The Department for Transport has received (20/04/2021) the Highways England first year progress report on the All Lanes Running motorways stocktake. The report sets out progress on the 18-point action plan to ensure that Smart Motorways are safe that Highways England were given by the Department for Transport in March 2020.

CIHT recently submitted evidence to the Transport Select Committee's inquiry into Smart Motorways.

Highways England's progress report says that Smart Motorways, an umbrella term for different kinds of motorways, are safer than conventional motorways, and in the progress report's foreword Highways England's Acting Chief Executive Nick Harris says:

All road journeys involve risk, but the chance of death on smart motorways is less than on any other major road. It is less than on conventional motorways, and it is far less than on any strategic road network A-road.

We accept drivers want to know more about what driving on motorways without a hard shoulder means for their safety. They deserve to understand what we are doing to help keep them safe and what new technologies can be deployed to assist if things go wrong.

The report states that Highways England are not considering converting All Lane Running motorways back to hard shoulder motorways as that will reduce capacity by a quarter and thereby lead more drivers on to less safe roads increasing the overall number of people killed and seriously injured. The report also notes that the UK has some of the safest roads in the world and in Europe only Sweden, Norway and Switzerland have lower road fatalities than the UK. 

The report also sets out a number of actions to increase safety and the perception of safety on Highways England's network:

"On existing smart motorways:

By the end of September 2022, six months earlier than previously committed:

• On existing ALR motorways we will have completed the installation of radar technology which detects stopped vehicles (radar SVD technology)
• We will have installed around 1,000 additional signs to better inform drivers of the distance to the next place to stop in an emergency

By the end of September 2022, 10 months earlier than previously committed:

• We will have upgraded cameras that automatically detect vehicles passing illegally under a Red X or entering the lane beyond a Red X, so the police can take enforcement action. We are doing this for the safety of those in the closed lanes and because it’s illegal to enter the lane beyond a Red X, until such time that you pass a sign and signal cancelling the restriction
• We will continue to consider a national programme of retrofitting additional emergency areas on existing smart motorways where places to stop in an emergency are more than one mile apart. This review will be complete by April 2022.

On smart motorways under construction:

• We will ensure that every new smart motorway will have radar SVD technology in place when it opens.

For smart motorways in the design phase:

• SVD technology will be in place before any scheme opens
• Going forward, and as previously announced, drivers will reach places to stop in an emergency every three-quarters of a mile where feasible, with a maximum spacing of one mile."

For more information and Transport Minister Grant Shapp's statement please see here.

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