Since the breakdown lane is terribly misused by impatient traffic-bound idiots, I suggest a "rumble strip" solution based on CRXpilot's idea:

In the breakdown lane the rumble strips get progressively deeper, higher, spaced further apart, and alternately higher and lower until they are acting like violent suspension-testing tracks. In normal use by broken-down vehicles this is not noticed because of their slow speed, but if some malefactor uses the lane at speed their experience will be progressively more jarring, more shaking, and more disorenting. If the driver does not slow down eventually the strips will direct the vehicle over the shoulder into the ditch.
-- minoradjustments, Oct 30 2024

Progressive Chassis Destruction https://www.researc...ided_fig4_334488520
Solution for impatient drivers [minoradjustments, Oct 30 2024]

Twist and shout https://www.researc...ist_fig40_340808094
Like this but worse [minoradjustments, Oct 30 2024]

Like the basic idea, how about just having those world famous custard filled speed bumps? Maybe sand like they have in emergency runaway truck areas. [+] anyway. There's a special place in heck for people who do this, especially ones who jet to use the lane to jump to the front of two merging lanes to skip the wait.
-- doctorremulac3, Oct 30 2024


Breakdown lanes are often used to reroute traffic when the road is being worked on.
-- Voice, Oct 30 2024


This would have pretty bad implications for emergency vehicle access, particularly if you wanted to use this lane for the transport of an injured patient.

I've thought of a 2 part solution. 1. have a society made of reasonable individuals. 2. employ a tax-payer funded crime fighting force to mop up the handful of unreasonable individuals. Pure fantasy in the US unfortunately.
-- bs0u0155, Oct 30 2024



random, halfbakery