Picture the scene. Having just been asked to do a guest blog for SimonG, here I was, all fired up to write about a conversation I had earlier today on how I’ve never had anyone from FriendsReunited message me. Until I discovered that that is precisely what SimonG wrote about yesterday.

Ho hum. I can only presume the person with whom I had this conversation had been reading these very pages. Strange - he’s never mentioned jelly or donkeys.

So instead, let us turn our focus to the West Midlands et environs. Today saw the opening of the M6 Toll road to the north of Birmingham. A monumentally momentous moment in many ways: the UK’s first toll road, the largest motorway project for some time and the last large motorway project for the forseeable future.

Now I’m sure blogs up and down the ether will be concentrating on the monetary issues, but it’s the latter two points that interest me. I like roads. I’m one of those strange people who can see some sort of beauty in a sweeping bend or a graceful flyover. From the Worsley Braided Interchange to the Walton Summit Motorway, there’s a certain romance to it all, a harking back to a bygone innocent age. The trouble is, I’m in the minority. Road building is very unfashionable now - and it’s not difficult to see why. Big mistakes in the past (e.g. the M3 through Twyford, or many town centres in the 60s and 70s) have cast a dark shadow on the future of road construction.

Instead of laying new tarmac, priorities have shifted into making the most of what’s there already. And so in a few months, a little way south of today’s toll road excitement, a new scheme will be launched. During busy periods on the M42 around the south-east of Brumland, you’ll be able to use the hard shoulder. Overhead signals every few hundred metres will guide drivers as to what lanes may be used. Cameras and automatic sensors will sweep the hard shoulder looking for breakdowns; should a blockage occur, the lane will be automatically closed and drivers instructed to avoid the obstacle.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it? It also begs lots of questions. Like, what happens when someone breaks down quickly and the cameras miss them? Or when all four lanes clog up and the emergency services need to get through? Someone’s going to have to work all of this out.

At the moment, it’s looking like that someone might well be me. So, please, as readers of this merry blog, do me a favour. Avoid the M42 from J3A-J7 for a while, will you? You’ll probably be doing all of us a favour.