Smart motorways were halted over safety concerns – what’s the future for digital roads?
For many people, the rollout of smart technology across the UK’s road network has been clouded by fears about the removal of traffic-free safety lanes. Traditionally, motorway hard shoulders offered motorists a safe haven into which they could steer stricken vehicles. But amid growing traffic numbers, the rationale for smart motorways (part of the UK government’s wider digital roads plan) was to free up these extra lanes to traffic. During a breakdown, the remote monitoring system could then quickly reinstate a temporary hard shoulder while the broken down or crashed vehicle was removed. However, since the first official smart motorway system was introduced on the M42 near Birmingham 20 years ago, the public has repeatedly raised concerns that being stranded in a live lane rather than on a hard shoulder can be more dangerous. In 2020, BBC Panorama reported that 38 people had been killed on smart motorways in the preceding five years. Since then, campaign groups have continued to highlight fatal collisions on smart motorway stretches where broken-down vehicles have been struck in live …
