Motorways to open hard shoulder to ease congestion

 

Last updated at 10:58am on 22nd October 2007

Drivers on busy motorways will be able to drive on the hard shoulder during peak hours, under a new government scheme.

 

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly is expected to announce the move this week following a successful pilot scheme on the M42 in the West Midlands.

 

Despite fears by safety experts, the scheme has been heralded as an effective way of cutting congestion on Britain's busy roads.

 

Hard shoulder: Three lanes of traffic

 

Ms Kelly is expected to announce on Thursday the expansion of the scheme to other motorways, including the M25, M4, M20, M1 and M6.

Automated signs will instruct drivers when they can use the hard shoulder, which is generally restriced to broken-down vehicles and the emergency services.

The scheme has been considered as an easier and cheaper alternative to lane widening.

Road safety charity Brake and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) have both raised concerns about the scheme, claiming drivers experiencing car trouble will have nowhere to stop safely.

Brake spokeswoman Cathy Keeler also said: "In a traffic jam paramedics can currently use the hard shoulder to jump queues in order to reach crash sites in the shortest possible time.

"In the event of all lanes, including the hard shoulder, being blocked, how will they get through?"

The Government insist hard shoulders can be shut off as a fourth lane within seconds if there is an accident and the overhead signs will swiftly indicate this.

Another short-term solution to a long term problem.

Fabulous, so when I crash my car/ my car breaks down on the way to work, where exactly am i going to stand/leave my car???

 

more to the point. if the motorway is snarled up with traffic at rush hour, and there's an accident, what are the police/ambulance/fire brigade gonna use to bypass the stationary cars.

 

do we think someone possibly didn't think about this one too carefully?

 

oh, and as to the we can close it quickly point, have they ever seena motorway when theyh ave red crosses across a lane, coz everyone watches them don't they?

The Government insist hard shoulders can be shut off as a fourth lane within seconds if there is an accident and the overhead signs will swiftly indicate this.

If traffic could move this swiftly, there wouldn't be any need to use the hard shoulder to begin with. This is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen.

It's a rubbish idea, as the hard shoulder is used to park when your car is on fire/broken down.

 

and besides most of the M4 hard-shoulder has been coned off for the past couple years as make improvements to the DIS