The RAC is suggesting that smart motorways should only be all-lane running during busy periods, or for hard shoulders to be reinstated across the motorway network.

Reacting to news that 52 more refuge areas are being installed across the southeast, the motoring club’s head of policy Simon Williams said that, ten years on from the first stretch of all-lane running on the M25 in Hertfordshire, “the ultimate question remains: will the motoring public ever be entirely comfortable driving on the 200-plus miles of motorway where the hard shoulder has been permanently removed?”

Arguing that, while the hard shoulder is by no means a safe location, but in the event of a breakdown, it is far safer than being stranded in a live lane of traffic waiting for the ‘red X closed lane’ sign to be turned on and then for other drivers to do the right thing and move into another lane, he said he wanted a new approach.

“We continue to believe that the Government should either convert existing all-lane-running smart motorways to ‘dynamic’ ones, where the hard shoulder is only opened to traffic during busy periods, or repaint the white line and reintroduce a permanent hard shoulder on these roads. In either case, queue-busting technology, such as variable speed limits, could remain to help ensure traffic flows as smoothly as possible.”

(Picture – Highways News)