Tips for driving across Europe 1233You'll get lost in Belgium on the way there and arround Dusseldorf on the way back. Signage is terrible! Don't rely on the Yahoo Route Planner. Those things give...
If you have been that way you may have noticed that the entire route now has large refuge bays for drivers to pull off the hard shoulder. There are also new gantrys and message signs which signal the status of the lanes and hard shoulder to motorists and I'm sure that you will be pleased to hear that the route is lined with digital enforcement cameras to enforce both speed limits and appropriate use of the hard shoulder.
The hard shoulder and refuge bays are monitored 24-7 by a system of cameras and induction loops. If anything stops on the hard shoulder or in a refuge an operator is alerted and can dispatch a traffic officer to help. Normal operation is as at present, hard shoulder running forbidden.
When the area gets congested the operator can permti hard shoulder running but the system enforces a safety check before the hard shoulder can be opened to traffic. The entire hard shoulder is visually checked using one sod of a lot of cameras, and there is the backup of automatic vehicle detection to ensure that the hard shoulder is open.
When the hard shoulder is opened it is only available to traffic wishing to leave the motorway at the next exit. Traffic is not permitted to cross the slip road and that is enforced by the physical design on the slip road (i.e. no point trying to cross the slip unless you want a car-wall experience).
As far as emergency vehicles are concerned there's not much difference from the state today, because at rpesent drivers block the pbuttage of emergency vehicles by queueing across slips and by refusing to allow emergency vehicles to leave the hard whoulder at junctions where either on-slip traffic blocks progress or physical obstruction (bridge piers) blocks progress. In fact the situation is slightly better because vehicles can pull into the refuges to let an emergency vehicle past.
There are also alternative, off motorway, routes in the area for emergency services to use.
-- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
