The Chronicle has already asked Highways England what its plans are to improve safety on the notorious stretch of the M56 between Chester and Runcorn.

The run between junctions 12 and 14 is regularly blighted by serious crashes and route-jamming incidents.

While Highways England considers its options, you have given your suggestions via the Chester Chronicle Facebook page.

Here is a selection:

Andrea Bye: How about a warning at junction 14 East and junction 12 West that there is no junction 13? That will stop people who don’t know the road speeding along thinking they have another junction to go then panic and cut across 3 lanes to take the exit

Carl Holdstock: Average speed cameras drop the speed to 40mph between 14 and 12.

Smart talk

Keith Taylor: I think it needs to be Smart. It can’t handle a speed limit of 70 when it is at peak capacity. It should be obvious that people should slow down, but if it had a mandatory 50 mph speed limit that was enforced that could help a lot. A fourth lane would help too.

Tracey Bellis: Agree about mandatory 50 (or even 40mph) speed limit. 4th lane....hmmmm don’t think that will help as it will only bottleneck and cause other issues. Also where do you make a 4th lane...no that’s definitely not the answer.

John Cunniff: The m25 is a smart motorway and as an ex professional driver I can say they do work

Martin Cowe: 40-50mph controlled via average speed cameras at peak times drop the speed limit down..

Suzanne Peacock: Take my life in my hands every day going to work get on at 12 get off at 14 sometimes I’m sat stationary it just can’t cope with the volume of traffic getting on at those junctions and people are in a rush getting to work so there’s also bad driving thrown into the equation it’s got to be one of the worst motorways ever !

Issues

Jason Hughes: As a daily user of this section of motorway there are multiple issues with this section of road

ISSUE 1: The condition of the carriageway on “ the slow lane” is lethal! It is like driving on a roller coaster. Enough to force corrective action at the section running parallel with Helsby hill.

ISSUE 2: Absolutely no roads policing units ever covering this section of road or maybe once in a blue moon.

ISSUE 3: I have personally witnessed some of the worst driving examples on this section of road more than any road I have ever travelled on! Drivers are obviously not allowing enough time for commuting and think it is okay to drive in excess of 90-100mph / undertaking and reckless manoeuvres causing careful drivers to suddenly brake or take evasive action thereby causing concertina braking for miles back leading to the heavy tailbacks. Finally there is an urgent need for the highways agency to start using the covers which are erected at the scenes of RTC incidents. This would prevent the bottleneck scenario which we are seeing in the Chester Chronicle on a near daily basis.

Graham Bailey: I drive an artic and the only time i use the m56 is at 4/5 in the morning as its’ only trucks on that stretch. The rest of the time I avoid like the plague!! Using the mersey tunnel or A51-M53. To get to the wirral.

Paul Chambers: I used to work on its maintenance, adding a fourth lane isn’t easy as there is very little fall in the drainage already. Not convinced about forward visibility being the problem except caused by low sun in winter, doesn’t explain accidents in summer? Bad driving is common with tailgating, I commute to Manchester on it and if you leave a gap then others will instantly fill it, HGV’s in particular. The petrol tanker accident about ten years ago at Weaver viaduct was caused by driver taking late evasive manoeuvre and then losing control. Smart motorway may work but M53 and M6 near Knutsford is next priority for smart motorways, besides which Highways England is struggling to procure the schemes it’s got in the current programme as lots of engineers like me left the industry or went abroad during the recession!

Bad drivers?

Sophie Weiss: There’s a lot of poor driving on this stretch of motorway and it seems to bring out the worst in people, I think one problem is that it is the only decent road in the area and is way over capacity, and has terrible unmanaged junctions, would like to see lights phasing traffic onto the motorway at peak times.

Louise Robinson: Get rid of the chevrons they make people brake suddenly and do no good - they cause a wave effect behind and a build up of traffic which then flows again after them.

Steve Pritchard: Isn’t it the fact that it’s pretty much dead straight? Without bends, the visibility past the vehicles in front is limited. People get caught out by last minute braking which comes as a surprise.

John Murray: The main problem with that stretch of motorway is that it undulates so gives a deceptive appearance of distance.

Steve Byrne: The problem is with aggressive driving. As soon as there is a build up in the outside lane, people fly down the inside and then try to pulling into a gap that does not exist. People in the outside lane close up to prevent this happening. This reduces stopping spaces and causes accidents. I’ve seen so many idiotic stunts on the M56 it is unbelievable.

Stuart Martin: The main problem is people not knowing how to drive on a Motorway. Speeding, tailgating, there’s your problem.

Nikki McIntyre: It’s not the road, it’s the moronic drivers that use it.

Orren Williams: A big problem is the chevroned section. Yeah keep two apart, but too many drivers just look at the one in front of their bonnet, and the one at the back of the car ahead of them little do they know that 6 chevrons ahead the traffic is at a complete stop.

John Barnard: Perhaps if they could afford police patrols like they used to have, the number of anti-social drivers such as tail gaiters may reduce as well as accidents.

Dan Smith: The road can be made safer by increasing driver awareness. More electronic signs and a clampdown on tailgating will help.

If you have another idea to improve the M56, put it in the comments box below: