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posted by CoolHand on Monday November 07 2016, @10:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the big-bro-on-the-road dept.

More than 1,000 motorists a week are being caught speeding on the UK's smart motorways, police figures suggest.

Last year, 52,516 fixed penalties were issued on 11 smart sections, including on stretches of the M1, M25 and M6.

This compared to 2,023 on the same stretches in 2010-11, before they were upgraded to smart motorways - which use the hard shoulder and variable speed limits to control traffic flow.

The government says they are used to improve capacity, not generate revenue.

Smart motorways are operated by Highways England, which uses overhead gantries - also containing speed cameras - to direct traffic into open lanes and change speed limits depending on the volume of traffic.

Ticket revenue has increased tenfold over 5 years. Have British drivers experienced the "improved capacity" that the government uses to justify the smart highways?


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by zocalo on Tuesday November 08 2016, @12:31AM

    by zocalo (302) on Tuesday November 08 2016, @12:31AM (#423857)
    The UK system is a *little* smarter than that. In many stretches where they use hard shoulder running (HSR) they also have emergency lay-bys at regular intervals for vehicles to get off the main carriageway, and in addition to the ANPR cameras they also do stationary vehicle detection and will automatically close a lane that has an obstruction via gantry signage and dispatch assistance. HSR generally only kicks in as an option when congestion reaches a point that variable speeds have already been applied as well, so the maximum speed of traffic is already reduced from 70mph to 50mph or lower which also helps to reduce the risk of a collision. While definitely not as safe as a dedicated emergency lane, it's still better than none at all.
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  • (Score: 2) by mendax on Tuesday November 08 2016, @01:43AM

    by mendax (2840) on Tuesday November 08 2016, @01:43AM (#423888)

    Are you sure they are that smart? After all, the Brits voted for Brexit, which will likely doom to the United part of the United Kingdom.

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    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Arik on Tuesday November 08 2016, @01:49AM

      by Arik (4543) on Tuesday November 08 2016, @01:49AM (#423892) Journal
      "Are you sure they are that smart? After all, the Brits voted for Brexit, which will likely doom to the United part of the United Kingdom."

      More than 900 years after the Catholic invasion, and more than 800 years after Strongbow, some would view that as not a tragedy, but simply long overdue.
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      • (Score: 2) by mendax on Tuesday November 08 2016, @05:43AM

        by mendax (2840) on Tuesday November 08 2016, @05:43AM (#423943)

        Sure about that? Turn a fairly significant unified country with wide diversity and an ancient history into an insignificant little European backwater? No, not European. The English don't want to be European.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 08 2016, @03:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 08 2016, @03:54PM (#424103)

      b/c a bunch of un-elected thieves in brussels were working in the best interests of the UK? you Stay idiots are ridiculous slaves.