M6 J16 - J19 Smart Motorway

[Norfolktolancashire]

Drove both ways along this new stretch after many years of 50mph roadworks, got to say I love it! The lanes seem wider than other Smart Motorway sections.

Once the Stoke to Stafford section is completed most of this once congested route should be much easier to drive on.

Hopefully the end of the Friday afternoon northbound queues running up to twenty miles long.

[fras]

Drove both ways along this new stretch after many years of 50mph roadworks, got to say I love it! The lanes seem wider than other Smart Motorway sections.

Once the Stoke to Stafford section is completed most of this once congested route should be much easier to drive on.

Hopefully the end of the Friday afternoon northbound queues running up to twenty miles long.

It's OK until somebody breaks down in Lane 1. They then reduce all other lanes to 40 mph if my experience is typical. OK, it's better than shutting Lanes 1 & 2 leaving NSL in 3 & 4, but the improvement is not as great as one would hope. I also find that with the camera-enforced 70 mph, everybody bunches up and goes along at about 65. I find this seems more dangerous than the previous "OK up to 80" that we had before.

On another note, I have now twice seen HGVs in Lane 3 thus creating a rolling road block. Is this legal ?

[Big L]

...On another note, I have now twice seen HGVs in Lane 3 thus creating a rolling road block. Is this legal ?

Yes.

[fras]

...On another note, I have now twice seen HGVs in Lane 3 thus creating a rolling road block. Is this legal ?

Yes.

In that case it needs to be made illegal.

[A303Chris]

It's OK until somebody breaks down in Lane 1. They then reduce all other lanes to 40 mph if my experience is typical. OK, it's better than shutting Lanes 1 & 2 leaving NSL in 3 & 4, but the improvement is not as great as one would hope. I also find that with the camera-enforced 70 mph, everybody bunches up and goes along at about 65. I find this seems more dangerous than the previous "OK up to 80" that we had before.

Last time I went through I set my limiter to 80mph now problem except the car in front kept hammering on his breaks at ever MS4 thinking there was a camera. In the end I went down lane 1 which was totally clear.

[Norfolktolancashire]

...On another note, I have now twice seen HGVs in Lane 3 thus creating a rolling road block. Is this legal ?

Yes.

In that case it needs to be made illegal.

Agreed, there is no need for three artics parallel, it is a case of the road traffic act catching up with modern road design.

[jusme]

Hate to bring this up again, but I'm beginning to think the telemetry on this section is either inadequate, inoperative or being ignored.

Saturday, "50 / Report of accident" all the way from J19 to J18 (which is about 10 minutes travel time, no idea how long before/after). They clearly had no idea where the incident was, perhaps someone phoned it in. Two cars and an HGV cab parked in L1. No lane closure signed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzOC8mFcCpk

Later on, J18-17, minivan parked in L1, occupants behind the barrier (so not just happened), no indication on the signage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4G9xHeiiaQ

I could accept the second incident might have only just happened, but what's the expected response time?

The first is inexcusable. Yes, a blanket 50 is safe(er) than doing nothing, but what are all those cameras, loops and microwave sensors for?

I know it can be done right, the previous week there was a neat "Red X means lane closed", followed by two "move over" and then two "lane closed" signs around the incident, and then straight back to NSL.

[fras]

Hate to bring this up again, but I'm beginning to think the telemetry on this section is either inadequate, inoperative or being ignored.

Saturday, "50 / Report of accident" all the way from J19 to J18 (which is about 10 minutes travel time, no idea how long before/after). They clearly had no idea where the incident was, perhaps someone phoned it in. Two cars and an HGV cab parked in L1. No lane closure signed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzOC8mFcCpk

Later on, J18-17, minivan parked in L1, occupants behind the barrier (so not just happened), no indication on the signage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4G9xHeiiaQ

I could accept the second incident might have only just happened, but what's the expected response time?

The first is inexcusable. Yes, a blanket 50 is safe(er) than doing nothing, but what are all those cameras, loops and microwave sensors for?

I know it can be done right, the previous week there was a neat "Red X means lane closed", followed by two "move over" and then two "lane closed" signs around the incident, and then straight back to NSL.

Your experience confirms mine. Broken down vehicle with no warnings or anything at all. It's as if the monitoring staff are all asleep, or maybe out the back for a fag. Not good.

[fras]

Hate to bring this up again, but I'm beginning to think the telemetry on this section is either inadequate, inoperative or being ignored.

Saturday, "50 / Report of accident" all the way from J19 to J18 (which is about 10 minutes travel time, no idea how long before/after). They clearly had no idea where the incident was, perhaps someone phoned it in. Two cars and an HGV cab parked in L1. No lane closure signed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzOC8mFcCpk

Later on, J18-17, minivan parked in L1, occupants behind the barrier (so not just happened), no indication on the signage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4G9xHeiiaQ

I could accept the second incident might have only just happened, but what's the expected response time?

The first is inexcusable. Yes, a blanket 50 is safe(er) than doing nothing, but what are all those cameras, loops and microwave sensors for?

I know it can be done right, the previous week there was a neat "Red X means lane closed", followed by two "move over" and then two "lane closed" signs around the incident, and then straight back to NSL.

Your experience confirms mine. Broken down vehicle with no warnings or anything at all. It's as if the monitoring staff are all asleep, or maybe out the back for a fag. Not good. OK, traffic was light so it was easy to move over to Lane 2 but I see future huge prangs if they don't extract the digit soon

[Alderpoint]

It might not be perfect (are you willing to pay for that?) but it's a vast improvement on what was there before.

[Bryn666]

Surely it depends on where a report comes in from - in an emergency situation presumably the default is to restrict an entire link until the CCTV etc can pinpoint the exact location.

[RichardA35]

It would have been rather more helpful to the control room to have phoned in confirmation of the precise location at the time using the marker posts or Driver Location Signs, as well as filming the scene.
I know I may be a grumpy anorak in this respect but I have Highways England as a contact ready for this eventuality which I have used 2-3 times this year with another call made from an emergency phone.
0300 123 5000 if you are wondering

[A303Chris]

This is the latest HE press release saying how much time the scheme is saving and saying speeds have been increased by 15mph.

However I do not know many commuters who leave for work after 9am

[jackal]

^ The 15mph increase applies to Manchester area workers in the office for 9 according to the release.

[Big L]

I saw two of the little roadside electronic signs lit up yesterday morning, about 7am, not far north of J16. First one was a warning of roadworks, 1 mile. Second one showed lanes 1,2,3 closed. There were no roadworks, there was no sign of anything requiring lane closures. Just a couple of miles of 4 lanes of very slow traffic.

I guess there had been some overnight works.

[mikehindsonevans]

Hate to bring this up again, but I'm beginning to think the telemetry on this section is either inadequate, inoperative or being ignored.

Saturday, "50 / Report of accident" all the way from J19 to J18 (which is about 10 minutes travel time, no idea how long before/after). They clearly had no idea where the incident was, perhaps someone phoned it in. Two cars and an HGV cab parked in L1. No lane closure signed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzOC8mFcCpk

Later on, J18-17, minivan parked in L1, occupants behind the barrier (so not just happened), no indication on the signage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4G9xHeiiaQ

I could accept the second incident might have only just happened, but what's the expected response time?

The first is inexcusable. Yes, a blanket 50 is safe(er) than doing nothing, but what are all those cameras, loops and microwave sensors for?

I know it can be done right, the previous week there was a neat "Red X means lane closed", followed by two "move over" and then two "lane closed" signs around the incident, and then straight back to NSL.

Your experience confirms mine. Broken down vehicle with no warnings or anything at all. It's as if the monitoring staff are all asleep, or maybe out the back for a fag. Not good. OK, traffic was light so it was easy to move over to Lane 2 but I see future huge prangs if they don't extract the digit soon

It was interesting, ploughing across Sabre and catching up on postings on a quiet Saturday morning, to read this post from July 2019 when this dialogue received an update.
Using this M6 stretch weekly, to and from M6j18, I am still noticing that lane one is being largely left unused when everything is running. Panorama has clearly exposed the reservations which many citizens had developed based on their individual observations of unlit and broken down vehicles on what is now lane one.
Educating citizens on using the blue distance locator signs when contacting HE must be a sensible addition to the public information education campaign.

Let me be clear, I can see the need for more capacity on the M6 through Cheshire and Staffordshire. However, once it is up and running, the widened sections need better survivability for WHEN the worst DOES happen.

Deliberately chose not to post this in the smart motorway main thread.