The decision was made to relieve congestion by adding a further lane (doesn’t stop lane 2 hogging etc) and its cheaper to convert existing motorways than to widen them out to 4 lanes plus breakdown – not to mention the greenies squealing about the impact of adding a 4th or fifth lane…
The biggest issues are the large gaps between refuge areas, the poor minimum wage soul who has to watch multiple monitors for a breakdown, red X the lane and cross fingers everyone heeds the overhead signs.
The monitor watching in particular is a weak link, I was a lifeguard in my yoof, watching people swim all day certainly was the most boring thing ever & it would be easy to miss something as you zombie out. Thankfully I never did, but it did happen to colleagues who would be alerted to someone drowning by the public, rather than spotting them themselves. This was relayed to the rest of us as a warning against complacency, but it was truly mind numbing staring at water all day. I had to quit after 2 years, I could feel my mind slipping away.
No more red short shorts and running on the beach, Baywatch stylee for me. Now they’d just think a hippo had escaped from the local wildlife park…
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.