Now that the Highways Agency have come up with the brilliant plan of opening up the hard shoulder on some of the UK's busiest motorways, hundreds of motorists have lodged complaints - they're queuing up!
A trial scheme on the M42, on an 11-mile stretch began in September 2006, and cut average journey times by more than a quarter on the northbound carriageway. Weekday journey times improved by 27%, overall fuel consumption fell by 4% and vehicle emissions by up to 10%. However people on the southbound carriageway kept rubber-necking at the opposite sides' flow of traffic and more accidents were caused due to lack of attention to the vehicle in front.
The cost of the scheme will be £150 million, which the government call cost-effective as they claim that as vehicles move faster, the more fuel they burn, hence the more fuel duty they can claim. However they don't mention the cost of reprinting the Highway Code!
The President of the New Age Travellers Association, Pete Bogg from Swindon, said: "It's absolutely dangerous, man! To have lay-bys every 500 yards is ridiculous because our ancient, Mad Max style vehicles cannot travel that distance without breaking down - that's the main reason we don't pay out on road tax - why should we?"
The police are concerned too: Chief Inspector Edge of Scotland Yard expressed his fears that: "Boy Racers will be challenging our boys to games of 'Chav Chicken' where police are enticed to chasing them at high speed down the hard shoulder until they meet a broken-down vehicle and the pulling out into the slow lane (without indicating) at the last minute so that the police car slams into the back of the static vehicle."
Transport Secretary Dr Ruth 'Kick-start' Skelly retorted: "EX-QUEUES ME?
