Not so smart...

A long stretch of the M6 motorway currently has a 50mph speed limit while work takes place between junction 16 and junction 19 to convert the section of road into a 'smart motorway'. The 20 mile stretch of motorway is being converted into an 'All Lane Running' Smart Motorway.This is where all four lanes are open to traffic, with regular refuge areas available for emergency use in place of a hard shoulder.
Unfortunately on our way south on Saturday we got caught up in traffic jam which meant it took us 25 mins to do 2 miles, very frustrating although we hope it wasn't due to someone being involved in an accident - no real clue as to what the cause was.

As for smart roads, these will be useless while we still have the not-so-smart drivers. At various points of our journey we had man driving between two lanes while on his phone,another driver with head back finishing off a packet of crisps with one hand on the steering wheel plus I had to take evasive action when 'white-van-man' to my left wandered into my lane while munching on a sausage roll!

On Sunday on our way down to Dover we switched on our new travel companion, Google maps, on my smart phone which we have only recently started to use more, especially for getting in and out of cities. Our lady friend,who I have to confess has suffered a fair bit of verbal abuse recently, was at it again, directing us off the M 20 as it was apparently closed. Pauline wanted to follow her route but as the motorway peeps had no information displayed re any problems I stayed put...it wasn't closed!