Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 8
8
The Government and National Highways should pause the rollout of all-lane running motorways to collect...
Conclusion
The Government and National Highways should pause the rollout of all-lane running motorways to collect more data, to upgrade and then evaluate the safety of existing all-lane running schemes and to consider alternative options for enhancing capacity on the Strategic Road Network. The Government and National Highways should pause the rollout of new all-lane running schemes until: • five years of safety and economic data is available for every all-lane running scheme introduced before 2020; and • the implementation of the safety improvements in the Government’s action plan has been independently evaluated. (Paragraph 43) 26 Rollout and safety of smart motorways
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
36. The Government agrees with this recommendation and will pause the conversion of seven DHS schemes to ALR until the next Road Investment Strategy, so that alternative operating approaches can be considered. 37. A key action in the Stocktake and Action Plan was to convert DHS schemes to ALR as their removal would simplify the types of motorways on the network and would reduce the potential for driver confusion. The Committee’s recommendation however suggests that there is merit in re-examining the model to see if there are alternative ways of operating them. 38. We will consider alternative ways in which to operate the DHS motorways, including, but not limited to, having set operating hours so that motorists can become familiar with the operation of the road. We will also continue to collect data and analyse the safety performance of DHS motorways to help inform our thinking. This will be a priority action for National Highways, and we plan to report back to the Committee on this later this year. 39. At the same time, we will continue to invest in these motorways and have asked National Highways to install further safety measures were DHS motorways are in operation. This includes incorporating enhancements from the Stocktake and Action Plan, such as SVD technology, central reservation improvements and the enhancements to EA visibility and signage.