November/December Issue 64 - Flipbook - Page 30
NEWS
HIGHWAYS ENGLAND FIRST YEAR PROGRESS REPORT ON
SMART MOTORWAYS STOCKTAKE
The Department for Transport
has received the Highways
England first year progress
report on the All Lanes Running
motorways stocktake from
Transport
Secretary
Grant
Shapps.
Great Britain has some of the safest
roads in the world and, although
per hundred million miles driven
there are fewer deaths on smart
motorways than conventional
ones, we are determined to do all
we can to help drivers feel safer
and be safer on our roads – all our
roads.
In March 2020, I published a
Smart motorway safety evidence
stocktake and action plan. The
safety improvements in the 2020
action plan consisted of a package
of 18 actions, costing £500 million,
including the rollout of radarbased stopped vehicle detection
(SVD) technology across the All
Lane Running (ALR) motorway
network and an additional £5
million on national and targeted
communications campaigns to
ensure drivers receive advice to
help them keep safe.
Furthermore, we have changed the
law to enable automatic detection
of vehicles driving in closed
lanes, known as red X violations.
Highways England is upgrading
all enforcement cameras across
the smart motorway network to
enable automatic detection of red
X violations which can then be
enforced by the police.
One year on from the publications
of the 2020 action plan, I
commissioned a report from
Highways England which sets
out its progress on these 18
actions along with proposals
30
about how those actions could be
accelerated.
On 20 April 2021, Highways
England published its Smart
motorways stocktake first year
progress report 2021. The report
contains the latest safety data
which updates analysis contained
in the 2020 Stocktake report.
The
report
demonstrates
significant progress against the 18
actions, which when delivered in
full, will raise the bar on motorway
safety.
Over the past 12
Highways England has:
•
•
•
•
•
•
months,
launched a major road safety
campaign to give drivers clear
advice about what to do in the
event of breaking down
completed work to turn
emergency areas orange so
they are more visible to drivers
and improved the signage
letting drivers know how far
they are from the next place to
stop in an emergency
installed 10 more emergency
areas on the M25 around
London
held a public consultation
on proposed changes to
the Highway Code that will
provide more information
about motorway driving
continued to upgrade cameras
so they can automatically
detect red X violations
introduced
radar-based
stopped vehicle detection
technology on stretches of the
M3 and the M20, with work
underway on the M1
Highways England is now
accelerating a number of actions
so that the completion dates
set out in Highways England:
Strategic Business Plan 2020-25
are brought forward.
Most significantly, radar-based
stopped
vehicle
detection
technology will now be installed
on all operational ALR motorways
by September 2022, 6 months
earlier than planned.
Highways England has also
made a commitment that no ALR
motorways will open without
radar technology to spot stopped
vehicles, enable lanes to be
closed where necessary and get
help to drivers quickly.
The data contained in the
Highways
England
progress
report continues to show that fatal
casualties are less likely on all
lane running motorways than on
conventional ones, but we know
drivers can feel less safe on roads
without hard shoulders, which is
why the progress report, published
today, intends to accelerate a
number of actions to provide
reassurance to drivers.
My statement of 24 March 2021
confirmed that the Office of Rail
and Road (ORR) is carrying out
an independent review of the
data to provide further analytical
assurance and ensure that the
conclusions arrived at are robust.
I would like to pay tribute to all
those safety campaigners, in
particular those who have lost
loved ones, on their efforts to
ensure that changes are made.
The government and Highways
England will continue to work hard
to improve road safety.
Source: GOV.UK
