Skip to main content

Transport Focus: Highways England need to equip driver knowledge of smart highways

The UK’s drivers need help to better understand Smart Motorways, Red X signs and breakdown procedures, according to research by Transport Focus, an independent transport user watchdog. Its research showed that safety is not at the forefront of drivers’ minds and few know what to do in the event of a breakdown.
September 28, 2017 Read time: 1 min
The UK’s drivers need help to better understand 5062 Smart Motorways, Red X signs and breakdown procedures, according to research by Transport Focus, an independent transport user watchdog. Its research showed that safety is not at the forefront of drivers’ minds and few know what to do in the event of a breakdown.


The organisation has called on 8101 Highways England to help drivers understand smart motorways’ benefits; reassurance that motorways without hard shoulders are safe (even during a breakdown) and; installation of orange surface and new signage to emergency refuge areas if trials prove successful.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Outsourcing security weakness for Sweden’s driver and vehicle data
    October 24, 2017
    The security of driver and vehicle data hit the headlines this summer in Sweden and its authorities are still dealing with the fallout. David Crawford reports. epercussions from Sweden’s vehicle data outsourcing scandal continue to reverberate. Transportstyrelsen, the government’s transport agency, came under fire this summer for risking the personal security of over five million motorists by failing to implement full security checks on personnel in other countries to whom individual work packages could
  • Taking the long view of ITS
    March 24, 2015
    Caroline Visser believes the ITS industry must present a coherent case for consideration of the technology to become part of transport policy and planning. As ITS advisor and road finance director for the International Road Federation (IRF) in Geneva, Caroline Visser is well placed to evaluate quantifying the benefits of ITS implementation – a topic about which there is little agreement and even less consistency. She is pressing to get some consistency in the evaluation of ITS deployments through the use of
  • US state of the art workzone safety
    January 25, 2012
    The Texas Transportation Institute's Jerry Ullman talks about the state of the art in work zone safety in the US. Work zones are places where, perhaps more than anywhere else on the road network, mobility and safety are strongly linked. Historically, field crews and contractors wanted vehicles in work zones to be moving as slowly as possible, assuming that made conditions the safest for work crews. We are though starting to see a shift in such thinking with the realisation that excessive delays or slow-down
  • Gulf Traffic Q&A: Middle East in Focus
    October 9, 2019
    Gulf Traffic takes place on 9-11 December in Dubai – the centre of business in the Middle East and North Africa. ITS International is the official media partner of Gulf Traffic, and this year the event will highlight the latest technologies and systems from global suppliers. Rahul Rawat, exhibition director, explains how the international industry can benefit from the opportunities that the region provides.