Before June 2019, Claire Mercer had no idea what a smart highway was. She thinks her husband Jason is too. It is doubly sad that he died after being hit by a lorry while stopped on the M1 smart motorway near Sheffield.
Five years later, Claire, from Rotherham, is a passionate campaigner to abandon what she sees as a deadly smart motorways experiment.
Claire says after launching the Kill Smart Motorways campaign, thousands of people have shared their comments, experiences and concerns about the plan.
Telegram At the same time, motoring organizations such as AA and RAC are also campaigning for the removal of smart motorways. So what now for a project designed as a discounted price method to increase highway capacity?
Smart highways have been abandoned. A kind of…
In April 2023, 18 years later, at a cost of more than £3 billion and nearly 50 avoidable deaths, Chancellor Rishi Sunak concluded that smart motorways should be abandoned. More precisely, the Government should scrap plans for 14 new smart motorways, including the M1, M6 and M25, which have already cost taxpayers £62 million.
The good news is that this will save around £1 billion. The bad news: with £2bn spent, we appear to be stuck with the smart motorways already built.
“These need to be completely abandoned,” Claire told us. “They canceled the ones that didn’t hurt anyone, the ones that weren’t built yet, and left the ones that killed people. That does not make sense.”
What exactly are smart highways?
The term covers three types of highways. A controlled highway uses cameras that activate the variable speed limit displayed on gantry-mounted signs for optimum traffic flow. It holds a special hard shoulder. These make up 7.2 percent of the motorway network.
Dynamic hard shoulder running was introduced in 2006 and accounts for 3.3 percent of the motorway network. These roads use the same cameras and variable speed limit signs, but turn the hard shoulder into a “live” carriageway at times when capacity is highest. In case your car breaks down, shelters are located 0.3 to 2.6 miles apart.
In 2014, all lane runs saw the hard shoulder become a permanently active lane on 8.8 percent of the network. There are also shelters for emergencies.
The “smart” element is that National Highways officers use cameras to monitor carriageways. They can set speed limits, close any lanes and reduce the speed limit in the event of a fault.
Will existing smart motorways really continue unchanged?
There are currently approximately 250 miles of all lanes operating on smart highways. There are no plans to return these to normal carriageways with a hard shoulder. This is despite research by the RAC revealing that more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of drivers want the hard shoulder to be reintroduced.
The government claims that giving us a hard shoulder would come at “significant cost” and would be “too disruptive”.
But Rod Dennis, of the RAC, said: “People’s concerns about the lack of safety measures are no different to the situation before the 2023 decision to stop construction running all lanes on motorways.
“Our research found that half (49 percent) of drivers often avoid using the first lane (left lane) in all lanes on motorways because they are afraid of hitting a stationary vehicle. Their main aim was to increase capacity, but they are not doing this.”
What improvements will be made to existing smart highways?
The government has ongoing research on smart motorways. 2020 Intelligent highway safety evidence stocktaking and action plan He cites various statistics that suggest smart highways are as safe as regular highways.
Despite this, then transport minister Grant Schapps wanted to make smart motorways safer to “rebuild public confidence”. The government later pledged £900 million for security improvements.
These included stopped vehicle detection technology in all lanes operating on the highway. In 2023, National Highways claimed that this had already detected around 1,900 stopped vehicles per month.
National Highways Chief Executive Nick Harris said: “The latest safety data (2017-2021) continues to show that, overall, all three types of smart motorways are safer than traditional motorways in terms of deaths or serious injuries.”
National Highways added that it was also investing £105 million on all-lane motorways, including more variable message signs and a system that detects slow-moving traffic and automatically adjusts bridging signs.
But Edmund King, chairman of the AA, said: “These are all things they should have done initially when it wouldn’t have cost us £900 million.”
Claire Mercer added: “None of these changes could have saved Jason.”
Running in all lanes is a problem
Running the entire lane without a stiff shoulder was responsible for Jason Mercer’s death. Jason, 44, along with Alexandru Murgeanu, were killed when a truck hit them while they were exchanging insurance information on the side of the road after a minor crash.
But the following year the government decided that all new smart motorways would be fully laned instead of the dynamic hard shoulder. The RAC’s Dennis said: “They did this without consultation or explanation.”
A year later, the Transport Select Committee published a damning report claiming: “The government’s decision in March 2020 that all new smart motorways would have all lanes passing through motorways was premature.”
Even the National Highways acknowledge that the risk of colliding with a stopped vehicle in a live lane is higher on smart highways than on those with permanent hard shoulder.
Emergency areas are the most controversial part of smart highways
When smart motorways were first discussed, there were supposed to be emergency shelters for broken down cars every 400 metres. When these highways became a reality, the shelters were about a mile and a half apart.
Nicholas Lyes, director of policy and standards at charity IAM RoadSmart, said: “If you permanently remove a hard shoulder of the motorway it will make it more risky for your road to fail unless you reach a refuge area.”
Edmund King added: “I think it’s a fundamental design flaw. And the DfT knew there would be more risk with less emergency space. But it would save money. We said at the time it would lead to deaths.”
Proving King’s point, in December last year National Highways announced it would spend £390 million to add 150 more emergency stopping bays on 11 sections of the motorway.
But Mercer disagreed: “What good is a shelter area for emergency services? Jason’s accident occurred at 8:12 a.m. “His body was still on the side of the road at 5pm because traffic was so bad the coroner couldn’t get through without a hard shoulder.”
Technology doesn’t always work either
Relying on technology to detect faulty cars is great in theory. However, when this technology does not work, chaos ensues.
A whistleblower came forward Telegram On January 19 this year, the smart highway’s nationwide computer security system was shut down. This meant control room staff were unable to use CCTV cameras, check speed limits or closed lanes.
The result was a six-car pile-up on the M6 southbound, with one car stalled in the inside lane of the all-lane running section. Those involved in the incident escaped with minor injuries. “Luckily God was protecting them, because we certainly weren’t,” the tipster said.
Monitoring agency the Office for Rail and Road says 89 per cent of stopped vehicles have now been detected, but Yorkshire and the North East, at 76 per cent, are still below the 80 per cent target.
This is an improvement from 2022, when smart technology cannot detect a third of faulty vehicles. Despite this, one in every 10 drivers is still stranded alone.
What is the future of smart highways?
We are now stuck with multiple schemas. Rod Dennis, of the RAC, said: “This is an absolute mess. On the M6 this goes from the normal three lanes to dynamic hard shoulder and all-lane runs. “It’s very confusing for drivers.”
The AA agrees with the RAC that smart motorways should be abandoned as quickly as possible. Edmund King said: “They can convert entire lane runs to dynamic hard shoulder relatively easily. Then set the criteria so that the hard shoulder is only used where the average speed is severely reduced by the weight of traffic.”
While the current government is continuing with smart motorways, it is believed that if Labor wins the election the party will abandon these motorways. Rotherham Labor MP Sarah Champion claimed rescue efforts on the motorway were like “walking into a death trap”.
Labour’s transport minister Louise Haigh also wants the hard shoulders returned. She said: “We know that smart motorways, combined with inadequate safety systems, are not fit for purpose and put lives at risk.”
All drivers should keep their fingers crossed that they will stick to this line if Labor wins.
What should you do if you break down on a smart motorway?
Let’s leave aside the questionable taste of an advertising campaign in which men dressed as flies are crushed, although the latter has happened to some of those killed on smart highways so far. The message he was trying to convey was that drivers should drive on the left without a safety lane on the highway in case of emergency or breakdown.
They must then either exit at the next intersection or services or head to the emergency area. But what if you can’t reach one of the shelters?
The government’s advice is to move the vehicle as close to the left-hand verge, boundary or minor road as possible. If you think it is safe, get out of the vehicle through the left door and wait behind the security barrier. Then call 999.
If the vehicle stops unexpectedly in the lane, drivers are advised to turn on their hazard lights and keep their seat belts fastened. The advisory then says National Highways will close the lane and send help.
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