Just days after Ruth Kelly, The Minister For Transport announced the that a high occupancy lane would be opened on the M606 and M62, the Government announced it has abandoned plans to introduce a similar high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane on the M1.
Intended to be in place between junctions 7 & 10 on the M1 (St Albans & Luton), the lane would have required cars to have more than one occupant before they could travel in the lane.
However, the plans were originally announced by the Government before investigations into its viability were fully completed. Investigations have found that the HOV lane could not be located in the inside lane, because it would create problems for non-HOV traffic leaving or joining the motorway.
The Department for Transport (DfT) then looked at whether the HOV lane could be located in the outside lane. However, further work has suggested that this could lead to an increase in accidents, due to an increased risk of vehicles undertaking. They also said that “Location of the HOV in the outside lane would make enforcement more difficult, because of the speed of the traffic, and the absence of refuge areas or suitable locations for pulling vehicles over.
The report by the DFT went on to say in an “advanced motorway signaling and management feasibility study” that there is currently no viable camera that allows for remote or automated enforcement of vehicle occupancy, so enforcement would require the police being there to nick you in the good old fashioned way. Getting Police to pull over non-compliant vehicles could also introduce additional safety risks.
“For these reasons we do not consider that the proposal developed for the M1 is the right solution for this location, and that there are likely to be limited opportunities for successful outside lane HOV lanes, at least until camera technology can be developed to support compliance.”
What were these moron’s ever thinking? Can you really believe the people that are making the decisions about what happens on our roads, ever for one minute considered putting a specialist use lane in the outside lane. Surely its just common sense that people will pass slower traffic by undertaking them “they have no other choice” or does it mean that a driver who chooses to do 50mph in the HOC lane slows the whole motorway down?
Where would the police pull them over? There’s clearly no where to stop in the HOC (outside lane), so does that mean that you pull up a car doing 50mph in the outside lane then get it to the hard should by crossing two other lanes of traffic doing 70mph…em….good idea.
I fear for the future of our roads and I fear for our motorists that need to use them, as the government increases their obsession with controlling us in every way they can, either in the name of pollution, congestion or safety. Fact is we all need to get around, we need to do it for work, and we need to do it in our social life. Most of us are responsible people, we are not fools and there is no legislation or laws that can cover every event, its down to us. Why don’t the Government trust us?
As for having our houses broken into, or property damaged, well if you need a copper, you will very soon be able to find him on the HOC lane of the M606 & M62
