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[mickeyl]

What do people who live in Welwyn and Oaklands near the A1M and the B197 think about widening the A1M to 3 lanes between Junctions 6 and 8 ALONG WITH PROPER NOISE PROTECTION ??  This will have several beneficial effects apart from allowing Welwyn Hatfield people needing fast attention at the Lister A&E when the QE2 A&E closes out, to get there quickly particularly at evening rush-hours.

The B197 will not be used as a rat run in Welwyn and through Oaklands and Woolmer Green.

There should be far less fumes from gridlocked traffic

[AFC]

I think with the extra 10,000 homes to be built, this is 100% necessary. Otherwise the A1(M) will be the A406 all over again, permanent gridlock.

[Slam]

I'm waiting for Grant to tell us what's happening with the surfacing after J6 - I think we're a little forgotten up here in the dizzy north of the borough.

Driving down the M3 the other day, I noticed that they were building a fence at the top of the embankment, which was a sandwich of two fences with insulation in between; clearly a sound barrier.  Now wouldn't that be good.

Slam.

[mickeyl]

Unless you have been on some of the continental motorways, you have very little idea just how poor the noise protection is on UK motorways.

The A1M needs to be attacked both by having whisper tarmac throughout and much better noise protection

Our inadequate motorways both in terms of capacity and noise protection, our unreliable underground and train systems and the dreadfully overcrowded airports [eg Heathrow and Gatwick] are all national disgraces

[Slam]

I do drive on the continent quite a lot and bliss it is to (except for some bit of Belgium!) - not least because the standard of driving is much higher.

Slam.

[mickeyl]

The A1M thread appears on three boards. This is off the Handside board

I've [that is Grant] actually invited both Conservative and LibDem councillors to come and meet the minister with me [to a meeting on the 9th June].  We will of course report back via this forum, the http://www.Quieter-A1M.com website and the local press.

More news when we have it.

Also, I'm also meeting with a resident who has done an incredible job of sound mapping Handside and all areas of Welwyn Hatfield which are affected by motorway noise.  I'm meeting separately with him tomorrow and hope to be able to post his work online soon too

[shapps]

The meeting with the Minister was quite helpful and he's made a couple of specific pledges. Read about it here:
http://www.welwynhatfieldconservatives.com/index.php?sectionid=3&pagenumber=383

[AL10]

thanks for the update Grant - the hard shoulder idea is very interesting, I remember Mike Hobday proposing it and getting a lot of stick, but from what I've heard the trials on the M62 have been very successful!

[mickeyl]

Not that it is particularly important, but the successful hard shoulder trials were on the M42, not the M62 as stated above.

One problem with the hard shoulder approach, is that the times when the extra lane is taken out of service, are the times when traffic is the heaviest - that is due to collisions and breakdowns.

A second problem is that the hard shoulder approach requires serious investment, which must put off the day when three proper lanes are built

[jonmorris]

I remember reading in a car mag that said they considered the hard shoulder trial a success, even though they didn't wait to collect enough data.

It would be like opening it at 9am, seeing if there were any accidents by 9.30am and then saying 'Great, it's perfectly safe'. The clear test will be after people break down, and how quick the lane can be taken out of use, whether people comply with the signs and if its feasible to except people to 'limp' to the refuge area.

I'm not sure what my opinion is, but do think that if we could enforce rules on middle lane hoggers, we could effectively gain another lane by using all existing road space. During many parts of the day, lane 1 is virtually empty while lanes 2 and 3 are full! Get people to only use those lanes when overtaking and you've suddenly achieved something without ANY clever technology or monitoring.

After all, when we now have 4 lanes with the hard shoulder, won't we see people still driving in lane 2 (now 3) making it illegal to undertake and leaving huge sections of road empty? I only need to think about the wide stretch of M25 near Heathrow to see how bad things can be because of poor lane discipline.

[Slam]

I'm not sure what my opinion is, but do think that if we could enforce rules on middle lane hoggers, we could effectively gain another lane by using all existing road space. During many parts of the day, lane 1 is virtually empty while lanes 2 and 3 are full! Get people to only use those lanes when overtaking and you've suddenly achieved something without ANY clever technology or monitoring.

After all, when we now have 4 lanes with the hard shoulder, won't we see people still driving in lane 2 (now 3) making it illegal to undertake and leaving huge sections of road empty? I only need to think about the wide stretch of M25 near Heathrow to see how bad things can be because of poor lane discipline.

You've gone off-topic, but it gives me a chance to bleat about a pet hate.  UK lane discipline, or complete lack of.

My personal conclusion won't be popular and many could predict it - it's about speed limits.  Drive in France, Belgium, Germany etc - which have a more relaxed approach to speed, and lane discipline is excellent.  That's because if you are sat in the outside lane at 65mph, you'll have a Mercedes Sprinter Van grafted to your back bumper.  You'll often see drivers flashing their lights and the slower car obediantly moving over.  Consequently, drivers always move back to the inside lane and everything goes like clockwork.  It's a pleasure to drive on the continent (except Holland, who have similar issues to the UK and funnily enough, are sensitive about speeding).

Here in the UK, the 70mph limit is higher up the priority list.  Therefore, it strikes me that people think if they are doing this speed, they can be where they like as no-one can go faster.  Except the guy behind wants to to 80mph and he won't move because surely that's faster than the car behind, and so on.  It'll never happen; but if you upped the limit beyond what many are comforatable at driving with, lane discipline would improve.  Yes, there'd need to be an amnesty in Sprinter's who would spend the first few months doing us a service of 'educating' slower drivers at some risk - but hey!   

Slam.

[jonmorris]

I am still off topic, but you are so right.. In Germany, many autobahns are 2 lanes only (with restrictions on overtaking by large vehicles during peak hours) and it goes like clockwork.

Lane discipline is excellent and nobody gets upset when someone is doing 150mph and you only want to do 60mph - because you won't get people driving close to you in lane 1, and you won't be blocking them when they want to overtake.

Sadly, we could never do it here because people are always so upset it someone overtakes (the type that do 60, so you pass at 70, then they catch up and pass and drop back to 60... and the cycle continues). And don't get me started on people who can't merge in turn at roadworks, and block the closing lane about 3 miles early and feel you're trying to get one up on them. Sorry chum, but you're supposed to use all road space - so if you want to move over a day before in preparation and cause a tailback, move over and let me do it properly.

I'll shut up now!

[Slam]

I hear you brother!

 

Slam.

[jonmorris]

Testify!

(sorry  )

[mickeyl]

I would think the closing of the A1M northbound between Jn6 and Jn7 for most of Monday 18th August, must have caused nightmare traffic conditions in Welwyn, Oaklands and Woolmer Green.

When there is a serious collision on a 2-lane motorway as there was yesterday, there is virtually no chance of keeping one lane open, whereas with a 3-lane motorway there is a better chance. I am not saying that if the A1M had been a 3-laner yesterday, the police would have been able to have kept one lane open because it was a very serious collision. But the more lanes there are, the less are the chances that the motorway has to be totally closed.

Another scenario occurred a while back when a Stevenage fireman was killed whilst dealing with an incident on the A1M hard shoulder. So in similar circumstances now, I could imagine the police might close one of the two lanes to protect the Emergency services. Particularly in rush hours, this has a drastic effect on piling up traffic. Whereas dropping a three lane motorway down to two lanes is more manageable