So I made a bit of a mistake the other day. I was driving on the M42 near the HS2 construction works in Birmingham. I’m not from the area and don’t usually drive on smart motorways—only a handful of times over the past few years—so I’m not that familiar with how they work.
Traffic was quite congested, and I noticed the hard shoulder didn’t have a “closed” sign. I assumed that meant it was open to use, so I moved into that lane. While driving along, I remember thinking, “Why isn’t anyone else using this?”
I passed a few overhead gantries and none of them were showing a red X—they were all blank. Then I eventually saw a sign on one gantry that said, “Hard shoulder for emergency use only.” At that point, I moved back into the normal lanes and carried on as usual.
Call me stupid if you want, but I only found out afterwards (after looking it up) that blank gantries actually mean the hard shoulder is closed. I also understand now that smart motorways can detect vehicles using the hard shoulder and issue fines and penalty points.
I know I’m in the wrong, but honestly, I do think it’s quite ambiguous. If the lane is closed, why not clearly show a red X?
Anyway, what I’m trying to figure out is: am I likely to get fined for this? If so, how much would it be, and would I be offered a course instead of points? For context, I currently have 3 points from an SP50 about three years ago.
