Personally speaking if the weather was crap I’d stay in the lorry and take my chances, and to be honest , not over concerned. If I was in a car with my family I’d be right up the bank of the hard shoulder.
I too have taken my chances on the h/s while waiting for a tyre fitter but if I had to night out wouldn’t want to be in a lay by on a busy trunk route even though I think it’s just as dangerous. I suppose you have a choice where you park up (to some extent) and the movement from passing wagons would make me feel uneasy while trying to sleep.
All valid points fellows.
and I would like to add, I work nights, so whenever I see anything on the hard shoulder ( even smokie bear ), I always move over to the right one lane…
In some american states it is an offence not to move into the middle lane if there’s something on the shoulder, as long as it’s safe to do so. Its also a legal requirement to have your headlights on if your wipers are on.
sayersy:
Its also a legal requirement to have your headlights on if your wipers are on.
That ranks alongside being able to turn right (left in our case) on a red light as a sensible American traffic law I wish we had here. Thankfully a lot of new cars now have automatic headlights & LED daytime running lights so the issue of people driving around in motorway spray with no lights/sidelights isn’t as bad as once was.
My wife’s car has the automatic headlights etc, but the one thing they won’t do is automatically switch on due to poor visibility - They only react to low light levels (which ain’t the same thing). As a result, they won’t switch on automatically in daytime fog or heavy spray conditions. It would be quite useful to have them linked to the (also automatic) wipers.
But then again, it’s just dumbing-down the whole task of driving, turning everyone into steering wheel minders…
Roymondo:
My wife’s car has the automatic headlights etc, but the one thing they won’t do is automatically switch on due to poor visibility - They only react to low light levels (which ain’t the same thing). As a result, they won’t switch on automatically in daytime fog or heavy spray conditions. It would be quite useful to have them linked to the (also automatic) wipers.But then again, it’s just dumbing-down the whole task of driving, turning everyone into steering wheel minders…
If dumbing down improves road safety, then I’m all in favour of it.
sayersy:
Roymondo:
My wife’s car has the automatic headlights etc, but the one thing they won’t do is automatically switch on due to poor visibility - They only react to low light levels (which ain’t the same thing). As a result, they won’t switch on automatically in daytime fog or heavy spray conditions. It would be quite useful to have them linked to the (also automatic) wipers.But then again, it’s just dumbing-down the whole task of driving, turning everyone into steering wheel minders…
If dumbing down improves road safety, then I’m all in favour of it.
To be fair to Roymondo he gave perfect examples where road safety is not improved by dumbing down. Automatic headlights being one of the main examples, people just assume that their lights are going to come on when needed. When you have high amounts of ambient light such as snowfall, summer fog, summer showers etc the lights do not come on. On the rare occasion that Mr Averages glances at his dash he sees illuminated dials and wrongly assumes that his headlights are on.
If I and other ex drivers broke down on a motorway, we would have to stay in the vehicle and take our chance. Myself and a couple of other members on here drive Mercedes Sprinters from a wheelchair, so there is no chance of us getting onto the other side of the barrier. We could get out via the lift in the rear of the vehicle, but I think that would be a bit silly.So I for one ain’t going to worry about it. If I do break down on a motorway I will sit it out and wait for assistance or the big bang. 