Bring back hard shoulder on smart motorways so they are safer, RAC urges

HARD shoulders should be reinstated on smart motorways, the RAC has said.

The motoring group issued the plea to ministers a year after Rishi Sunak cancelled all future planned smart motorway projects, citing financial pressures and a lack of public confidence in the roads.

The first stretch of all-lane running (ALR) smart motorway – using the hard shoulder as a permanent live traffic lane – opened on the M25 in Hertfordshire ten years ago. ALR smart motorways aim to increase capacity at a lower cost than widening roads.

But there have been longstanding safety concerns after fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes were hit from behind. The Mail has campaigned for greater safety on smart motorways.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: ‘While heralded as a cost- effective way of increasing capacity on some of our busier roads, a colossal amount of public money has since gone into trying to make them safer – by installing radar-based technology to detect stricken vehicles, plus the creation of more emergency refuge areas. The Government should either convert existing ALR smart motorways to dynamic ones – where the hard shoulder is only opened to traffic during busy periods – or repaint the white line and reintroduce a permanent hard shoulder.’

It follows a national Highways report published in december that found smart motorways without a hard shoulder were three times more dangerous to break down on than those with an emergency lane.

The study also showed that the rate of ‘killed and serious injury’ ( KSI) incidents during breakdowns on smart motorways with

‘Colossal amount of money’

no permanent hard shoulder has increased by 10 per cent.

KSI tragedies increased for three out of five schemes since having their hard shoulder removed. These were the M1 junctions 39 to 42, M25 junctions 5 to 7 and M6 junctions 11A to 13.

In April last year Mr Sunak announced he was halting new smart motorways from being built.

But he stopped short of scrapping more than 400 miles of existing schemes which have their hard shoulder permanently removed.

A department for Transport spokesman said: ‘We recognise the need for the public to feel safe driving, and have cancelled plans for all new smart motorway schemes.’