Skip to main content

Motorists worried about safety on smart motorways

The UK’s Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is calling for more information and advice on smart motorways for drivers. The call comes after seventy-one per cent of drivers said they would feel less safe on a motorway with no hard shoulder than a motorway with one, according to the latest poll by the IAM.
May 9, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The UK’s 6187 Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is calling for more information and advice on smart motorways for drivers.  The call comes after seventy-one per cent of drivers said they would feel less safe on a motorway with no hard shoulder than a motorway with one, according to the latest poll by the IAM.

One of the main concerns of respondents is the plan to increase the distance between safety refuges with forty-eight per cent of respondents believing that safety refuges should be no more than 0.45km apart.

Forty per cent of respondents are sceptical that new monitoring systems on smart motorways, such as electronic signs, can protect them in the event of stopping in a running lane.

Other survey findings include: sixty-seven per cent of respondents said they haven’t seen any publicity about smart motorways; a third of respondents (thirty-two per cent) would support the legalising of undertaking on smart motorways; forty-two per cent believe Smart motorways have reduced congestion and forty-three per cent of respondents said it has improved their journey times.

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “Smart motorways are being rolled out across England but our survey shows that drivers want more reassurance and information on how safe they will be and how to use them.  The IAM has been supportive of hard shoulder running but we have always said that the 503 Highways Agency must be quick to learn and implement any real world lessons as more schemes come into use.”
UTC

Related Content

  • November 23, 2016
    UK motorists concerned about increase in mobile phone use while driving
    Over 86 per cent of UK motorists think distraction caused by mobile phones has become worse in the last three years, according to the second Safety Culture Survey commissioned by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart. In second place was congestion at 81 per cent, reflecting the increasing number of vehicles on the roads as the recession ends. Of the 2,000 UK drivers surveyed, nearly three quarters believed aggressive driving had worsened over the last three years, with more than 60 per cent reporting the
  • January 20, 2021
    Smart motorways need review, says coroner
    Call follows deaths of two crashed motorists who had no hard shoulder to wait on
  • August 8, 2013
    One in twenty UK adults involved in a road accident last year
    One in twenty UK adults was involved in a road accident in 2012, according to road safety charity, Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). Using information from the National Travel Survey published by the Department for Transport it shows that 5.2 per cent of the population admit to having been involved in an accident, meaning that 2.4 million people were involved in a road crash last year, with around 800,000 actually injured. In the vast majority of these crashes those involved were car occupants. Figure
  • August 29, 2017
    Drivers ‘need reassurance on safety, cybercrime and terrorism if truck platoons are to deliver’
    Commenting on the UK Department of Transport announcement regarding trialling of platoons of self-driving lorries on England's motorways, independent road safety charity is advising there must be more reassurances on issues such as cyber attacks as well as basic road safety needs such as telling other drivers which trucks are in the platoon. The trial, due for 2018, will see up to three lorries travel in automated convoys which will be controlled by a driver in the lead vehicle in a bid to cut congestion an