Smart motorways: Put hard shoulder back and scrap ‘death trap’ roads, RAC urges government

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The government has been urged to reinstate hard shoulders on Britain’s sensible motorways after being accused of losing cash on the now cancelled initiatives.

Exactly a yr after prime minister Rishi Sunak scrapped all future deliberate sensible motorway developments throughout the UK, the RAC is asking for both a everlasting return of the hard shoulder or “dynamic” lanes which is able to see them solely open to visitors throughout busy durations.

All-lane-running (ALR) sensible motorways don’t have any hard shoulder, with the present security lane transformed into an additional operating lane so as to add visitors capability.

The system was launched as a less expensive different to constructing extra lanes and widening present motorways, with a bit of the M25 in Hertfordshire opened because the nation’s first sensible motorway in 2014.

However, there have been long-standing security issues after deadly incidents through which autos stopped in dwell lanes have been hit from behind. One campaigner described the highways as “death traps”, whereas Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason died together with Alexandru Murgeanu once they have been struck by a lorry after stopping on the M1 close to Sheffield in June 2019, mentioned any delays in reinstalling hard shoulders “continue to put thousands of lives at risk”.

In 2022, fees of company manslaughter have been thought of by South Yorkshire Police when issues have been raised by a coroner after 62-year-old grandmother Naris Begum died on a bit of the M1 and not using a hard shoulder.

A National Highways report revealed in December revealed that sensible motorways and not using a hard shoulder have been thrice extra harmful to interrupt down on than these with an emergency lane.

When he cancelled any additional rollout of the highway schemes in 2023, Mr Sunak cited monetary pressures and a scarcity of public confidence within the roads.

Simon Williams, RAC’s head of coverage, mentioned: “There is a real irony when it comes to talking about cost pressures in relation to these distinctly unpopular types of motorway.

“While heralded as a cost-effective way of increasing capacity on some of our busier roads, a colossal amount of public money has since gone into trying to make them safer – for instance by installing radar-based technology to detect stricken vehicles more quickly, plus the creation of additional emergency refuge areas.

“This cash needn’t have been spent. The government ploughed on with building all-lane-running motorways, regardless of concerns expressed by drivers, the RAC and even the Transport Committee.”

Mr Williams added that nonetheless the hard shoulders are transformed, “queue-busting technology such as variable speed limits could remain to help ensure traffic flows as smoothly as possible”.

Sarah Champion, Rotherham MP and a long-time campaigner in opposition to sensible motorways, is backing the RAC’s name.

“Government needs to do the right thing and reinstate the hard shoulder to all existing smart motorways and all the schemes under construction,” she informed The Daily Telegraph.

“The government knows smart motorways are death traps but rather than saving lives it is saving face and bowing to pressure from National Highways.

“How many deaths do there have to be before common sense prevails?”

Polling by the RAC in 2023 discovered that round seven out of 10 drivers (69 per cent) wished the hard shoulder reinstated on ALR sensible motorways. At the time, the government claimed it might be too disruptive and costly to take action.

The variety of individuals killed or severely injured after a stopped car was hit by a shifting car was 0.21 per 100 million car miles travelled on ALR sensible motorways between 2017 and 2021.

That compares with 0.07 on managed sensible motorways, which have variable pace limits however retain a hard shoulder and 0.10 on typical motorways.

National Highways mentioned on the time that proof reveals all kinds of sensible motorways are safer than typical motorways when it comes to deaths or critical accidents, and a sequence of security enhancements had been made since 2021.

A Department for Transport spokesperson mentioned: “While smart motorways are statistically among the safest roads on our network, we recognise the need for the public to feel safe when driving, and have cancelled plans for all new smart motorway schemes.

“We are also investing £900m to make improvements on existing smart motorways, including building more emergency areas on these roads.”

What are sensible motorways and the place are they within the UK?

There are three fundamental kinds of sensible motorway:

The majority of sensible motorways are round London (together with virtually the entire M25), the North West and the West Midlands, with greater than half of the roughly 400 miles of sensible motorway and not using a hard shoulder.

Additional reporting by PA