No more smart motorways should be created until their safety can be ensured, a parliamentary report has said.
The transport select committee said that the government’s decision in March last year to make all future smart motorways “all-lane-running”, with the hard shoulder permanently removed, was premature and that safety risks should have been addressed before their launch.
MPs found that more than half of drivers are unclear about what they should do if they break down in a “live lane” and said communications of the “radical change to motorway design” had been woeful.
The committee’s report said: “The government and National Highways should pause the roll-out of new all-lane running schemes until five years of safety and economic data is available for every all-lane running scheme introduced before 2020 and the implementation of the safety improvements in the government’s action plan has been independently evaluated.”
Smart motorways are intended to boost capacity by removing the permanent hard shoulder to create an extra lane. Refuge areas allowing cars to pull off in an emergency are sited up to 1.6 miles apart, variable speed limits are used to keep traffic flowing and lanes are closed with a red X on gantries if a vehicle breaks down on the road ahead.
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Stretches of all-lane running motorways were introduced in 2014, and 141 miles are now in operation. Concerns have been raised over their safety, especially if vehicles break down without reaching a refuge area. The report recommends retrofitting emergency refuge areas, making them three quarters of a mile apart where possible, and a maximum of one mile apart.
There have been several types of smart motorway, including “controlled” stretches that have variable speed limits shown on gantries and a permanent hard shoulder for use only in emergencies.
The committee called on the Department for Transport to “revisit the case” for installing these, noting that they have the lowest casualty rates of all roads across motorways and major A roads in England.
Huw Merriman, the Conservative chairman of the committee, said: “Only 29 miles of these all-lane running smart motorways have operated for over five years. It therefore feels too soon, and uncertain, to use this as an evidence base to remove the hard shoulder from swathes of our motorway network.”
Protesters carried coffins across Westminster Bridge in London yesterday to represent deaths on smart motorways. The action was led by Claire Mercer, whose husband, Jason, died on a “smart” stretch of the M1 in June 2019.
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The Department for Transport said: “We’re pleased that the transport select committee recognises that reinstating the hard shoulder on all all-lane running motorways could put more drivers and passengers at risk of death and serious injury and that we’re right to focus on upgrading their safety.
“We recognise that improvements have not always been made as quickly as they could have been in the past, but as the committee has set out, the transport secretary is absolutely committed to making smart motorways as safe as possible.”
