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Safety of smart motorways called into question by Transport Select Committee
A Transport Select Committee report has raised a number of questions concerning the safety of smart motorways.
Published by the House of Commons at the end of last month (26 October 2021), Rollout and safety of smart motorways scrutinises the safety of all-lane running motorways.
The report’s key finding is that National Highways underestimated the scale of safety measures needed. It also found that despite the Department for Transport and National Highways assuring previous Transport Committees that safety improvements would be prioritised, these had not been implemented in a timely fashion. The Committee failed to be convinced that the benefits of all-lane running motorways outweigh the safety risks involved in permanently removing the hard shoulder. However, it stopped short of calling for the reinstatement of the hard shoulder on all-lane running motorways and suggested the focus should be on upgrading their safety.
The Committee did recommend pausing the rollout of smart motorway schemes until five years of safety data is available for every all-lane running scheme introduced before 2020. It also recommended that the government and National Highways should trial alternative ways in which to operate the dynamic hard shoulder to make the rules less confusing for drivers.
“Logistics UK is an advocate of smart motorways as a potential way to reduce congestion and produce more reliable journey times, provided that high levels of safety are maintained,” a Logistics UK spokesperson said, “It is, therefore, vital that robust data is used to carefully and continuously assess the safety record of smart motorways to determine any changes that are needed.”
*www.logistics.org.uk/campaigns/road-safety
Published On: 11/11/2021 16:00:50
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