Drivers are avoiding hard shoulders converted to running lanes

Two fifths (38 per cent) of UK drivers say they will not drive in lane one of a smart motorway where the hard shoulder has been permanently converted into a running lane, according to a survey of more than 18,000 drivers conducted by the AA.
July 4, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

Two fifths (38 per cent) of UK drivers say they will not drive in lane one of a smart motorway where the hard shoulder has been permanently converted into a running lane, according to a survey of more than 18,000 drivers conducted by the 1459 AA.

This compares to 85 per cent of drivers who say they would drive in lane one of a motorway with a permanent hard shoulder.

When asked why they avoid using the new running lanes on smart motorways, more than a third said that they wouldn’t use lane one ‘for fear of coming across a broken down vehicle'. One in ten said that they believed lane one was ‘the lorry lane’.

Documents from 8101 Highways England analysing two stretches of M25 smart motorway scheme indicate that traffic flow is significantly lower on lane one than other lanes within the scheme.

Edmund King, AA president, says: “Despite all the talk about improving traffic flow and easing congestion by having more lanes, it seems that drivers are voting with their wheels by avoiding converted hard shoulders and clogging up the other lanes.

“Drivers are fearful that, with the current lack of Emergency Refuge Areas, they will come across broken down vehicles and have little chance to avoiding collisions. We need more education for drivers using smart motorways as clearly they do not trust the schemes in their current state.”

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Natural Gas vehicle sales to increase at a healthy pace
    May 21, 2012
    Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) have been available to varying degrees since the 1970s, and earlier in some parts of the world. Despite this long history, adoption varies significantly from region to region, with NGVs used mainly for commercial vehicles in North America and parts of Western Europe and for consumer markets in parts of Asia and the Middle East. The primary growth drivers in these countries are the favorable economics of natural gas, the reduction of oil imports, the environmental benefits of lowe
    Read More
  • European ecoDriver project reports results
    March 17, 2016
    After over four years of work, the European ecoDriver project has released its first results. The project trials involved 170 drivers in seven countries, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and UK, both in controlled and naturalistic environments testing nine different eco-driving support systems. Despite minor variations in terms of percentage, the findings showed that overall, across all the systems, reductions in fuel consumption and CO2 have an average of 4.2 per cent with the highest
    Read More
  • Intelligent lane control signals help direct driver behaviour
    November 21, 2012
    As part of a larger effort exploring the effects of roadway signage on driver behaviour, researchers from the University of Minnesota College of Design have conducted a study on the effectiveness of intelligent lane control signals (ILCS). During the study, was funded by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), the research team used a driving simulator to test ILCS that displayed merge, speed control, and lane-closure warnings over freeway lanes. The researchers were specifically interested in d
    Read More
  • TikTok’s Mr Barricade speaks out
    August 27, 2021
    Civil engineer Vignesh Swaminatham (aka Mr Barricade) shares his thoughts with Adam Hill about TikTok, infrastructure, ITS, quick-build projects, bike lanes, inequality, local politics - and dancing
    Read More

Highlighted Content