London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

What are smart motorways and are they dangerous?

What are smart motorways and are they dangerous?

An MPs' report has called for delays to the introduction of some smart motorways, over safety fears.

The Commons Transport Committee raises concerns over "all-lane running" stretches of road - these do away with the hard shoulder, but critics say they can leave cars stranded in fast-moving traffic.

What is a smart motorway?


A smart motorway is a stretch of road where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and - hopefully - ease congestion. There are three main types:

*  Controlled, which have a permanent hard shoulder, but use technology such as variable speed limits to adjust traffic flows

*  Dynamic, where the hard shoulder can be opened up at peak times and used as an extra lane; when this happens, the speed limit is reduced to 60mph

*  All-lane running, where the hard shoulder has been permanently removed to provide an extra lane; emergency refuge areas are provided at regular intervals for cars that get into trouble

All three models use overhead gantries to direct drivers. Variable speed limits are introduced to control traffic flow when there is congestion, or if there is a hazard ahead. These limits are controlled by speed cameras.


On dynamic motorways, the overhead gantries are also used to tell drivers whether or not they can drive on the hard shoulder. A red X is displayed if a lane is closed, for example, due to an accident or breakdown, and traffic is monitored using closed circuit television.

If drivers get into trouble, they are meant to aim for the emergency refuge areas (essentially laybys) placed at intervals along the road.

All-lane running schemes operate in the same way, except there is no hard shoulder at all.

Earlier this year, the government said that no new sections of this kind of motorway would be opened unless they were equipped with radar technology, to detect stranded vehicles more quickly.

Where are smart motorways?


There are about 375 miles of smart motorway in England, including 235 miles without a hard shoulder.

The first sections of controlled motorway were introduced on the M25 in the 1990s. Nowadays almost the entire route around London is made up of either controlled or all-lane running sections.

Dynamic sections - which are currently being phased out and replaced with all-lane running - are largely concentrated along the M6 and the M42 in the Midlands, as well as on the M62 outside Leeds and Bradford.

Emergency bays give cars space to pull off the road when there's no hard shoulder

Elsewhere, significant parts of the M1, the M6, the M3 and the M4 have all been converted to either controlled or all-lane running, along with other parts of the M62 and M42.

Are smart motorways dangerous?


Motorways in general are pretty safe - they account for far fewer casualties than rural or urban roads, despite the high speeds involved.

The big question is whether smart motorways are more dangerous than conventional ones.

Controlled motorways where speed limits vary are not the problem. Statistically, they are safer than any other kind.

It's the removal of the hard shoulder - either permanently or temporarily - that causes concern. Vehicles can be left stranded in a stream of fast-flowing traffic, and emergency vehicles may struggle to get through to an incident.

Protesters carried cardboard coffins in a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday

According to government figures obtained by Panorama in 2020, 38 people were killed on smart motorways between 2014 and 2019.

Figures quoted by the Commons' Transport Committee show that the number of deaths on motorways without a hard shoulder rose from 5 in 2017 to 15 in 2019. But the size of the network also increased.

Separately, research into the first stretches of motorway converted to all-lane running show that although the rate of fatal and serious injuries went up, the number of overall casualties went down.

However, all-lane running motorways haven't been in operation for very long, so there isn't a huge amount of available data.

Recent RAC research found a clear majority of people were in favour of scrapping all-lane running motorways, and bringing back the hard shoulder.

But the hard shoulder is itself a safety risk - one in 12 motorway deaths occur there.

What are MPs calling for?


In their report, the MPs say they are "not convinced" that the benefits of all-lane running motorways are enough to justify the safety risks of permanently removing the hard shoulder.


They want the government to pause the rollout of new stretches of all-lane running for five years, in order to collect more information and make existing schemes safer.

They also want to suspend current plans to turn all dynamic stretches of smart motorway into all-lane running.

In addition, they are calling for:

*  more emergency refuges to be installed so that drivers don't have to go as far if they need to stop

*  an independent evaluation of the technology used to detect stranded vehicles

*  changes to the highway code, so that drivers in stationary traffic are required to leave room for emergency vehicles to get through

The Department for Transport has said it will consider the recommendations.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×