Not a smart move for money – or safety

In last week’s Advertiser the DfT states that ‘reinstating the hard shoulder on all all-lane running motorways could put more drivers and passengers at risk of death and serious injury’.

In 2017 there were five deaths on smart motorways, in 2018 the number had increased to 11.

An inquest into the death of two men on 2019 concluded that the lack of a hard shoulder contributed to the deaths of two men.

No figures yet given for 2020.

On one section of the M25, the number of near misses had risen 20-fold since the hard shoulder was removed in April 2014.

In the five years before the road was converted into a smart motorway there were just 72 near misses.

In the five years after, there were 1,485. A ‘near miss’ is counted every time there is an incident with ‘the potential to cause injury or ill health’.

The Transport Committee suggests that emergency refuge areas should be available every .75 miles with a maximum distance being 1 mile apart.

The original pilot scheme on the M42 had emergency refuge areas every 0.5 miles.

Currently on the M4 between junctions 8/9 to 12 the emergency refuge areas are 1.5 miles apart.

They are also very small.

According to the Highway Code a vehicle should join a motorway at the speed of the traffic in the inside lane and there is no way any vehicle could leave the emergency refuge and join the inside lane at that speed.

They could from the hard shoulder.

And what is an emergency corridor manoeuvre? Now that used to be the hard shoulder.

The cost of the M4 smart motorway upgrade was budgeted at £862.4m.

Was this really a smart way of using the money?

BRUCE ADAMS Cox Green Lane

Maidenhead