We need smart thinking for our new motorways

We’ve known for years that miles of the M20 would lose its hard shoulder.

Design work for a Smart Motorway between Junction 3 and 5 started back in 2016.

For three years Highways England has dismissed safety concerns, hailing Smart Motorways as the future of transport.

It’s less happy to talk about what it’s doing to detect stationary vehicles.

After stripping mile upon mile of hard shoulder from motorways around the country, Highways England says it still relies on public or police phone calls to report stranded cars, lorries and vans. The authority says it’s working on Stationary Vehicle Detection for new Smart Motorway schemes.

Does that include Kent? They wouldn’t say.

Once again we’re left in the dark, looking for answers while the powers that be scramble for a solution.

No doubt when they have one they’ll promote it heavily and talk about their genius.

It won’t do much to save the lives lost on Smart Motorways already.

Its easy for them to tell motorists not to stop in live traffic, as if people actually want to do it.

But where do you turn when you suffer a sudden breakdown and there’s no hard shoulder? Every driver needs to be alert to the dangers of the road, but maybe Highways England should be too.

Forcing drivers to have short emergency sanctuaries every mile or so seems pretty risky, are they hoping motorists will be able to roll the distance if a tyre blows or an engine packs up?

People love shouting ‘health and safety gone mad’ in their daily moans, but this seems to be the opposite.