FTA concerns addressed in Government response on all-lane running

The UK Freight Transport Association (FTA) is pleased its concerns about management and signalling on smart motorways have been addressed in the Government’s response to a Transport Select Committee report published this week. FTA raised its concerns with Highways England on Red X compliance and proper management of the signal systems on smart motorways. The Government has responded to the Transport Select Committee’s report on all-lane running, highlighting these concerns. Smart motorways use tech
December 14, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The UK 6983 Freight Transport Association (FTA) is pleased its concerns about management and signalling on smart motorways have been addressed in the Government’s response to a Transport Select Committee report published this week.
 
FTA raised its concerns with 8101 Highways England on Red X compliance and proper management of the signal systems on smart motorways. The Government has responded to the Transport Select Committee’s report on all-lane running, highlighting these concerns.
 
Smart motorways use technology to actively manage traffic, keeping vehicles flowing freely and increasing the capacity of the road by either temporarily or permanently opening the hard shoulder to traffic.
 
FTA had said that rather than denying road users the much-needed benefits of more reliable journey times that smart motorways provide, the focus should be on educating drivers on how to use them safely, what the various signs mean and what they should do in the event of a breakdown.
 
Malcolm Bingham, FTA’s head of Road Network Management Policy, said: “FTA recognises the importance of looking at the safety aspects of vehicles coming to a halt in a live lane, but this is something that could happen even with a hard shoulder as vehicle faults can occur anywhere and there must be a system to deal with such occurrences, particularly on busy sections of motorway. The Government’s evidence on schemes already built show that there is also growing positive evidence of the safety of all lane running.”
 
UTC

Related Content

  • June 30, 2016
    Scrap all-lane running plans, say MPs
    Plans to convert hundreds of miles of UK motorway hard shoulder into permanent driving lanes should be scrapped while major safety concerns exist, the Government’s Transport Committee has said. In 'all lane running', the latest version of smart motorways, the hard shoulder is used as a live lane of traffic. Previous schemes have only used the hard shoulder at peak times or to deal with congestion. The Committee did not agree with Government that this is an incremental change and a logical extension of
    Read More
  • October 14, 2015
    FTA calls for greater reliability on road network following improvements at Dartford
    Drivers using the Dartford Crossing at peak times are saving around an hour and a half every week thanks to Dart Charge, according to Highways England. New figures released by Highways England show that journeys over the Dartford Crossing, which cost £62million (US$95 million) to convert to free-flow tolling, are up to 56 per cent faster than before payment barriers were removed. Drivers at peak times save up to 14 minutes southbound and seven minutes northbound.
    Read More
  • April 8, 2014
    UK defaults to hard shoulder running to expand motorway capacity
    Hard shoulder running has become the UK’s default response to increasing motorway capacity as Colin Sowman reports. Facing a predicted 46% increase in traffic levels by 2040 and the current economic recovery leading to more people travelling to, from and for work leaves the UK government under short- and long-term pressure to increase the capacity on the main motorway network. Particular sections of motorways are already experiencing repeated, sometimes tidal, congestion and both tight Treasury limits and t
    Read More
  • September 4, 2015
    Smart motorways make sense, says FTA
    The implementation of smart motorways in Northern Ireland would make economic, environmental and safety sense, according to the Freight Transport Association (FTA) today. Responding to a study commissioned by the roads authority, TransportNI, which outlines the proposal of the M1 and M2 in and out of Belfast becoming smart motorways, FTA stated that freight operators would see benefits in the introduction, economically, environmentally and would improve safety on the routes.
    Read More

Highlighted Content