. One of my BIL’s used to work for our Planning Dept. (He is lovely, got out years ago) I once suffered a party with some of his then Planning colleagues. Hard to imagine meeting a more arrogant bunch of people. ☹️

Don't find that junction a problem except for sheer volumes of traffic at certain times. Bristol can be gridlocked so diversions can be a worse choice.

We don't find that jcn much of a problem either.

I remember the days before the Avon Bridge was built🤣🤣🤣