This makes my piss boil, as someone in the transport industry, the whole ethos of “ smart” was to allow for this very thing of monitoring traffic from the control room, give you a closure for the change, allow you back onto the network under a safe red ❌, as soon as you were up to speed revert back to a running lane, that why they’ve spent billions on cameras, sensors, gantries ! I will be taking this further ! Well done for high,lighting, laziness or cuts mean they don’t have the staff anymore in the control room to manage public safety , scandalous
@@TruckerJohno You want to watch some videos by Mr GDB official - the guy (Greg) is a recovery truck driver/emergency tyre fitter operating around the Stoke on Trent area and he has multiple videos online showing his interactions with the people on the other end of the ERA bay phones, asking for a red X on lane 1 to alllow him and his clients to vacate the ERA bay, only for Highways England to refuse offering onlly a lane divery (which doesn't have the same legal ramifcations should a driver not abide by the signpostings), and the fact that Highways England's websi te states they will temporarily close the lane to allow safe exit from the bay. I have sent an email to my local M.P. about it as the M6 all lane running sections (and all other simialr sections on other motorways) are essentially death traps now.
Totally Agree with you Johno, the biggest problem with many road users is the fact that an incrdably high number of drivers, either ignore motorway signs or don't believe they apply to them......
That’s so scary a fatality has probably already happened but we’ll never hear of it as they’ll maintain they where right and you are wrong.Thanks for update .Keep safe love to your better half.a.okxx
I have a theory on why they’ve started to do this… I think it comes down to liability; when they close lane 1 and tell you “it’s safe now”, that becomes untrue if so much as one car/lorry ignores the red X and drives through. If an accident happens after being assured it’s safe by the highways agency, there could be grounds to argue that they are partially liable. If, however, they tell you to use your own judgement (like in this situation) it absolves them of responsibility. It’s now up to you to make a safe decision. Accident statistics will also change, now a crash of this nature couldn’t possibly be categorised as a red X breach because there was no red X to begin with. Less crashes attributed to an ignored red X looks better in the reports to the higher ups, I’d imagine. I think the Highways Agency has realised its terribly implemented system is garnering attention and they’re probably desperate to wash their hands of responsibility for its unsafe operation. Bit of a sticky situation which absolutely couldn’t have been foreseen…
I really don't get Highways reluctance to do their job. They can push a button for a lane divert, but pushing a different button for a quick lane closure seems to be so so difficult. I watch Greg from GDB Rescue & Recovery on here and he's having the same issues. I'm gobsmacked. Glad you got out safely though Johno.
I agree with it all. Must be scary as hell of the fitters as well with their backs to traffic. Also with the big blue chip haulage firms, their trucks are locked into eco mode. (I work for 1 so i know), getting to even 40mph on an incline is going to take ages at 44tn. A lane 1 closure to safely exit is a must.
Absolutely bonkers. When the concept was floated, I screamed NO, No,NO. Then one night I had the same Northbound. After repairs and with lane one closed, getting back up to speed was hairy as people were cutting back in the minute they were past me.
Hi Johno. I imagine that the lady in the control room on the other end of the phone would have been on a headset via the internet and, as is very often the case when calling helplines, this might have been why communication was so poor. Quite apt that during your explanation there should be a Morrisons wagon next to you with "bursting with pride" on it's trailer.
What a coincidence, Just been watching gdb's channel who operates in that area and he has similar issues with highways. On their website it says they'll close the lane for you to rejoin but apparently there's a new policy where they are only allowed to put on a lane divert
just got past the bit where you're talking about it😂 in future you're probably better off calling the police to put a lane closure in for you to move off
@@TruckerJohno they've never been safe from the start, just a cheap way to widen the motorway and increase capacity! 100% agree there should always be a hard shoulder
yup apparently they no longer even do a red X.. just a "optional" lane divert. a lane divert.. that any SANE person would stay in the lane till the red X, which is normal. seen a video of a tow truck driver having a flat out argument with them to get a red x. because he had no way to get out
Great video ..I totally agree.. especially in a hgv , large vehicle which can't accelerate to motorway speed quickly.. national highways might not have a patrol near by to slow traffic for you but they can see you on camera to put a X on lane 1until your back onto lane 1 to make if safer for you to get back onto the motorway... .. the way health and safety is these days and they think it's ok just to say" yeah you can go when its safe to do so" and maybe put lives in danger when other motorists are doing 70mph and not looking ... 👎
4:18 Usually “A” is Away from (originating location; eg M1 A is NB, B is Back). M26 has K& L iirc, K being Kent bound, & L being M25 Junction bound (maybe London bound??).
@@TruckerJohno, I’m the guy in a pub quiz team that gets that real random question. Sport, telly, film, celebs, NO WAY, but “On march 5th 1872 who won the bet for most heads coin tosses at Mickey’s Bar, Darwin?… (Also no on That one but you get the gist lol)
Couldn't agree more! We had the chaos whilst they were being constructed by converting the shoulders and now we're suffering more inconvenience with roadworks and back to 3 lanes on nearly every motorway at the same time whilst they create more refuge lay bys! Exactly how are you supposed to get up to speed to rejoin after a repair or indeed if you're getting towed out? Smart my arse!
@@TruckerJohno awesome vlog as always and awesome truck. If you can help me with this awesome if not your prayers are very much appreciated 👍 I am fundraising for a power wheelchair so I can get out and about again just been diagnosed with ms early so if you are able to donate something awesome I have a just giving page but don't feel you have to. Thank you for reading this and you are my number1 vlogger as well as kevtee Luke Scott jenko and gbd
I totally 💯 agree with you John O as they’re not safe at all as the only vehicle i owned is a Mobility Scooter which I donated to the Scottish Vintage Bus 🚍 Museum at Lathalmond which is outside Dunfermline West Fife. Suppose my Powerchair is also a vehicle. Take great care when using the roads Buddy. Think 🤔 similar thing happened with Kevtee if I remember correctly Pal. 👍
@@TruckerJohno yeah it never happened on my Mobility Scooter as top speed is only 8mph while on Powerchair top speed is 4 mph so thankfully it’ll never happen at least I hope not Pal.
I've seen some sos phone boxes out of use lol absolutely disgusting they can't be bothered to to fix them also the m25 from Essex to Enfield way and towards dartford bridge they are doing major safe refuge lanes no where to pull over during an emergency loads of road cones etc
Here in Sweden pretty sure a truck with buffer on the back and a big digital sign showing say incident, 30mph and an arrow point which direction to go, at time might be 2 or more
I absolutely agree with you John, it's utter stupidity, but' as we all know those in power' will always do & say as they please, regardless of people's safety. You've got to wear a hard hat outside with nothing above you' only the sky, but' on a motorway they couldn't give a s#@t!.
John get a patition up from all the drivers. Get your company involved. See or contact your MP. Have all the service stations join in to help. Contact the minister for transportation. Go for it. There is a lot of support out there.. AND GOOD LUCK.GET THE HARD SHOULDER RETURNED.
Some good points there. AA and RAC already refusing to do breakdowns on some roads, both organisations have lost workers while trying to do their jobs. If it was a hard shoulder, having assessed the situation and it was safe to do so, how many would move along the hard shoulder to the services? A much safer place to wait for recovery etc.
"Smart motorways" (that's a laugh for a start off) were33 just coming into existence before I retired and lane 1 was always closed which I thought was for woqrker protection. It should be mandatory before any more workers are killed.. and as you rightly say it allows the breakdown to pick up speed before joining the live lane. I guess they were only built to save the cost of actually providing a fourth lane AND a proper hard shoulder. Penny pinching=danger. Thanks for posting Johno.😊
@Louise Haigh. She the secretary of state for transport. Hope she find this video soon. It need sort out. Before someone dead or recovery company stop. Help there customer out. Because not safe for staff
Great Video Johno! It won't be long before another person is unalived on these "smart" motorways. How many people will it take before they realise it's a stupid idea!
@@TruckerJohnototal agree. It's like they make the decisions without actually speaking to people who it's going to affect. When they work, they are flowing they are fine. But as soon as there is a breakdown or blowout they become soooo dangerous!
That’s because people don’t know what signs means in the uk, arrow means proceed to next lane to not carry on and then when the lane closed move across. 99% of car drivers in uk haven’t got a clue with lane discipline and paying attention.
🤦 surely the change lane and red X go hand in hand? What are they going to do with a breakdown in lane 1 with no hard shoulder, keep the lane open? Also, not having much luck with tyres Johno 😶
They are adding more and more refuge areas on various motorways now because they decided there was not enough of them Its a joke nobody wanted them yet they still did it anyway .Where are the traffic officers as well they should have been there instead of just cruising up the down the motorways at 40mph and holding the traffic so a hedgehog can cross I have seen a video from a recovery guy who actually called the call handler absolutely useless because she wouldnt close a lane either.The recovery guy actually phoned the police and they responded and held the traffic to enable him to pull out.
What’s worrying is if the lorry that was behind you couldn’t pull across to let you out you going at 10 mph and him doing 56 mph probably fully loaded could have ended nasty
i drive a truck i was hit by by another truck from behind when i slowed for a broken down truck in front i was tipped over by the truck behind the driver that hit me died and i was to hurt but it done me mentally im still hornted now after two years please reinstate the hard shoulder now the thick government
People barely pay attention to red X and they expect them to react to line divert. They wanted to save money on smart motorways, now you have roadworks everywhere so they can built extra emergency refuge areas on them.
Beyond ridiculous that they ever considered this could work. Even with a red x, that does not actually stop people driving in it. We have all seen people do it and I hate to say so, I have video of a 44 tonner driving through several red x's. These little layby's simply cannot work. Fatal accidents waiting to happen.
What happens if you get a failure in a lane and your vehicle will not move to this Safe place you're just stuck in lane 1 , engine blow up or wheel bearing collapse
The cameras are meant to have AI that detects this, but as far I've herd that don't always work, if you stop in lane 1 get out and get behind the barrier and call highways immediately if in any other lane stay in car and call highways immediately
People behind the wheel are more dangerous than All Lane Running Motorways. I don’t call them SMART MOTORWAYS because there not but people are less smart than for sure
It was caused by the air coming out at an extraordinary rate🤣 all jokes aside I have no idea there was nothing obvious on my daily walk around check so I must have run over something at a guess
You could be informative but you gave a whinge instead. Judging by the comments, your audience are clueless too. Let me put you out of your misery. Highways used RED X for ERA exit but unless conditions are appropriate they don't anymore. AA, RAC and Green Flag had policies and education in place for the staff to follow which is to call when they are ready to exit. Certain independent cowboy operators had a habit of calling for an exit before they had the job done and were ready to go. The result of such an action takes the camera operator away from other duties. The camera operator puts a RED X up and stares at Mr GDB official for an hour rather than monitor something else. The public then complains about a pointless RED X being left on for an hour for no reason. You managed to get out without issue. You didn't need a Red X. You didn't need it a divert. Other than certain classic cars, we all have mirrors, we have a driving license, and we are all qualified to look and make decisions. You were instructed to call again if you think you would struggle. It's far easier to get out of a motorway ERA with good visibilities than a layby on a country road. Two people die on hard shoulders every month, I would hesitate to describe two deaths per month as a "perfect system". Neither would I be willing to suffer two deaths per month so you wouldn't whinge about getting out of a bay on a nice straight road and one with additional aid should you need it. Any old lady unable to exit a bay, unable to accelerate, unable to perform a single gear change, or do not have the required vision should not be driving. Similarly, anyone unable to monitor traffic situations ahead should not be driving. Crashes happen on hard shoulders and from vehicles exiting hard shoulders all the time. The only things to correct are bad drivers. These smart motorways have been around for over 10 years. If there are going to be deaths from ERA bays there would be an example by now. Please stop apologising for dangerous drivers by complaining about a new road type that has seen not just fewer stationary deaths but fewer moving deaths than old-style motorways. Have you any idea how many deaths there have been on old motorways vs smart motorways? Once you have worked out how many people die on old hard shoulder motorways vs smart i.e. how many deaths have been prevented. I dare you tell everyone on camera whilst claiming smart motorways to be a dangerous waste of money.
Did I touch a nerve? anyway I am fully aware that hard shoulders are not safe but at least you have a bit of room to get up the speed, yes pulling out on the dual carriageway from a laybuy is just as dangerous, I am not taking away from the fact that the driving standards these days are downright appalling, this is my channel this is a situation I have had and yes it was a rant about my thoughts on it take it or leave it
@TruckerJohno I love your hair. What I don't like is people calling a new system with no deaths to be "more dangerous" while one with at times over 40 deaths a year to be "perfect". Being offended by someone who finds a lack of people dying to be "more dangerous" is just part of my imperfect personality. I've taken your thoughts to be uninformed and misinformed. Pulling out onto dual carriageways from a layby is MORE dangerous, as are single carriageways, B roads and junctions on such roads. Those road types have had tens of thousands more deaths than smart motorways so, where are your rants for those road types from your driving situations on your publicly accessible RU-vid channel? I dared you to find out how many deaths there are on old motorways and new so you could then think about how many lives have been saved using smart motorways, have you managed to put some numbers together yet? As a truck driver, you are not expected to understand how it works. All we expect from you is for you to pay attention and to follow instructions. If you publicly speculate and get it wrong, try not to be too offended when it is explained to you.
Thanks I grew it myself, why don't you make a video fill in all the blanks give all the facts I urge you to do so it's obviously a subject you're passionate about so tell the world we all have different opinions so share yours
@@TruckerJohno It has already been explained repeatedly on social media but people who face cognitive challenges choose outrage using misinformation on mass media over engineering and facts. See your video comments for confirmation.
Again it's just a matter of opinion I could search up 100 videos for smart motorways and equally I can find 100 videos against them all with facts that backs them up equally like me and you going back and forth, I don't like them, you do. As for mass media that has zero influence on my channel as I never watch listen or read the news
