New research has been published showing that British motorists want the government to reinstate the hard shoulder in existing all-lane-running smart motorways.
The research comes from the RAC, which says that 69% of UK motorists want the hard shoulder to be reinstated on the existing 235 miles of all-lane-running (ALR) motorways in the UK.
RAC road safety spokesman Simon Williams said: “While we’re pleased the Government reached the same conclusion that many drivers already have by cancelling future smart motorway schemes which would have seen around dozens more miles of hard shoulder disappearing forever, as things stand, by the end of this year there will still be 250 miles of motorway in England without hard shoulders – that’s around 13% of the complete network.
“Installing additional refuge areas and radar technology to help spot stricken vehicles is welcome and necessary, but for most drivers this doesn’t go far enough.
“Many felt they were dangerous from the outset and now it’s clear the Government has totally lost faith in these types of road as well.”
The RAC’s research comes after the government announced it was cancelling all planned ALR-style smart motorway projects in the UK last week. Certainly, there is a case to be made that if the government does not believe the new projects should go ahead, the existing roads using the now-abandoned technology should also have that technology removed.
The government argues that the cost of reverting all existing ALR motorways to standard motorways would be too expensive.
Simon Williams continued: “Today, it remains the case that anyone unlucky enough to break down who can’t get to an emergency refuge area remains incredibly vulnerable where the hard shoulder has been taken out.
“The Government claims that reinstating the hard shoulder would ‘come at a significant cost’ and be ‘too disruptive’ but our research shows drivers clearly don’t buy this.
“Certainly, it’s regrettable that so much public money has already been spent on such deeply unpopular roads, but will the driving public accept anything less than the return of the hard shoulder?
“What’s more, the Government is making a saving of more than £1bn by virtue of it deciding to cancel future smart motorway schemes in the first place.
“We continue to believe that reinstating the hard shoulder on all stretches of road where they’ve been converted into a permanent fourth lane is the right thing to do. We’d then like to see the Government immediately start monitoring the impact this has on congestion.”
Williams also suggests that an alternative to reverting ALR roads to standard motorways would be to convert them to dynamic hard shoulder roads, which RAC research suggests has the support of 70% of motorists.
