BRING BACK HARD SHOULDERS!
Suspending smart motorways isn’t enough, say owners
Classic car enthusiasts are backing a rapidly growing online petition to convert stretches of smart motorways back to having hard shoulders. Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, suspended work on more than 40 miles of motorways – stretches of the M1, M4, M6, M20, M27 and M62 – that were to have their hard shoulders permanently removed, on 30 January after a safety review revealed serious shortcomings. Many more sections of motorway were already converted ahead of a 488-mile target originally set for April this year.
The Change.org campaign to bring back hard shoulders, created a year ago, had attracted more than 44,000 signatures at the time of writing and more than 5000 following a BBC Panorama exposé on the risks posed to motorists that was broadcast on 27 January; it was revealed that 38 people had died on smart motorways since the first was built in 2006.
Despite this, The Rt Hon Sir Greg Knight MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group, does not want all smart motorways to immediately revert.
He said: ‘The statistics revealing the number of deaths and accidents on smart motorways are clearly unacceptable and are a matter of serious concern. It may well be that we should abolish smart motorways in the UK but, when traffic is flowing normally, they do assist in reducing congestion, so it is reasonable to pause their use and assess the risk first rather than abolishing them. ‘Classic/ historic cars are not necessarily any more dangerous than modern cars to use on smart motorways but making our motorways safer will be a benefit to all motorists.’
Smart motorways, of which three types – all lane running, controlled and dynamic hard shoulder – exist, were created to manage rising levels of traffic without building new stretches of road. All lanes running smart motorways pose the biggest risk to stranded cars because they have no hard shoulder substitute aside from emergency refuse areas. Dynamic hard shoulder motorways turn hard shoulders into live lanes when traffic levels demand it.
Like Sir Greg, the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) argued that classic cars were no more vulnerable than any other type of vehicle, but felt that the respite in building work on more smart motorways was more than justified.
Communications officer, Wayne Scott, said: ‘The statistics on deaths and injury recently published regarding the possible effects of smart motorways, where the hard shoulder has been opened as a ‘live lane’, are worrying for everyone who uses the roads.
‘We do not believe that historic vehicles are any more likely to end up needing a hard shoulder than mainstream traffic on the roads, because most historic vehicle drivers tend to avoid motorways where possible, but anything that makes our roads safer is to be supported and we welcome the review.’