Please find below the letter that I recently received from National Highways:
15 December 2023
Dear John Redwood
National emergency area retrofit â M4 junctions J10-12
I am writing today to update you on the delivery of additional emergency areas on existing smart motorways, and to explain what this means for the stretch of the M4 in Berkshire.
In April, the Prime Minister announced the cancellation of new smart motorway schemes and confirmed the government and National Highways would continue to invest ÂŁ900 million in further safety improvements on existing smart motorways. This includes continued delivery of our commitments made in response to the recommendations of Parliamentâs Transport Select Committee report The roll out and safety of smart motorways.
While our motorways are among the safest in the world, we recognise that some people have concerns about being able to find a safe place to stop in an emergency
on all lane running (ALR) motorways where the hard shoulder has been converted to a running lane, such as the stretch of the M4 between Heston and Reading. We have listened to those concerns and have been developing a ÂŁ390 million programme to roll out more emergency areas on ALR motorways, in operation and construction.
Emergency areas provide a place to stop in an emergency if drivers cannot exit the motorway or stop at a motorway service area. They are marked by blue signs featuring an orange SOS telephone symbol. Each is coloured orange and is around the same length as a football pitch. They are positioned at regular intervals and have phones linked directly to our control rooms.
In comparison to January 2022, our emergency area retrofit programme will see around 50% more emergency areas across the entire all lane running network, giving drivers added reassurance. Itâs a programme weâll be working on in phases, with the M4 having new areas added in the coming months. We published this information to our website today https://nationalhighways.co.uk/emergency-areas.
We will write to you again before we start work on the M4, to clarify how we will manage the works, particularly in light of other work nearby, and how we will be briefing those living near to the works.
Beyond the M4, our current retrofit programme will see more emergency areas added on the M25, M5, M3, M20, M27 and the M1. Retrofitting more emergency areas across the remainder of ALR motorways, is being considered as part of formulating the third road investment strategy. This will be based on evidence of the benefits of introducing them at initial locations across the network, and whether the additional emergency areas help drivers to feel safer.
This investment in new emergency areas, along with extra technology like stopped vehicle detection, better and more signposting of emergency areas, our public awareness campaigns promoting more information about smart motorways, the updated Highway Code and more breakdown and safety advice such as https://nationalhighways.co.uk/road-safety/breakdowns all aims to help road users feel safe and be even safer on our roads.
Through all the work we are doing we are determined to further reduce the number of casualties on our high-speed road network, to improve public confidence in driving on our motorways, and to continue to build and operate one of the safest and best performing road networks in the world.
The safety and confidence of people travelling on Englandâs motorways and major A-roads is National Highwaysâ highest priority. Â We are determined that everyone using Englandâs motorways continues to benefit from one of the safest and best performing road networks in the world.
I hope this is a helpful update. If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to contact me, my colleague Felicity Clayton who is leading on the retrofit project
(felicity.clayton@nationalhighways.co.uk) or the project team on EAretrofit@nationalhighways.co.uk
Yours sincerely
Christine Allen
Operations Regional Director for the South East,
National Highways
December 18, 2023
Such a complicated retrofit reveals that the original plan was faulty and dangerous.
Christine Allen states intention to âhelp drivers to feel saferâ. Her priority should focus on drivers BEING safer.
December 18, 2023
Hopefully more and more emergency areas will finally join up and form a much need hard shoulder!
STEPHEN BAILEY
December 19, 2023
Opposite destined traffic risks impact at 140mph. So: place the fastest traffic lanes furthest apart. Use the central barrier as the emergency stop lane shared by both directions. Limit its adjacent lanes to 30mph, increasing outward to 40mph then 70mph. That creates 33% more road space.
The 40mph vehicles are then four lanes apart & those at 70mph are then 6 or 8 lanes apart.
The layout is as simple as having a wide one-way road passing near to a similar road from its opposite direction. Sharing an emergency stopping space between them on their left hand side is a safety bonus.
December 20, 2023
So slow vehicles joining the motorway would have to cross 70mph lanes to get to their appropriate slow lane. On Ramps will have to be redesigned to enable other joining traffic always to reach 70mph before joining.
Overtaking will usually entail a move to the left. Ergo right hand drive cars would be less safe than left hand drive cars.
December 20, 2023
Peter
I think he wants to change the layout of every single motorway and dual carriageway junction in the Country, because that is what it means in reality
December 23, 2023
You misunderstand, Peter. Drivers would proceed normally on their road ahead as they do now. That single road can change direction (or cross other roads via a tunnel or a bridge) as ordinary roads do now. The road would become a âMotorwayâ only when it becomes juxtaposed with an identical road carrying traffic in its opposite direction. Currently Motorways are designed with the Eastbound road sited above the Southbound road. That places the fastest vehicles in adjacent lanes, risking 140mph crashes and needing the barrier lane added. However, if the two roads were built with their hard shoulders juxtaposed at the centre, the fastest traffic is between 6 & 8 lanes apart. You also gain safety from 33% extra road space, and no wasteful crash barrier.
December 23, 2023
To Berkshire Alan
The layout described is simply a safer, efficient way of joining roads. It is also a way of building new Motorways. However some existing motorways could be easily adapted, especially where there are long distances between junctions.
December 27, 2023
Bloke
Would you treat Dual carriageways the same ?
December 18, 2023
About time they did something useful – our road network is a total disgrace.
When Blair came to power he stopped all investment in roads, while this improved a little under the Tories, it is clear that with road usage continues to increase, capacity has lagged far behind.
In the Southeast, the area close to the Dartford crossing becomes totally snarled up when there are issues on the M25, which is almost daily – jams are normal for miles around.
OK another Thames crossing is planned, but knowing the issues why haven’t alternate routes been opened up?
To avoid the snarl ups drivers use narrow country lanes, which become a nightmare of their own when 2 cars approach each other…. Now, please tell me why nothing has been done to provide alternate new roads or increase the width of country lanes to take some of the excess traffic!
December 18, 2023
I am so old that I recall the star5t of UK Motorways (Preston By-pass!)
And the great publicity about the critical safety importance of leaving the hard shoulder free for emergency use, not EVER driving in it.
What has changed? Nothing I think.
December 18, 2023
Now forced into acknowledging that these ‘smart motorways’ are less safe than those with hard shoulders, these academic thinkers continue to refuse to admit that the entire concept is wrong! Designed to improve traffic flow and prevent the cost of widening the roads , actual experts said that they would be less safe. So they tinkered at the edges with a few more laybys.
If we can throw billions at net zero, Ukraine, Aid to countries with Space Programmes, Rwanda, etc. then we can also afford to reinstate them with a hard shoulder.
But no – they want to keep polishing their ‘turd’.
December 18, 2023
Thank you for taking this up John.
The fact that they are now being retrofitted so that people feel safer, surely underlines the fact that it was poorly thought out in the first place.
I guarantee the people who approved this live running lane idea have never had to stop in an emergency on the motorway themselves, having to get out on the drivers side when there is a hard shoulder with traffic moving past you at speed, is bad enough, try that when all lanes are live !
This brings up another point why if the ground on the side of the road is flat, do we need a barrier to keep the vehicle in a live lane, making it difficult with restricted space to exit on the so called “safer nearside”
We have a couple of family members who will now not use motorways if there is no hard shoulder present.
The refuges are not the length of a football pitch as stated in the reply to you, they are very much shorter than that, and so difficult to accelerate up to a sensible and safe merging speed if you have ever had to use them.
December 19, 2023
Smart motorways must be reverted back to a hard shoulder.
Whilst at speed in the fast lane of a busy three lanes on a motorway, I’ve twice made it to the hard shoulder when needed.âOnce when the windscreen turned white from many cracks so I could only see the glow of lights and another time when a front tyre instantly went flat from a puncture.âAn ’emergency area’ is unlikely to be in reach in these cases of emergency.
Rather than have a child eat a beefburger, perhaps the Rt Hon. Harper MP, Minister for Transport, could experience ‘breakdowns’ on busy sections at random without knowing in advance if the ‘smart’ cameras are working.âFor an added frisson he could have some children in need of pacifying.
December 20, 2023
Ralph
Yes I have also had a similar misfortune with an immediate deflation of a front nearside tyre, when in the fast lane at the legal speed limit.
Immediate hazards on, passenger with left hand out of the passenger side window, so I could cut across the other two lanes to the hard shoulder.
Fortunately other drivers understood we were in trouble, and all sensibly made way for us to get to the hard shoulder.
As you say, absolutely no chance of driving further to a refuge.
December 20, 2023
So slow vehicles joining the motorway would have to cross 70mph lanes to get to their appropriate slow lane. On Ramps will have to be redesigned to enable other joining traffic always to reach 70mph before joining.
Overtaking will usually entail a move to the left. Ergo right hand drive cars would be less safe than left hand drive cars.
December 20, 2023
The International Transport Forum analyses road safety in a large number of countries. The UK is indeed among the safest and safety has been improving steadily over the years, although the rate of improvement has declined. It is an interesting read. With a few exceptions there is very little difference in fatalities per 10,000 vehicles but huge variation in fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants. The more crowded the roads the more fatalities there are
https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/united-kingdom-road-safety.pdf
Other data shows the majority of deaths and injuries are not on motorways but since motorways are only 1% of roads and account fo 5-7% of deaths and injuries, the likelihood of death or injury on motoways is much higher than on other roads.
I’d be interested to know the reduction in road fatalities due to lockdowns.