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

  • ITS needs continuity at the policy-making level
    February 1, 2012
    ITS needs to be sold to politicians in plainer terms and we need to be encouraging greater continuity at the policy-making level says Josef Czako, chairman of the IRF's Policy Committee on ITS. At the ITS World Congress in New York in 2008, the International Road Federation (IRF) held the inaugural meeting of its Policy Committee on ITS. The Policy Committee's formation, says its chairman, Kapsch's Josef Czako, reflects an ongoing concern over the lack of deployment of ITS technology on roads in anything li
  • Copenhagen to showcase ITS in action at ITSWC 2018
    December 18, 2017
    As delegates head for the 2017 ITS World Congress in Montreal, we talk to Copenhagen mayor Morten Kabell about why his city is the ideal location for next year’s event. It may have been a long time coming but the ITS World Congress will be in Copenhagen in 2018 and there can be few more fitting places to host the event. By any number of metrics - interconnected transport, cycle commuting, safer streets, reduced pollution, sustainable energy and quality of life - the Danish capital has implemented what m
  • Improving driver information, making in-vehicle systems a reality
    January 26, 2012
    Scott J. McCormick, president of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association, considers what we have to do next to make the more widespread deployment of automotive telematics a reality
  • US study finds cameras reduce red light running
    January 28, 2013
    The latest research by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that red light running rates declined at Arlington, Virginia, intersections equipped with cameras. The decreases were particularly large for the most dangerous violations, those happening 1.5 seconds or longer after the light turned red. "This study provides fresh evidence that automated enforcement can get drivers to modify their behaviour," says Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at IIHS and the study's lead au