Britain’s road network is awful compared to France’s

A 600-mile Easter holiday trip through France really rubbed in the raw deal that drivers get from the British road network. Yes, I know France is a bigger country with a similar number of people, the toll road system is different to here and our motorway network runs fairly smoothly given the number of vehicles on it. But hundreds of miles barely having to come off a cruise-controlled 80mph compared rather favourably to my experience getting to and from Dover for the ferry.

I spend enough time in the car to be very familiar with the concept of variable speed limits, but it was a new one on me to find a free-flowing M25 down to 50mph, explained by the overhead gantries as “speed limits in force for safety test”. Which seemingly means it’s OK for four lanes of traffic to be chugging along at 20mph below the usual limit…

Some digging with National Highways revealed this is a potentially three-month test of software used to detect stationary cars on smart motorways, and as well as ‘my’ stretch between junctions 5-7, it’s also taking place between junctions 23 and 27. Both will be subject to overnight closures, too.

The limit is 50mph because the software needs a dozen weeks to calibrate. So frustrated drivers who have put up with months of roadworks on those stretches still can’t get back up to speed, even though the cones have been cleared.

Yes, it’ll be gone in a few weeks, and the work to add 150 emergency areas on smart motorways is much needed to rectify some flawed thinking when the latter were introduced. But it’s another frustration hard-hit drivers could do without – and that’s without considering the semi-permanent Operation Brock contraflow on the M20 running up and down to the Kent coast.

It’s embarrassing to contrast the experience of Brits rolling out of Calais onto (generally) trouble-free French autoroutes – not all of them toll roads – with that of foreign drivers rolling off trains and ferries to find half a motorway shut to house trucks heading for Dover, and then a lengthy stretch of the M25 set to a low speed limit for a quarter of a year to make sure the tech is working properly. I can’t help feeling that a more driver-centric approach would have found better solutions.

Do you agree with Paul? Let us know your thoughts on the British road network in the comments section...