Are motorway hard shoulders vital?

THE RAC is recommending reinstating hard shoulders on all smart motorways (Mail). Four weeks ago my wife and I were travelling south on the M6 when the car lost power completely. My speed was about 60 mph but we were, fortunately, on the inside lane. As a result I was able to coast onto the hard shoulder and call the RAC. Anyone who has had to do so knows how scary it is, with cars and heavy goods vehicles hurtling past only a few feet away. Luckily for us we were on a normal stretch of the road, as 15 miles further down the motorway it changes from normal to ‘smart’. The smart section is still under construction (junctions 26 to 21), which means there are no safe places to pull in.

I dread to think what could have happened if we had been in that smart section.

I totally agree with the RAC: smart motorways are killer motorways.

FRED grundy, standish, wigan. I was reading about how smart motorways are going to have more lay-bys added to make them safer when — lightbulb moment — it dawned on me: why not join them all together and call it a hard shoulder. Genius or what!

TREVOR HATCHER, carshalton. THE Department for Transport should have a public vote on this issue via a simple yes/no question for all registered vehicle owners when renewing their car tax online. This would take in all commercial vehicles and private car owners.

I think smart motorways are death traps. A car doesn’t give you notice it is going to break down, and try dragging a caravan with a blown tyre to a safe area. Bring back the hard shoulder.

Mr R. Jones, Kidderminster, worcs.