Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Deferred
Paragraph: 15
The design of our motorways and strategic roads necessarily entails balancing competing priorities.
Conclusion
The design of our motorways and strategic roads necessarily entails balancing competing priorities. However, successive Administrations, together with the Department and National Highways’ predecessor, Highways England, underestimated the scale of safety measures needed effectively and reliably to mitigate the risks associated with the permanent removal of the hard shoulder on all-lane running motorways. The Department and Highways England failed to deliver safety improvements to all-lane running motorways in a timely fashion, despite having promised previous Transport Committees that such improvements would be prioritised. Moreover, the communication of this radical change in the design of our motorways has been woeful. Six years after their introduction, many people do not understand what all-lane running motorways are and what to do if they breakdown in a live lane.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government committed to further investigating the benefits of a health and safety assessment by the ORR and establishing an expert panel to review regulatory responsibilities and assess costs, benefits, and risks of additional ORR assessment, with recommendations later in the year.
Paragraph Reference:
15
Government Response
The government responded to this report on 12 January 2022. No passage in that response could be matched to this conclusion. Read the response document ↗