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When travelling in the UK, I often see this sign when there are roadworks:

sign

This results in a few questions:

  • What does this exactly mean and are there specific reasons when is used?

  • Where will you be recovered to?

  • Does this replace breakdown cover?

Xnero
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    It means there's a courtesy service patrol that will tow your car for free to get it out of the congested area. One time, I pulled over in a wide shoulder area before a long bridge crossing. Service patrol showed up. I said "I stopped because I just realized I don't have enough gas to make it all the way across". He said "Well done, sir!" And gave me a gallon of gas. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Sep 16 '19 at 03:56
  • @Harper: How long was that crossing that you would have time to realize you do not have enough fuel to make it across? – Matthieu M. Sep 16 '19 at 13:07
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    @MatthieuM. Possibly something like the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the US 24 miles long.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Pontchartrain_Causeway – Sarriesfan Sep 16 '19 at 13:17
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    Not far off. @MatthieuM. about 13 miles, approaches included. Most of it 2 lane no shoulder, and the most congested crossing in the region. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Sep 16 '19 at 17:54

2 Answers2

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  • What does this exactly mean and are there specific reasons when is used?

This is used under specific conditions listed below and it means you will be recovered to the end of the roadworks to avoid build up of traffic.

  • Where will you be recovered to?

The end of the roadworks.

  • Does this replace breakdown cover?

No, this does not and all motorists are advised to have breakdown cover.

The GOV website provides details on when/where this sign is used and what it means:

Free recovery

If a vehicle breaks down or is damaged during roadworks it can result in congestion, delays or even accidents. To make sure broken down vehicles are cleared quickly, Highways England arranges a free recovery service through roadworks on our network where one or more of the following applies:

  • the hard shoulder is being used as a running (“live”) lane
  • there is no direct access to the hard shoulder, lay-bys and emergency refuges
  • we have reduced carriageway lane widths
  • we have suspended use of the emergency telephones

This service moves vehicles that are broken down, damaged or abandoned to a nearby place of relative safety, for example the hard shoulder. Our free recovery service only operates within the limit of the works. Vehicles are not towed to your home or to a garage. You will be responsible for any further recovery.

Free recover does not replace break down cover. All motorists should be able to make their own recovery arrangements in the event of a breakdown or accident. We strongly advise that you have breakdown cover and carry details of this with you.

This does not replace breakdown cover.

Xnero
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    In my experience (car had a blow out on the M6 in birmingham during roadworks) we were recovered to a random carpark (I think it was a truck stop). They didn't just leave us on the M6 after the road works as I guess that would of still been dangerous. – djsmiley2kStaysInside Sep 15 '19 at 09:16
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    I am interested to know what you are supposed to do if there are currently no workers there, especially if they've disabled the telephones. – OrangeDog Sep 15 '19 at 11:50
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    @OrangeDog The first thing you do is get yourself to a place of safety, preferably over the crash barrier at the side of the road. You then call Highways England on your mobile; if you don't have one of those on you or are in a phone black spot, probably the CCTV operator will pick you up. Failing that, the areas are likely to be patrolled fairly well by Highlands Agency and/or the police. If that isn't possible call police emergency immediately. – richardb Sep 15 '19 at 19:10
  • @richardb I've never seen CCTV on a motorway. I also can't see Highways England patrolling a particular stretch of motorway more often than once a day, which seems to me a long time to be stranded on a motorway. – Hashim Aziz Sep 15 '19 at 21:20
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    Here is the site for Scotland - https://trafficscotland.org/media/breakdownleaflet.pdf - if you can add the details for all the UK into your answer it'll make it fairly hard to beat. – RyanfaeScotland Sep 15 '19 at 21:58
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    @Hashim if they offer a free recovery service, they patrol constantly. That’s... the whole point - re-read the reasons listed above for this service? Patrolling once per day wouldn’t prevent congestion or further accidents. And there’s CCTV across large swathes of the motorway network (and some parts of the A road network): https://trafficcameras.uk/map/ (although admittedly not all). – Tim Sep 16 '19 at 00:21
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    @Hashim http://www.trafficengland.com/ – richardb Sep 16 '19 at 00:43
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    What is breakdown cover? – Adam Sep 16 '19 at 03:00
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    @Hashim if there were no CCTV on the motorway, it'd be the only place in England without it and England just about the only modern country without it. Cameras aren't always obvious, but pretty much every overhead road sign has cameras mounted at the pylons, many signs along the side of the road do too. They may just be fitted at the back of the signs so drivers may not notice them. – jwenting Sep 16 '19 at 03:33
  • @Adam AA Roadwatch for example. And ever more manufacturers offer similar packages where the nearest dealer will respond to calls when you're in trouble and will tow you to a dealership or repair shop. – jwenting Sep 16 '19 at 03:34
  • @Tim - Are you sure they are actively patrolling constantly and not just waiting on standby in a (or several) depot(s) or layby(s) somewhere? Although you may get lucky and happen to be patrolling an area of road where an accident hits it seems it would be more efficient to monitor the entire network via a central location and dispatch units to locations as needed from key, strategic points around the network? – RyanfaeScotland Sep 16 '19 at 05:59
  • @RyanfaeScotland as you can see from the link above, the entire network isn’t monitored by CCTV - especially non-motorway routes. In the event of roadworks there, they will patrol. Bear in mind these stretches of roadworks are probably under 10 miles - that can be covered in 15-20 minutes easily (x2 for both directions). For that length, 2-3 patrols seems like plenty. – Tim Sep 16 '19 at 06:02
  • @Tim, of course! I'm forgetting we are only talking about short stretches that currently have road works and not the whole thing! Yeah, a handful of patrols seems fairly reasonable. – RyanfaeScotland Sep 16 '19 at 06:08
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    @jwenting I think 'AA Roadwatch' is the AA's traffic news service, not their breakdown cover service - but breakdown cover is of course one of the services offered by the AA. – nekomatic Sep 16 '19 at 08:50
  • @OrangeDog And if none of the ideas in richardb's comment apply, there's a good chance another motorist will have notified the authorities. My only accident (relatively minor) was on a motorway before mobile phones were as common as today (at least, I didn't have one; probably late 1990s). I managed to get the car to the hard-shoulder, and by the time I got to the emergency phone the operator said the police were on their way as someone had already reported it. – TripeHound Sep 16 '19 at 09:44
  • Last christmas, I broke down driving through the roadworks on the M1 and managed to make it safely to the hard shoulder just past the end, albeit still 20 or so meters before the "Free Recovery Ends" sign. The contractors RAC were trying to send to collect us wouldn't turn up because we were still technically in the free recovery area, so we had to call for free recovery instead. Eventually free recovery did come and get us and took us a few miles up the road to the nearest service station (I was afraid they'd just tow us up past the sign and then leave us on the shoulder for the RAC!) – Carcer Sep 16 '19 at 15:37
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The signs are shown in places where a broken down car would create traffic problems or danger. So people responsible for road traffic would rather pay out to take you to a safe place rather than you staying there. They would also rather pay out to take you to a safe place rather than you getting out of your car, trying to fix whatever problem you have, and getting hit by a car.

"Free recovery" will take your car to the nearest safe place, which can be reached safely by someone who can fix your car. Which is your responsibility, and which you pay for (unless you have some kind of insurance covering it).

gnasher729
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    "unless you have some kind of insurance covering it" in which case, of course, you're paying for (at least a part of) it; just indirectly. – user Sep 16 '19 at 09:14