Following a report in the i newpaper that suggests the Government may no longer build all-lane running smart motorways in the future, the RAC has expressed its concerns..
RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said, “If Ministers are giving serious consideration to completely scrapping new all-lane-running smart motorways, then this is an admission that the Government no longer has faith in these types of roads, a conclusion that most drivers came to a long time ago.
“The next big question is: what happens to the hundreds of miles of motorway without a hard shoulder? It’s clear from RAC research that drivers want the hard shoulder back, so it may be the case that solid white lines have to be painted to all the inside lanes of these motorways.
“While overall capacity would be dramatically reduced, we would still have the benefit of all the installed technology, such as variable speed limits which help to manage traffic flow more efficiently.
“As increasing motorway capacity was the reason smart motorways were introduced, there would still be the option of opening the hard shoulder to vehicles at peak times. We know from our research that this is something 70% of drivers are in favour of as it provides a place of relative refuge for the majority of the day. What’s more, the safety record of these dynamic hard shoulder motorways is very good.”
