Return hard shoulder

IT’S wonderful that the Daily Mail has forced a rethink over the rollout of smart motorways. However, I am concerned that 120 miles of such roads have merely been ‘paused’ for data to be analysed.

Ensuring emergency laybys are no more than one mile apart isn’t good enough. When I had a burst tyre after hitting debris on the M25, I could pull over immediately to the hard shoulder to phone for help. There was no way I could have driven a mile to a refuge.

For existing smart motorways, there must be a plan to reinstate the hard shoulder. CHRISTOPHER JARDINE,

Brentwood, Essex. was killed on the M1. I was astounded at her revelation that the average response time to close an active lane following a breakdown or crash will be cut from 17 minutes to ten (Mail). That is far too long to be stuck in a broken-down car.

Most people can see smart motorways can be lethal, so why don’t Highways England and the Ministry of Transport?

It defies all logic to have even considered this scheme, but now the dangers are obvious, we need to revert to hard shoulders as soon as possible.

FIONA YOULTON, Olney, Bucks. THE ‘pausing’ of further developments of smart motorways won’t be much comfort to motorists who break down on the ones that are already open.

PETER RICKABY, Selby, N. Yorks.