Not-so-Smart Motorways (Again)

I made a video the other morning. I previously made videos which attempted to describe the grief which permeated my entire life, after my beloved Jacqueline was summarily sentenced in our local hospital, but I stopped after I realised the emptiness which I faced was permanent; and so I came back to reality. 

But, of course, I digress: back to the latest video. I recorded about twelve minutes, speaking about my opinion regarding the so-called ‘smart motorways’ about the lunacy in planning which came up with this weird notion that if you take away an item which has proven to be a safety asset from a high speed motorway, you can ‘improve’ the traffic flow. I posted it on my blogsite, and also pushed it on X (Twitter)

I am of course referring to the fact that, since the imposition of this maniac idea, where you make the ‘breakdown’ or ‘safety’ lane into an extra running lane on this ‘smart’ motorway, place platforms holding illuminated speed signs telling drivers the maximum speed; but not much else, then traffic flows will improve. The once totally accessible ‘breakdown lane’ is now a series of ‘Emergency’ areas, but spaced about two-odd miles apart. 

There were also plans to festoon those overhead platforms with monitor cameras to ‘detect’ stationary or broken-down vehicles, but, strangely enough, the technology just wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t exactly ‘good enough’ for seventy nine fatal accidents resulting specifically from that ‘transformation’ onto a ‘smart motorway’ status. 

The news item which spurred my interest was the information that the Highways Agency was funding a large increase in the numbers of ‘Emergency’ areas on all of these not-so-smart motorways. That particular gem reinforced the theory that no Government, or even an Agency of that government, will ever admit that they got things wrong. But, at least, they have come up with at least a semblance of a return to ‘civilised’ thinking: they would never admit a stupid idea, but at least a way to cut down on the carnage.

But here’s the strange thing which I discovered the day after I posted that video. I must confess at this point that my YouTube audience is primarily friends and family, but as I said, I uploaded that video onto YouTube, and copied it onto X (Twitter); and the VERY NEXT DAY, I got SIX notifications or comments on my humble YouTube post; all telling me how stupid / misinformed / totally bad I am: so you can maybe guess the vituperation poured on my unsuspecting skull. I received an extra fifty views on my own blogsite! 

The strange discovery? I had stumbled onto one of the thousands if internet ‘worlds’ where the users attack each other with ferocity; all over safety, or rather the lack of safety, on a certain number of motorways, on the one I sampled; is pored over ad infinitum. I shall not link to these strange people, as it might well encourage them; but it does make me wonder: ‘are they the fruit-and-nutcases; or am I’?