noun

• A hardened strip alongside a motorway for stopping on in an emergency.

  ‘Using the emergency telephone on the hard shoulder of the motorway gives a fixed location unlike a mobile phone.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘In other areas of the M1 earmarked for a new carriageway, additional land would be bought, with the hard shoulder and central reservation staying the same.’
  • ‘In one short conversation, Pc Lee Bowdell described how Mr Hinde was flailing about on the motorway hard shoulder and deliberately banging his head on the floor.’
  • ‘United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was cleared of driving on a motorway hard shoulder after the solicitor told magistrates he was suffered a stomach upset and needed to use the toilet.’
  • ‘Mark, of Owen Close, Croydon, told officers he had not gone the wrong way down the motorway, only the hard shoulder, in search of his sister.’
  • ‘Sir Alex Ferguson was charged with driving on the hard shoulder of a motorway - an offence that carries a three-point penalty.’
  • ‘Sidney Flinton came into the world on the hard shoulder of the M62 motorway.’
  • ‘Kathy and Colin sat in the car by a hard shoulder of a motorway bickering about what route to take.’
  • ‘Take the hard shoulder of dual carriageways, for instance.’
  • ‘I couldn't help myself stopping on the hard shoulder behind them.’
  • ‘Statistics show that many accidents that occur on motorways involve vehicles which are parked on the hard shoulder.’
  • ‘Well, when I was travelling up from London to Glasgow yesterday I passed a car which was sitting on the hard shoulder of the M6, tyre in shreds.’
  • ‘Mercedes used to be a byword for durability but now it's a byword for being on the hard shoulder at four in the morning with steam coming out of the bonnet.’
  • ‘It crossed lanes and hit a crash barrier on the hard shoulder.’
  • ‘Anyway, I noticed that a woman had stopped in the hard shoulder of the other carriageway and was taking photos of the sunset.’
  • ‘Police said the driver had just overtaken a lorry when he careered into the hard shoulder barrier and bounced back across the carriageway into the central reservation.’
  • ‘It is understood he was seen to get out of his Fiat Punto after parking it on the hard shoulder between Junction 17 at Whitefield and Junction 18 at Simister.’
  • ‘Then, just as hope was diminishing to its lowest ebb, an extremely long stretch limousine which had just sped by, suddenly stopped and parked on the hard shoulder a furlong ahead of us.’
  • ‘He kept wanting to park up on the hard shoulder and have a walk in the hills.’
  • ‘Traffic was stopped on the motorway; cars were forced on to the hard shoulder, nothing was too much bother and once we got there we held an autograph session for the drivers.’