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Construction of new smart highways has been canceled after concerns about safety and costs.
Downing Street has confirmed that 14 planned smart motorways – including 11 that have been paused and three designated for construction – will be removed from the government’s road construction plans.
The existing stretches will remain but will undergo a safety renovation so that there will be more emergency stopping places.
Read more: What are smart highways?
About 10% of England’s motorway network consists of smart motorways. It involves various methods of managing traffic flow, including turning the shoulder into a live lane.
It was introduced in England in 2014 to ease congestion – and there’s 375 miles of smart motorway, including 235 miles without a hard shoulder.
But there have long been fears in the aftermath of fatal accidents that vehicles are forced to stop in live lanes, without a stiff shoulder, only to be hit from behind.
What are the canceled smart highways?
11 Already Paused:
M3 junction 9 to 14
M40 / M42 interchange
M62 Junction 20 to 25
M25 junction 10 to 16
Dynamic Fixed Shoulder for all lane run conversions:
M1 junction 10 to 13
M4 – M5 Interchange (M4 Interchange 19 to 20 and M5 Interchange 15 to 17)
M6 junction 4 to 5
M6 junction 5 to 8
M6 junction 8 to 10a
M42 junction 3a to 7
M62 Junction 25 to 30
3 for construction:
M1 North Leicestershire
M1 Junction 35A to 39 – Sheffield to Wakefield
M6 Junction 19 to 21A – Knutsford to Croft
Earlier this month, an investigation heard that a smart highway crash that claimed the lives of two retirees would not have happened if there had been a stiff shoulder.
Derek Jacobs, 83, died when he was hit by a van on the M1 near Sheffield in 2019.
He had stopped in the inside straight lane after a tire blowout, and had been stationary there for three minutes and 34 seconds before his car was hit by a red Ford KA, driven by Jan Scripps. Her husband died in hospital two months after the collision.
Photo: Derek Jacobs died in a smart highway crash in 2019
The way to cancel smart highways
Plans for up to hundreds of miles of smart motorways were first announced in 2019, with the government aiming to spread 400 miles across England by 2025.
But after two years, the proposals were shelved.
At the time, ministers said the policy was “paused” until five years of safety data was collected for plans introduced before 2020. But in his Conservative leadership campaign last summer, Rishi Sunak vowed to ban them altogether.
Activists have long called for its abolition.
1:50 January 2022: Smart Highway Start Suspended
Jason Mercer passed away in 2019 while on his way to work. He had a shunt with a van on a stretch of the M1 motorway near Sheffield which has been converted into a smart motorway.
After the two cars stopped, they were hit by a truck. Claire Mercer says her husband would still be alive if there had been a stiff shoulder.
Ms. Mercer founded Smart Motorways Kill and campaigns for the complete abolition of motorways.
Image: Jason Mercer died after a crash on the M1 motorway northbound in 2019. Pic: South Yorkshire Police Image: Claire Mercer Campaigned to ban smart motorways
Rishi Sunak’s campaign promise
“All drivers deserve confidence in the roads they use to get around the country,” Sunak was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
“That’s why I pledged last year to stop building all new smart highways, and today I’m making good on that promise.
“So many people across the country rely on driving to get to work, take their children to school and go about their daily lives, and I want them to be able to do this with complete confidence that the roads they drive are safe.”
Labor has called on the government to reinstate the hard shoulder on existing smart motorways.
Shadow transport secretary Louise Hague said: “Labour has long demanded action on smart motorways and it is a tragedy that so many lives have been lost waiting for Conservative ministers to act.
“We know that smart highways, combined with inadequate safety systems, are not fit for purpose and put lives at risk.
“That is why ministers must put the hard shoulder back on existing smart highways and carry out repair and safety work while conducting a thorough review of inadequate safety and evidence systems,” she said.
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RAC road safety spokesman Simon Williams said: “This is a watershed declaration and a victory for everyone who has campaigned against these motorways which, by their design, put drivers at greater risk if they are unlucky enough to crash on one.
“Our research shows that not all smart highways that run on lanes are very popular with drivers, so we are delighted that the government has finally come to the same conclusion. It is very important now that plans are put in place to make the existing hundreds of miles of these types of highways as safe as possible.”
“The possibility of converting all extended lanes into a ‘dynamic hard shoulder’ configuration, where the hard shoulder is open and closed depending on traffic levels, may be one option the government is considering.”
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