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
June 30, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
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 previous schemes. It concluded that the permanent loss of the hard shoulder in all lane running schemes was a radical change and an unacceptable price to pay for such improvements.

With motorway traffic forecast to increase by up to 60 per cent by 2040, the Government sees smart motorways as a way of addressing this growth without incurring the costs of traditional motorway widening.

Chair of the Transport Select Committee, Louise Ellman MP, commented: "The permanent removal of the hard shoulder is a dramatic change. All kinds of drivers, including the emergency services, are genuinely concerned about the risk this presents.”

The Committee heard significant concerns about the scarcity, size and misuse of emergency refuge areas. It also heard about worryingly high levels of non-compliance with Red X signals and said levels of public awareness and confidence about using these motorway schemes are unacceptably low.

The Committee said the Government needs to demonstrate considerable improvement in this area, including more emergency refuge areas, driver education and enforcement, before the Committee will endorse the extension of a scheme which risks putting motorists in harm's way."

Plans are in place to permanently convert the hard shoulder into a running lane on around 300 miles of motorway. 8101 Highways England has a programme of 30 all lane running schemes to the value of circa US$8 billion (£6 billion) over the next nine years. The Department may consider the matter settled but the Committee believes that argument has not been won.
UTC

Related Content

  • October 19, 2012
    Benefits of investment in ITS technologies
    What price can be put on the value of a life? How much should be spent on preventing untimely deaths? Difficult questions such as these help to put the comparatively small costs of ITS systems into context. While monetary analysis may seem cold and inhumane in consideration of road casualties, death and costly clear-up are often the stark reality transportation authorities are dealing with. This issue of ITS International contains numerous examples of large benefits to be gained from relatively modest inves
    Read More
  • December 9, 2016
    Four drivers a month deliberately ignore Manchester motorway closures
    Highways England is urging drivers Highways England is not to put road workers’ lives at risk by deliberately ignoring road closures on the M60 and M62 near Manchester. New figures have revealed that four drivers a month are entering closed sections of road in the Manchester smart motorway scheme to either overtake traffic on the motorway or avoid using diversion routes. Highways England has released CCTV footage showing a driver ignoring an overnight slip road closure at junction 11 of the M60 at Ecc
    Read More
  • July 27, 2012
    Give offending drivers credit for good behaviour
    Andrew Rooke and Dave Marples of Technolution B.V. take a look at what can be done to address a long-standing problem: the all-or-nothing approach of automated enforcement. To start, a brief history of speeding: on 14 November 1896, the first Veteran Car Run was staged in England from London to Brighton. It was organised to celebrate new British legislation to raise the maximum speed of vehicles from four to 14mph while also removing the need for a person waving a red flag to walk in front of the car and wa
    Read More
  • March 14, 2014
    Decision to suspend bus lanes “flawed and data deficient”
    According to the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT UK) the decision by Liverpool’s Mayor and council to suspend all of the city’s bus lanes in a nine month trial was rushed through and based on evidence that was flawed and suffered from a severe data deficit. Furthermore, it could even deter other local authorities around Britain from introducing measures that promote public transport to ease urban traffic congestion. The Institute believes that the evidence used by the Mayor and Coun
    Read More

Highlighted Content