Yeah, the OP themselves said they never drive on the inside left lane, and despite my contempt for middle lane hoggers I can sympathise. The 'smart motorway' seemed fine in theory: whenever there was a breakdown the warning lights would come on, the 'X' would show saying the lane was closed, speed limits would drop, the emergency services would be informed, etc. All brilliant, and only undermined by one tiny but fatal flaw: this does NOT happen immediately. Consequently there is a crucial time gap between a vehicle breaking down and the smart motorway informing everybody of this. This time gap is long enough for someone to plough into the back of the stationary vehicle in a live lane. Or swerve to avoid it and hit something else.originally was supposed to be using the hard shoulder in peak times to ease congestion. the risk of collison, certainly a high speed one, was expected to be negligable as traffic would be slow. that worked very well, then got hijacked to make an extra lane for free. if there's no congestion, traffic at proprer moterway speed, they are dangerous.
on M23 i notice it doesnt work anyway, drivers seem to ignore the left lane, some going 60 in the second and everyone else bunches up at 70 in the third lane.