MPs call for 5-yr delay in all-lane smart motorways
Inquiry: More safety data needed before mass rollout
We are not convinced that the benefits of all lane running motorways are sufficient to justify risks to safety. MPs report
PLANS to axe the hard shoulder on much of the West Midlands motorway network should be stopped until it’s clear that the proposals are safe, an inquiry has concluded.
In a report published on Tuesday, MPs said: “We are not convinced that the benefits of all lane running motorways are sufficient to justify the risks to safety associated with permanently removing the hard shoulder.”
They also expressed concern about a system already in use on parts of the M6 and M42 which turns the hard shoulder into an extra lane when the road is busy, saying these motorways “confuse drivers” and should be changed.
The West Midlands was the first area to introduce so-called smart motorways, when a system allowing drivers to use the hard shoulder was introduced on an 11-mile stretch of the M42 near Birmingham in 2006.
Known as dynamic hard shoulder running, this system uses electronic signs to tell motorists when the hard shoulder is open for traffic. It is in place on parts of the M6 and M42, as well as other motorways including the M25 in London, and M1 linking London with the Midlands and the north.
More recently, Highways England introduced a system called all lane running on parts of the motorway network. This means there is no hard shoulder at all, and every lane is always available for motorists.
Emergency refuge areas, which provide an alternative safe place to stop in the absence of the hard shoulder, are provided up to 1.6miles apart, but typically occur every 1.2 miles.
All lane running is currently used on the M6 in much of Staffordshire. However, Highways England plans to remove the hard shoulder from all dynamic hard shoulder motorways turning them into all lane running roads - by March 2025.
An inquiry by the House of Commons Transport Committee has now called for these plans to be delayed. Highlighting data from motorways where the hard shoulder has already been removed, MPs said it led to broken-down vehicles being stuck in busy lanes used by traffic.
They said: “The rate of live lane incidents on all-lane running motorways is too high. Some 40% of breakdowns on all-lane running motorways take place in a live lane... although live-lane breakdowns occur on all roads and do not always result in death or serious injury, we heard that they can be terrifying for people who experience them.”
It comes after Birmingham solicitor Manjinder Singh Kang, of motoring specialists Kang and Co, warned earlier this year that the M6 was an ‘accident waiting to happen’ after working on a case involving the tragic death of a van driver.
The motorist died in a five-vehicle crash after he was forced to stop in live traffic between junctions six and five as there was no hard shoulder. The collision was “unavoidable” because of the lack of a hard shoulder, Mr Kang said.
In 2020, 19-year-old Zahir Ahmed died while returning home from Birmingham. Three others were seriously injured in the smash after a lorry ploughed into their vehicle on the M1 near Dunstable, Bedfordshire, last December. A court heard car’s driver managed to park safely close to the hard shoulder, which was being used as an active lane.
Eight-year-old Dev Naran, from Leicester, was fatally injured when his grandfather’s Toyota was hit by a lorry after the car pulled up on the hard shoulder on the M6 in Birmingham in May 2018.
He was on his way home from visiting his ill brother in Birmingham Children’s Hospital.