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

  • Spot speed deterrent proved to be transient
    October 18, 2013
    As research and trials show the benefits of average speed enforcement - David Crawford reviews developments on two continents. August 2013 saw the switch on of the Australian State of Victoria’s latest combined point-to-point (P2P) average speed enforcement (ASE) and spot camera control system. Installed on the 27km Peninsula Link to the south-east of Melbourne, the system uses high-resolution automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and optical character recognition (OCR) technology developed b
  • C/AV technology will be ‘life-altering revolution’
    July 20, 2018
    Preparing for the challenges - and promises - of connected and automated vehicles and other emerging transportation technologies does not necessarily mean investing in actual hardware. Matthew Smith identifies eight key points that US transportation authorities need to look at. Transportation technology is moving rapidly. With the advent of connected and automated vehicle (C/AV) technology, the nation is on the verge of experiencing a major transportation revolution: a life-altering revolution akin to th
  • Terrestrial solution to stellar shortcomings
    December 5, 2013
    Inherent weaknesses in satellite communications are leading several countries to re-evaluate terrestrial-based backup systems. There is a tale frequently told in satellite navigation circles, of how landing systems at Newark Airport were disrupted by a truck driver using GPS jamming equipment as he drove along the New Jersey Turnpike. While there was no threat to flight safety as the interference to GPS reference stations being tested, the story highlights how apparently benign threats have the potential t
  • Reflecting on five years of important ITS progress
    January 7, 2013
    Former head of the ITS Joint Program Office Shelley Row has passed the baton to a new director. Now working as an independent consultant, here she reflects on her five years at the helm of the JPO and what the future may hold for ITS in the US. During a mid-morning in Paris earlier this year, having just landed, I decided to take a trip on the city’s subway (Paris’ underground metro) into the city centre. A family with a small boy – about nine years old – boarded the same train. They were American and we st