Smart motorways not convincing many drivers

A study by the AA has found that smart motorways are considered more dangerous than traditional motorways by the vast majority of drivers.

A survey of 15,000 drivers found that just one in 10 drivers said they felt safer on a smart motorway than a traditional one, with more than seven in 10 drivers believing the All Lane Running (ALR) scheme is more dangerous than having a hard shoulder.

Drivers (63%) are also in favour of Emergency Refuge Areas being spaced every half mile. At the moment it is 1.5 miles, but from April 2020 new smart motorways will have reduce that to one mile.

Edmund King, AA president said, ‘We believe the Secretary of State should now announce a review into the safety of All Lane Running Schemes.

‘Unfortunately we have already seen fatalities where vehicles have been left in vulnerable positions in live lanes. Previous research has shown that if Stopped Vehicle Detection is not in place it takes an average of 17 minutes to spot a stationary vehicle in a live lane.

‘Our new study shows that public trust on removing the hard shoulder has pretty much evaporated. Before any further schemes begin, we need an urgent and independent review into the safety of existing schemes.’

However, that is only one side to the story. Following AA’s claims, a Highways England spokesperson said:

“Evidence indicates that motorways without hard shoulders are helping to improve safety with casualty rates falling by more than 25%. Independent research from watchdog Transport Focus shows that a clear majority of drivers, more than 90%, do feel confident driving on motorways.

“Smart motorways include more features than conventional motorways to further enhance safety, and both are significantly safer for drivers than other roads

“We will, of course, continue to monitor the safety performance of smart motorways – as we do with all of our roads – and are rolling out enhancements to improve the road user experience further.

“These include reducing the distance between places to stop in an emergency on smart motorways, such as emergency areas, motorway service areas and hard shoulders on junction slip roads, to one mile apart. They are currently 1.5 miles apart – on average every 75 seconds at 60mph. We’re also making them more visible – we’ve already made more than 140 more visible by turning them orange and improving signage.”