Motorway Misery
Tales of despair from the orbital orifice
Update #1: Nothing smart about this Motorway
Introduction:
For those who don't have a clue what I'm talking about then let me explain.
The M60 Motorway orbits the city of Manchester in north west England. It is the only Motorway ring road in the UK. The Motorway is a little over 30 miles in it entirety and forms a complete ring around Manchester serving the smaller suburban towns on the periphery. Unfortunately It has been a bottleneck for traffic madness for years with certain sections and junctions becoming a static jam in the daily rush hour. To try and combat this Highways England together with MSM (Manchester Smart Motorways) started work on a 'Smart' controlled section running for 17 miles through the worst of the problems. The roadworks begin at M60 J8 and extends onward to M62 J20 with traffic currently restricted to 50mph. The project originally started back in 2014 with the expected completion date sometime in autumn 2017.
For more information: Smart Upgrade M60/M62
Below is a plan of the current roadworks.
Unfortunately for me I live quite near to this choas and have to use this road on a daily basis. Nobody likes the traffic jams and a solution would be welcomed by many. A 'Smart' Motorway then? Well what in essence seems a good idea may well be just a waste of money.
The M60 as a Motorway is a victim of its own success. A popular national and international route for trade and business it has outgrown it's capacity. What compounds this problem is the M62 factor. Far from being an isolated ring road the M60 shares a small stretch of its tarmac with the trans Pennine M62 Motorway. The busiest stretch of the M60 therefore is where the road sharing begins. The Eccles intersection actually. Here you have the M602, the M60 and the M62 all coming together at one point. Take a trip down here at 5pm and it's painfully obvious that this Junction was poorly designed or the shifting traffic numbers were not originally envisaged.
Travelling Westbound approximately 1 mile from the Eccles Junction and we find the M61 interchange. Another compounding factor in the melee during rush hour periods.
Did they get it wrong then?
In hind sight the Motorway designers of the 1970's and 1980's should have left the M60 and M62 as separate entities in my opinion. If you take a look at the map again you can see what I mean. There seems to be too much going on around Junction 12. What we have here is merging motorways and junctions that are too close together. It can be a nightmare trying to get to your designated route. As a consequence lane switching for the inexperienced can become daily accidents. Motorists get side-swiped everyday it seems causing even more congestion. It has to be seen to be believed.
What about this Smart Motorway idea?
I guess that this scheme cost considerably less for the government than it would for road widening or redeveloping as a viable solution.
The 'Smart Motorway' concept in theory sounds plausible. This system has famously been monitoring the M40 Motorway for some years now with success (not my words). The idea is simple enough. The congestion starts, the automatic recognition cameras flick the switch to red alert and 50mph signs flash all around... and the once (reasonably safe) hard shoulder becomes a live lane.
This to me beggars belief. I can't say I have ever really needed to use the hard shoulder before but it has always been comforting to know that if unexpected happens there is a place of refuge. Not anymore it would seem. Have the misfortune to break down whilst the Motorway is in smart mode and you face sitting in your car, in a live lane with vehicles whizzing past you. This could be terrifying. Apparently there will be refuge points every mile or so down the stretch of smart road. Fancy pushing your car to one of these? It could be up to a mile away..
Will the changes make a difference?
If this was the only option then I hope it does help, although I very much doubt it.
This idea may work well in other locations around the country but I'm not so sure it would be compatible with Manchester. It seems like a bit of a gamble with no foreseeable improvements.
The jams will still be there to hinder my journey home.
Oh course I could be wrong!...
