The Government is pausing the rollout of new smart motorway schemes until more safety data on their operation is available.

The Government has agreed to pause smart motorway rollout until five years of safety data is available

The move follows the Transport Committee’s inquiry into smart motorways and will also see the Department for Transport (DfT) invest £900m to improve safety on existing ‘all lane running’ (ALR) style smart motorways.

Published in November 2021, the Transport Committee’s damning report into ALR smart motorways said they should never have been rolled out without work on safety concerns and that the DfT and National Highways (previously Highways England) had failed to deliver on promises to implement safety improvements.

The report stated that the government decision in March 2020 for all new smart motorways to use the ALR format, rather than the earlier ‘dynamic’ system of activating the hard shoulder at busy times, was “premature” and called for a hold on future ALR schemes until five years of safety and economic data was available and safety improvements had been delivered and independently evaluated.

An announcement from the DfT today (12 January) has now confirmed the Government will move to collect five years of safety and economic data for every all-lane running scheme introduced before 2020.

It also says the conversion of seven dynamic hard shoulder motorways to ALR schemes will be paused and the Government will consider alternative options for enhancing capacity on the Strategic Road Network as it prepares for the next Road Investment Strategy. The case for controlled motorways will be revisited.

The safety improvements set out in the Government’s 2020 action plan are to be independently evaluated by the Office for Rail and Road (ORR). Ministers have committed to an annual report to consider progress and will consider the Transport Committee’s recommendation that the ORR reports back on wider work by National Highways to improve safety on the Strategic Road Network.

The Government has also committed to improving safety measures on existing stretches of smart motorway. This will include investing £390m to install more than 150 additional emergency areas – representing around a 50% increase in places to stop by 2025 – giving drivers added reassurance.

The ORR will be tasked with independently evaluating Stopped Vehicle Detection technology, along with other safety measures. This will include a commitment to reduce incidences of live-lane breakdowns and reducing the risk for those who break down.

And the Transport Secretary has committed to investigate the concept of an ‘emergency corridor’. The idea is to update the Highway Code to include the manoeuvre to help emergency services and traffic officers to access incidents when traffic is congested. In effect, traffic in the right-hand lane pulls over to the right and on the left-hand lane pulls over to the left, which leaves a corridor so that emergency services can access any incident rapidly.

Announcing the commitments, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “While our initial data shows that smart motorways are among the safest roads in the UK, it’s crucial that we go further to ensure people feel safer using them.

“Pausing schemes yet to start construction and making multimillion-pound improvements to existing schemes will give drivers confidence and provide the data we need to inform our next steps. I want to thank safety campaigners, including those who have lost loved ones, for rightly striving for higher standards on our roads. I share their concerns.”

An “unqualified victory for drivers”

Commenting on the Government’s commitments, Huw Merriman MP, chair of the Transport Committee, said: “By accepting our recommendation to pause the rollout of Smart Motorways, the Government will have the weight of evidence to assist planning for future road building design.

“It is important that this extra time is not just spent on evaluation – it must be focused on making smart motorways safer. The existing network of smart motorways must be improved to deliver more emergency refuge areas and better technology to close live lanes and reduce the risk for stranded motorists.”

The Government’s announcement has also been welcomed by road safety organisations, including the RAC, which said it was “an unqualified victory for drivers”.

RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes added: “Rather than ploughing on regardless in the face of mounting public opposition, we’re pleased the Government has finally hit the pause button and given itself time to fully consider the safety of these schemes, and the way our motorways are adapted to increase capacity from now on.

“We have long argued that dynamic hard shoulder and controlled motorway schemes – both of which feature a hard shoulder in some form – should be considered given their good safety record and it’s important these options are on the table. A further commitment to install an additional 150 refuge areas on existing schemes to bring them all up to the same standard is positive news and should go some way towards reassuring drivers worried about reaching one in an emergency.”

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), which also provided evidence for the Transport Committee report, also welcomed the commitment on emergency refuge areas.

Rebecca Needham, road safety officer, said: “It is vitally important that a programme to retrofit emergency refuges on ALR motorways is put in place, because between 2015 and 2019, 39 people died on UK smart motorways, according to figures from National Highways.”

She added: “RoSPA also embraces the recognition in the report that further effort is required to better inform motorists about how to safely navigate smart motorways and we look forward to supporting this.”

The AA also said that government action on increasing the number of emergency refuge areas would mean drivers were much less likely to become ‘sitting ducks’ on smart motorways.

Both the AA and the Transport Committee had urged for such areas to be no more than three-quarters of a mile apart wherever physically possible, and the AA said that applying this to new schemes and retrofitting current schemes was a major step in the right direction and would help address its concerns over the fact that 38% of breakdowns on smart motorways occur in live lanes.

The AA also welcomed the Transport Secretary commitment to investigate the concept of an ‘emergency corridor’; a proposal raised by the organisation with DfT ministers in person and in a letter in November 2017.

And it welcomed the commitment to better evaluation of Stopped Vehicle Detection technology but questioned why it wasn’t fitted before schemes opened.

Edmund King, AA president, commented: “The AA has been a major critic of ‘smart’ motorways in our campaign for over a decade to improve their safety. At last, we have a Transport Secretary who has made progress and taken a positive and pragmatic approach. He has today accepted many of the measures we have been calling for and our important demand that emergency refuge areas should be no more than three-quarters of a mile apart.

“We would like further investigation, which the Transport Secretary has agreed to, of our proposal for all lane running schemes to revert to the hard-shoulder between 7pm-7am to avoid confusion and to offer a refuge to counter live lane collisions that happen at night.”

King added: “The AA view remains that controlled motorways with a hard shoulder are the safest option and we are pleased that the business case for these will be examined.

“Whilst ‘smart’ motorways will never be perfect, we do believe that considerable progress has been made to make them safer.

“We will be holding the Government to account to ensure these actions will be implemented as soon as possible.”