The Government’s decision to pause the rollout of controversial new all lane running (ALR) style smart motorway schemes has been applauded by IAM RoadSmart.

New poll shows majority of experienced motorists have no trust in smart motorways

The Department for Transport’s announcement yesterday falls in line with the Transport Committee’s latest recommendations that the rollout of new ALR smart motorways should be paused until a full five years’ worth of safety data becomes available for schemes introduced prior to 2020. After this point, the Government will assess the data to make an informed decision on the next steps.

The DfT is also investing £900m to improve safety on existing ALR smart motorways.

Neil Greig, director of policy and research at IAM RoadSmart, commented: “The news that the Government will pause all new smart motorways is strongly welcomed by IAM RoadSmart. As demonstrated by our survey, it has become increasingly clear that for many drivers and riders, the initial scepticism has not been overcome with many having lost all confidence in the safety of smart motorways. This decision will give National Highways time to rebuild trust and win them back.

“Five years of data is what we would expect if we are to prove that a road safety intervention of this scale is effective. However, the UK still has some of the most congested motorways in Europe so it is vital that the additional funding earmarked for improvements is ringfenced and not diverted elsewhere.”

ALR smart motorways were first introduced in 2014 and have proved a contentious issue with drivers from the start, heightened by several fatal collisions involving stationary cars being hit from behind.

A recent IAM RoadSmart survey underscored just how concerned drivers are over such motorways; the vast majority of respondents (85%) said they wanted a halt on their construction until the safety case was fully proven.

Furthermore, 84% of those surveyed said they had little faith in the current safety systems’ abilities to detect them if they were to breakdown in a running lane, and to protect them until assistance arrived.

Commenting on the safety upgrades for existing ALR smart motorway, Greig added that IAM RoadSmart has continuously said that smart motorways should never have been opened without the stopped vehicle detection technology delivering the guaranteed levels of incident management that were promised. It had also become clear very quickly that the spacing of refuge areas wasn’t sufficient.

“Given that the data collected will determine the future smart motorway strategy we are concerned that the clock is already ticking and will be urging the Government to prioritise the proposed upgrades so they can have the maximum impact,” he continued.

Greig also said that further driver education on using smart motorways was essential going forwards.

“IAM RoadSmart are ready to work with the authorities to educate and inform drivers and riders about the safest ways to use new motorway designs. For far too long it was assumed that users would simply adapt to the new rules but the lack of information has been a key issue for us and during this evaluation period we will campaign for more to be done to ensure that smart motorway users become increasingly confident in using them and feel safe in doing so.”