Thanks for the aqnswer, must re-read the highways code.

If it is because pedestrians are banned how do you walk

to the nearest emergency phone?

Ian

I think the point is more the different benefits of placing

the triangle, rather than the risks.

On a normal road when you've broken down you are exactly

where traffic would normally be travelling, hence the triangle to make

them aware. On the motorway you're theoretically not in the route

they'd be using anyway, so the triangle would just possibly alarm

someone un-necessarily, and the benefit is low enough that the risk

of placing it is deemed to great.

It seems that years of research have proven that the advantages of warning triangles in most cases are outweighed by the disadvantages of using them:
* As they are so little used in the UK, a driver seeing one may not react instinctively (i.e. maintain speed, stay within lane, no sudden changes in direction, watch out for hazard some way ahead).
* Placing one correctly (45 metres behind the breakdown - ideally 45 metres beyond a bend in the road which would mask the broken down vehicle) is in itself dangerous.
* A triangle is easily blown away, knocked over or flattened.
* However, the intelligent fitment of a warning triangle inside the bootlid of most German cars is probably the best, as it reinforces the usually understood impression of "boot open = broken down car" with no added risk to the driver
Triangles seem to be on the way out in Spain, as the recently introduced roof-mounted magnetic beacons, which replace the need for a triangle on a motorway, are selling well and enable a driver to place one on the roof from within the car.
At the moment, a Spanish registered car has to have two triangles on board, and a driver is expected to place one 50 metres behind the car on a motorway/dual carriageway, with all its associated risks, and also one 50 metres ahead of the car on the same side of an undivided road. In practice, most drivers place one or both triangles right behind the car, serving no useful purpose.

Edited by Bilboman on 29/12/2019 at 12:48

Old threads should be permanantly closed after (say) 6 months inactivity to avoid this sort of nonsense after 15 years. Just a thought!!

Apart for the original purpose of warning of a broken-down vehicle they get used in the french countryside quite a lot for warning of grass verge mowing or hedge or tree cutting next to the road around the next blind bend etc, and are very effective - it's about the only thing that slows french drivers down and switches their hazard perception on.