A number of people have written to me urging greater road safety. I agree, and have lobbied Ministers with proposals that could help reduce the deaths and serious injuries on our roads. At my recent meeting with the Roads Minister I was impressed by the work she and her department are doing to drive fatalities down further.
In the year to end June 2019 1752 people died on our roads. The figure was considerably reduced by 14% in 2020, but this owes much to the fact that most of us were prevented from driving for pleasure or work for several months of that year. The motorways are the safest roads by far, followed by national strategic routes with dual carriageway capacity and grade separated interchanges. You were 3.5 times more likely to die on an A road than on a motorway. 9 out of the 1752 deaths in 2019 occurred on smart motorways.
The death rate was much lower for car drivers than for most other categories of road user. Car drivers experienced 195 deaths per billion vehicle miles, motorcyclists 5051 deaths, pedestrians 1640 and cyclists 4891 deaths.
Some argue that the new smart motorways are less safe than the older motorways they replace. The Minister assured us the data shows that the smart motorways are one third safer in terms of death rate than the standard motorway. They have far fewer deaths on the hard shoulder or pull ins , which occur on other motorways to a few of the many people who stop for their own comfort or convenience when the hard shoulder is only meant for emergency use. Smart motorways have more capacity which reduces density of traffic and scope for hitting another vehicle. They provide more driver information to warn of motorway conditions to allow reduction of speed where needed. Smart motorways are the safest roads we have, so the more they are rolled out the safer the overall network becomes.
Ministers have agreed to put in more Emergency pull ins in response to public demand, and to improve surveillance to allow early warning of any stopped vehicle. I support more smart motorway capacity to relieve the strains on much less safe A and B roads for through traffic. I will look at A and B roads in a later piece. The M4 one is nearing completion to complement the section of the M3 also converted.
April 21, 2021
Smart motorways are dumb. The hard shoulder makes it easier to park in case of problems.
Once again we have government doing things the general public know are silly but some lobby group or other think it’s smart.
Together with net zero, I sometimes wonder if we are ruled by aliens
April 21, 2021
@Ian Wragg; The might public know and understand why Smart motorways are dumb and highly dangerous but they non the less quite like the idea of not paying higher taxes (or forgoing a cut) to fund the proper widening of existing motorways or the building of a relief motorway.
April 21, 2021
The problem isnāt the smart motorways. The problem is the dumb drivers.
April 21, 2021
@Andy; Wrong again, how unsurprising… The problem is the unpredictability of mechanical breakdown, if you have just passed an emergency pull-in and your engine stops you might not have enough momentum to get to the next. This is why motorways were originally designed to continuous hard shoulders.
April 21, 2021
So your car breaks down on a smart motorway or the car in front ?
Are you happy about the lorries behind you ?
April 21, 2021
You mean the truckers watching netflix, who just plough into any vehicle which happens to be stranded in the nearside lane I take it.
April 21, 2021
MiC do you know how many British truckers were watching netflix while ploughing into a vehicle or are you just making it up?
April 21, 2021
Sorry, they might have been eating their cocoa pops.
April 22, 2021
Again you seem very quick to malign a whole group of British workers without telling us your source, which British Truckers were identified ploughing into other vehicles with a bowl of cocoa pops on their laps?
April 21, 2021
Take a tip from the boy racers, always drive in the two outside lanes of smart motorways. When you get to your exit junction, don’t go into the two inside suicide lanes until you are 300 meters from the exit slip road. Make sure you are travelling at least twenty miles per hour faster than the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party in the inside lanes.
Swapping lanes whenever there is an unfilled gap in a lane, increases the volume of traffic per hour the motorway can handle. Exactly the same as digital telephone data exchanges will swap from one wire in a cable to another, multiple times, to maximise throughput of data on any multi-wire cable connection. š
April 21, 2021
Especially the dumb owners of electric only cars who find the battery runs out before the next charging station.
April 21, 2021
We are certainly ruled by private school morons. Only a moron would remove the dedicated hard shoulder and call it smart.
The M60 near me is a so called smart motorway, and is still blocked every day. The west-bound side was at a stndstill yesterday, and it’s the same today. The M60 is not in London though, so I suppose Johnson has more important things to deal with such as fottball.
April 21, 2021
There’s an election coming up folks. This is another Tory puff piece.
April 21, 2021
Sir John
With what we have leading this country and sadly this party the decisions being made on the back of a fag packet just to desperately try and give the impression of being a big player on the world stage for others to follow we will only need minor alterations to our road networks because millions of the inhabitants of this country will be priced or forced off of the roads by the decisions being made in the name of saving the world by the uncontrollable religion that is not only taking over this country but large areas of the world.
April 21, 2021
+1
April 21, 2021
Reducing the volume of heavy goods vehicles by getting investment in container marshalling yards alongside existing rail networks.
As the largest car park in the world the M25 proved, the more it is is widened the more volume of traffic it attracted.
It is the old story with road networks, what you propose is it just a solution which does not address or identify the real problem. But governments old and existing are very good, even bordering on excellent, when it comes to solutions which cost the taxpayers so dearly.
April 21, 2021
IMO removing the right for Ireland to use the UK as a land bridge to mainland Europe and visa versa would would not only reduce traffic, but would also subsequently reduce the wear and tear of our roads.
April 21, 2021
Good morning
Every death is tragic and any reasonable and well researched attempts to lower it are to be welcomed. The number of cars on our roads has much increased and I do feel that we are one of the safest places for pedestrians and road users in the world. But we can do better.
Lowering speeds in areas of higher population to 20mph would help. Lowering motorway speeds to 50mph in bad weather would help. And making electric vehicles emit an audible noise would also help plus, can we please ban these electric scooters from sale and prosecute those that already have them. They are a menace !
Thanks.
April 21, 2021
We have done well in this country over the years, and the shocking toll of the past has been dramatically reduced.
However, there is scope for far more, and particularly in changing driver attitudes.
I had to stare down a driver in order to get her to stop for me on a pedestrian crossing in West Yorkshire yesterday – I was already a good way across. Several cars in front of her had already flashed past when I was just on it.
Leeds has about the same population as Cardiff, and yet it has four times, yes, four times the number of pedestrian fatalities.
I also notice that in West Yorkshire many cars are polished to within an inch of their lives, and perhaps it is this totemism which is at the root of the problem.
April 21, 2021
MiC, I have spent much time on the roads of the the Sub Continent. I would contend that you will experience some of the Worlds worst driving there, though videos would suggest that Russia is dire, my father maintained that Argentina was not up to much. Leeds is quite close to the Sub Continent while Cardiff is less so.
April 21, 2021
Quite possibly so to some extent – standards for driving tests and the ease of buying a licence in some countries are probably quite influential. However, the lady who nearly mowed me down, and those who flashed over the crossing before her all appeared to be traditional Yorkshire through and through.
I think that the list of countries whose licences are deemed to be acceptable should be very short indeed.
April 23, 2021
MiC. Sounds like ladies from Yorkshire should be on the unacceptable list. I see problems with that one. Forget about nationality for a moment and give thought to what I consider to be a reality.
Take 100 people randomly. How many can play a piano, and how many can play it well. I don’t know the answer but I would guess very few. Why do we expect everyone who passes a driving test to be good at it. I equate the driving test with being able to find the piano stool and open the keyboard lid. The law and all those involved in it assume erroniously that we all have the talents of Marleene Klaas, but we do not. The lady driving over your attempted crossing possibly did not even see you. On or near the road assume everyone is incapable of playing a scale or like me has little idea of what a scale is. A survival strategy.
April 21, 2021
I drove around Leeds a year or two ago. Pedestrians have a fatalistic attitude to crossing the road. They don’t even look.
April 21, 2021
If you are using a pedestrian crossing then in principle you should not need to, but one would have to be suicidal not to do so.
Sadly, in West Yorkshire pedestrians have apparently been so intimidated that they generally tamely wait for a motorist to deign to stop before daring to place a foot on the crossing, and drivers now expect this there.
April 21, 2021
MiC
“wait for a motorist to deign to stop before daring to place a foot”
…..that’s what you’re supposed to do. And of course the law requires drivers to stop when they see a pedestrian waiting to cross.
April 22, 2021
Rubbish. The law states quite clearly that a driver MUST stop once a pedestrian has placed a foot on the crossing.
If you did as you describe in West Yorkshire then you’d be waiting a long time.
April 22, 2021
To quote verbatim the Highway Code:
195:
Zebra crossings. As you approach a zebra crossing:
Look out for pedestrians waiting to cross and be ready to slow down or stop to let them cross.
You MUST give way when a pedestrian has moved onto a crossing.
Allow more time for stopping on wet or icy roads.
Do not wave or use your horn to invite pedestrians across; this could be dangerous if another vehicle is approaching.
Be aware of pedestrians approaching from the side of the crossing.
===
So learn to drive and stop being yet another dangerous fool on the road.
April 21, 2021
NLA
Similar attitude here in East Yorkshire.
What they do here is hang around the car parks waiting for someone to reverse, then deliberately aim for a driver’s blind spot and walk behind the car. They’re after the compo. Grubby people too bone idle to make an honest living.
April 21, 2021
MiC
“I had to stare down a driver in order to get her to stop for me on a pedestrian crossing in West Yorkshire yesterday ā I was already a good way across.
But, Martin, did you make clear your intention to cross ?
I ask because here we have compo seekers who deliberately and suddenly turn 90 degrees and stick a leg out, in the hope of getting clipped just enough to warrant an ambulance.
April 21, 2021
I was nearly halfway across the crossing.
April 21, 2021
MiC
In that case it looks like driving without dure care and attention, or not being in control of the vehicle….which the law requires. Mobile phone ?
April 21, 2021
@Mark B; A village near here has had such a 20mph speed limit imposed, it is notable how many pedestrians now simply wander out into the roads without looking or apparent care, as if they think being hit by a vehicle at 2o mph will not kill, when even someone simply falling over and hitting their head on tarmac or concrete can kill. The safest road in the village, the one that still has no pavement, but then it was also a safe shared space when the limit was 30 mph and before that there was no speed limit – go figure, sometimes people can be to mollycoddled for their own good!
April 21, 2021
The idea of reducing the 30mph to 20mph is ridiculous. It is almost impossible to drive so slow without constantly checking.
In any event the questions must be how many accidents are caused by bad driving, as it is perfectly safe to drive at almost any speed if done properly and on safe surfaces with proper visibility and a well maintained vehicle.
We are being led by climate change zealots, politicians who are seeking favour; and others away from common sense.
April 21, 2021
Mark B
“And making electric vehicles emit an audible noise would also help plus”
…..perhaps some digital voice warning ?
April 21, 2021
Am I alone in being annoyed at the antics of cyclists? Their behaviour on the streets of London, last time, I looked, was appalling. Down here, they’re often found, at high speed, on pavements, menacing pedestrians – and that’s the case even when cycle-lanes are available. I’m beginning to think that cyclists get too much in the way of resources and too little in the way of punishment. Next week’s rant: e-scooterists.
April 21, 2021
It’s not the cyclists that are killing pedestrians, that will be the careless young and inexperienced drivers, who also kill cyclists.
April 21, 2021
I would attribute most cyclist deaths to suicide or Hindu fatalism. If you throw a ripe peach at a tree, which comes off worst. The principal accounts for motorcyclists deaths, they are highly vulnerable. Years ago I had an acquaintance who raced motor cycles for one of the major world teams. He never went on the road on one, prefering a large Mercedes saloon. He maintained that one of the first things you needed to learn when racing was how to part company with the bike at very high speed. The consequences of doing that on a UK road are invariably pin ball fatal.
April 21, 2021
There is no place for a powerful race-replica motorcycle on a public road. Motorcycling requires and advanced level of road craft and you have to think for other road users all the time and anticipate that they will make mistakes.
April 21, 2021
Dave Andrews
Perhaps not so many cyclists would lose their lives if they used the cycle lanes paid for by car drivers.
Not running red lights, and not trying to beat left turning HGV’s away from the lights at junctions by passing on the nearside….might also help reduce the fatalities.
April 21, 2021
Smart Motorways are precursors to driverless cars.
Get on the circuit and trundle round…like a Scalextric
Monitored and controlled all the way home…by spoilt, childish hands.
So now we know. The dystopian ( much denied) future is fully supported by our MPs.
And all in the name of āsavingā us.
Just like lockdowns!
April 21, 2021
Yes I agree with your view of where we’re going with ‘private cars’. They’re going to be electric and a LOT smarter, and driverless – for the simple reason that we’re the ones causing accidents. The golden age of motoring is coming to an end. Good or bad? Shared cars, like taxis without the driver, running on an Uber type management system that comes to pick you up and take you wherever you wish? Just hope nobody vomited in it before your ride!
April 21, 2021
+1
April 21, 2021
But a robot car cannot change a punctured wheel by itself yet !
April 21, 2021
Alan
It’d use run flats.
April 22, 2021
steve
Yes certainly a possibility, but they usually give a hasher ride (less flex in the sidewalls) and certainly when punctured use a lot more energy for their duration of use, depending upon manufacturer there is a suggested mileage and speed limit before they break up completely.
April 21, 2021
My last trip on the M6 southbound ,all lanes running smart motorway,was in August last year.
I remember clearly , there was a total of 5 tyres over the distance , leaning against the concrete barrier separating the southbound and northbound .These tyres were all on the southbound side and were complete circles -that is not shredded to pieces ,so able to lean on the barrier. Sizes varied from lorry size down.
There were more than 5 tyres lying just over the barrier on the nearside over the distance but they were in various states from torn to bits to near complete.
I remember this because i began to think -possible stuff on the road surface-but it was clear.
April 21, 2021
Cyclists are a left wing, political entity.
In the Summer, here, they whoosh past, chattering/shouting at the tops of their voices at 4.am.
Sometimes, as many as ten of them, stopping outside to have even louder conversations.
Imagine when there are no more cars and the bike rules the roost!
April 21, 2021
Like “Boris bikes”, you mean?
You are funny.
April 21, 2021
As well as being a driver I am a fairly regular cyclist. And whilst your description fits some cyclists it certainly does not fit us all.
I stop at red light, rarely cycle on pavements – and never at high speed – and donāt ever menace pedestrians.
But I urge you to direct your anger not at cyclists but at those who design the urban space. Cycle tracks are often ridiculous. They start and stop with little notice. They sometimes share the road – usually the badly potholed bit. They sometimes share the pavement. There are usually kerbs between the two. Cyclists are usually the ones who have to give way. Cycle tracks are often littered with obstacles – random posts, street signs, benches. Every so often you get a sign ācyclists dismountā. How often do you ever see a road with a sign āmotorists get out and pushā?
The fact is that cycling is a brilliant option for short journeys of less than 5 miles. Itās clean, green and healthy. But we need to do much more to make it an attractive option for people. And, yes, we need to legalise e-scooters and find a way to accommodate them too.
April 21, 2021
not if you need to carry goods it isn’t
April 21, 2021
bet you wanted to write ‘I stop at red light, rarely cycle on pavements ā and never at high speed ā and donāt ever menace pedestrians, unless they are Brexitists’.
April 21, 2021
SW no you’re not alone I believe that if there is a purpose-made cycle lane they should be compulsory, only last night a cyclist was ignoring the cycling lane on a 60mph road and causing motorists problems for absolutely no good reason, all these cycle lanes have been recently cleaned up as elections are around the corner. Another bugbear is cyclists cycling at night with no lights or reflective strips at all on Country lanes and swerving out without checking over their shoulder around all the potholes. When I was at school we all did our cycling proficiency tests it’s a shame they don’t exist especially when I see teenagers racing around on pavements (these aren’t the combined cycle/walk pavements just normal pavements) on our local estates on very fast bikes with extra electric power on them so they appear quietly behind you.
April 21, 2021
I agree Sea Warrior. I had to follow 4 cyclists the other day for over a mile because none would pull over or just slow down in a lay by for me to over take. They often cycle side by side and think they don’t have to obey the traffic lights in towns. It seems none have a bell on their bikes to warn you that they are approaching at great speed from behind you when you find you have to walk on the road due to the fact there is no pavement.
April 21, 2021
FUS
“They often cycle side by side ”
Yes, while highly stupid and dangerous they call it a ‘defensive’ manouvre…….as if they’re under attack. Pathetic.
April 21, 2021
@Sea_Warrior – your local council requires you to keep off pedestrian foot paths to demonstrate their ‘green credentials’ otherwise it is your own silly fault if you get injured. Or as a cyclist that came up behind me shouted ‘get out the f—g way’ meaning as a pedestrian I had to use the highway.
April 21, 2021
You are not alone, it has been going on for years.
They put a camera on their helmet and believe they are gods, breezing through red lights and roundabouts safe in the knowledge that they will never be held to account or fault.
They certainly need to be disciplined, punished sufficiently to be a clear warning that they are not above everyone else or the law.
I read the other day a pedestrian was killed by an environmentally friendly cyclist. I doubt the killer will be punished appropriately, probably not as much as a motorist would be.
April 21, 2021
“…and believe they are gods”
……it’s something to do with the lycra pants, I suspect.
April 21, 2021
You are not alone! I live in a small village which unfortunately is included in a designated cycle route. We are plagued by lycra clad riders pretending they are training to join the Tour de France. They race down the main narrow road past the school swerving of course to avoid the potholes and are a grave nuisance.
April 21, 2021
V2X and DMS would eliminate the need for so called ‘smart motorways’ but it is open to abuse by the authoritarian bigots that run western politics
April 21, 2021
I used to work on the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership. It was an organisation that ploughed money from speeding fines directly into more safety measures on the roads. From 2000 to 2011 this worked extremely well in the reduction of deaths. This was until Ms May saw a pot of gold she could grab and scrapped the partnerships so the money went back to central government. Road safety then took a back seat.
As for smart motorways, they are extremely dangerous. Nobody except politicians believes otherwise, or would call them āsmart. ā God help you if you are unfortunate enough to break down in the now live lane. You are at the mercy of whatever juggernaut that has not seen you. Your life, if you survive the impact is in the hands of whatever ambulance that cannot get to you without the hard shoulder.
I have had to teach my wife a strategy if she breaks down in the live lane and that is to drive off anywhere she can, through any cones, anything but stop on the live lane. That is of course if there is no crash barrier on the near side preventing you doing so. If that is the case get out as fast as you can using the passenger door and run. Better still donāt use them unless you have to. Smart motorway indeed.
April 21, 2021
Good summary. This is all about saving money, not saving lives. There will be an outrage at some stage because of deaths caused by this stupid move, whence it will be decided we drive at 30 mph on motorways. For safety, don’t you know?
We badly need a libertarian government.
April 21, 2021
+1
April 21, 2021
In the 1970s cars used to break down all the time – even when they were moving. Now a break down whilst you are actually moving is incredibly rare. Your car may not start having been stopped. But it is highly unlikely to just stop once it has been started.
Smart motorways themselves are not the problem. They are a sensible idea and, when done properly, they work. The problem is the current lack of lay-bys on some smart motorways. They are spread too far apart. Put them every half a mile or so and there really is no problem.
Many dual carriageway A roads have no hard shoulder and similarly high speeds to motorways. I donāt hear people complaining about them.
April 21, 2021
A vehicle recovery man told me electric cars are often the cause of breakdowns. People run out of battery power. Who would have thought?
April 21, 2021
Indeed. A dual carriageway A road with central reservation is 70 mph. Good point.
April 22, 2021
Andy
Used the M40 only a couple of weeks ago, in 30 miles 5 broken down vehicles on the journey out, 4 on the way back.
Fortunately road not busy at the time, and maybe vehicles not been checked out due to lack of use before being used, but that was 9 breakdowns in 60 miles during my one hour of use on the M40
April 21, 2021
@BW; There was nothing good about those Safer Roads Partnerships, they were a pot of gold back then too, often entrapping the motorist with deceptively placed speed cameras, along with totally unwarranted reductions to the speed limit given the location. There used to be a speed camera in my town, supposedly placed because there was a risk of employees from a local factory being hit by speeding cars, so where was this camera placed, only one mile in advance of the said factory gate, just after a roundabout, thus catching those who were a little to eager on the gas pulling away from the junction and of course having passed the camera many drivers still exceeded the speed limit by the time they passed the factory!
Anything being used as a cashcow to self-fund an autocratic quangos self-existence, beyond accountable taxation policy, is an abuse.
April 21, 2021
My wife now refuses to drive on motorways and gives me a hard time if I do
April 21, 2021
I noticed that they have put steel barriers to prevent drivers pulling over onto the grass area. They would rather the car driver was flattened by a truck than have the car damage their landscaping.
April 21, 2021
“The Minister assured us the data shows that the smart motorways are one third safer in terms of death rate than the standard motorway [due to less people making illegal use of the hard shoulder].”
Well yes if oner narrows the statistical analysis to the point of being ridiculous, thus proving the adage about statistics and lies…
Anyway, such a comment from the Minister has been over taken by other announcements, the DfT having only yesterday said that there will be no new ‘smart motorways’ unless/until fitted with radar to detect stationary vehicle, but without in-vehicle information systems (together with some form of heads-up windscreen display) any such system is unlikely to prevent accidents in the vicinity immediately after the breakdown, the following vehicles having already passed the first warning sign to the rear!
“I support more smart motorway capacity to relieve the strains on much less safe A and B roads for through traffic.”
Smart motorways will do not such thing, people are already choosing not to use such motorways, meaning they use alternate routes. there is nothing “smart” about such motorways. Also when someone writes-off their engine say, because they have been forced to drive on with no oil pressure to find the next Emergency pull in, who is going to pay for the needless damage?
April 21, 2021
The answer is to drive extremely slowly when you suspect your car is running poorly, causing just the hold-ups these stupid (smart) motorways were designed to cure.
April 21, 2021
Agreed, Jerry.
The first statistic just cannot be right as you say “thus proving the adage about statistics and liesā¦”
April 21, 2021
I know Sir John doesn’t like the posting of links, but here goes for a Government one..
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/936811/smart-motorway-safety-evidence-stocktake-and-action-plan.pdf
A cursory glance seems to show that “Smart Motorways” are very close in safety to “Normal Motorways” rather than 3 times safer….of course with the proviso “thus proving the adage about statistics and liesā¦”
Reply I said 3 x A roads
April 21, 2021
Sorry Sir John, brain was disconnected from typing fingers… š
I was thinking more about “The Minister assured us the data shows that the smart motorways are one third safer in terms of death rate than the standard motorway” which really isn’t the case if you remove the obscuration from the report above…
April 21, 2021
@JR reply; Of course any motorway is safer than A roads, quite possibly by a measure far greater than 3x in all honesty, there is a simple reason for this, few if any totally inexperienced drivers use motorways, most A roads are single carriageway with no central reservation (never mind crash barriers), any vehicle under 50cc is banned, as are cyclists and pedestrians. Stop trying to prove an argument by comparing chalk and cheese, when debating the safety of so called ‘Smart Motorways’ the ONLY comparison can be between ‘Smart’ and non-smart motorways.
April 21, 2021
Reported in the media today that Mp’s voted 5 years ago to make sure additional radar controlled safety surveillance was available before any more so called smart motorways were constructed, so we wait 5 years for such an instruction to be enacted it would seem.
Mp’s thought smart motorways were dangerous 5 years ago so what has changed, 38 deaths since apparently !
April 21, 2021
On safety I hope your contentions and those of the minister are correct, the fewer people we kill and injure this way the better.
However much the advertisers or car manufacturers try to tell you, the romance has departed from car ownership. Motoring has become a purely functional thing of getting from A to B. Gone are the days of going for a two hundred mile blast on a saturday night on the most minor roads in Wales with the target average set at 60 MPH. Yes I know the RAC prefered it set at 30MPH, but with a Holbay 1500 GT engine in your Macclesfield Anglia the RAC stipulation was not competition. Setting off with a belly full of fish and chips and Diana Ross blasting forth on the radio,happy days, but now pure nostalgia. Still we had those days and the various excursions in Europe for fish and chip alternatives. Now we have speed awarness courses when few including the lectures know what the experience of real speed is, and have possibly never heard of Diana Ross. As I said yesterday “Spectatoris” has triumphed again.
Assuming your figures are accurate the targets for less fatal activity on our roads should be motorcyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians. I believe that of any definable group of road users the police come top in causes of death and injury on our roads, to both themselves and the innocent.
All your readers will be happy to know that I drive more sedately these days, but the trophies are on the sideboard. The happy memories are still alive.
April 21, 2021
Driving for most people is still enjoyable (till 2030 anyway) but the motorway speed limit should be increased to 80mph, the current 70mph limit, which was introduced in 1967 to suit cars of that era, incites every motorway user breaks and ignores the law
People drive at 80mph because its a natural comfortable speed
April 21, 2021
No Sir John, ‘smart’ motorways are a cheap and nasty non-solution foisted on us by the smart-arsed but half baked penny pinchers.
Just drive along the smart-ised section of M25 and imagine what you would do if your engine failed. You are in deep trouble, the gaps between refuges are far too long. You would have great trouble getting across the traffic lanes in a rapidly slowing vehicle and may well have passed one refuge and never stand a chance of reaching the next.
Worse, although electric cars are supposed to be reliable they do not coast in a failure situation, they come to a halt pretty quickly. Not even the small gaps on the idealised trial motorways would be enough, let alone the extended gaps on the M25.
Not even radar is going to save this idea, chucking our money away. Not even more video cameras that are unwatched by an insufficient crew of alleged watchers. You know that after a short time budget cuts and human idleness will cut all these safeguards back to nothing. From there we will have tragic accidents and smash ups and – oops ‘lessons will be learned’.
Learn from the many years of failed government projects and the early warnings we have already – no more smart motorways – at all.
April 21, 2021
I certainly agree with you about the electric car problem. The politicians logic and sanity is increasingly being called into question with their ever growing harebrained ideas. And the talk about driverless (probably electric) cars, on ‘smart motorways’, never mind minor roads, is beyond polite comment!
April 21, 2021
+1
April 21, 2021
Tsk! Tsk!
People only die with or from covid.
But still, this will all serve as a way to remove plenty of cars from the road, along with unicorn electrification and all that.
Every present scenario has been caused by the stupidity, cupidity and utter uselessness of governments.
April 21, 2021
The first thing that happens to a road accident victim on reaching hospital – dead or alive – is a COVID test. It is VITAL that anyone with a positive test result is recorded as a COVID death. Even if the cause of death was being hurled out of a car and being run over by a ready mixed concrete truck.
April 21, 2021
+1
April 21, 2021
Sorry Mike, I know your comment is serious but I burst out laughing at the ready mixed concrete lorry bit. Thanks.
April 21, 2021
Would have been even funnier had it been a ready mixed porridge truck.
“I think the victims had his oats.”
April 21, 2021
+1
And thank you for my first smile of the day.
April 21, 2021
+1
April 21, 2021
Well ‘Turboterrier’ touched on it, but our roads will become safer for sure. The idiotic banning of internal combustion engines demanded by Greta and her dopey chums in government, ensures many will no longer drive.
Replacing their cars with electric versions won’t work for most. How do you charge a vehicle from your flat? How do you charge a vehicle when there are little or no charging points around the country? How do millions charge their cars when the electricity generation isn’t there? Building windmills is no help when there’s no wind or too much.
Who can afford an electric car? Politicians probably, not the general public though, the things are ridiculously expensive.
Want to drive from London to Scotland? Give yourself a few days. You’ll have to stop every 150 miles for hours’ of charging.
April 21, 2021
I just did a route planner on Teslaās website – which tells you not only where you have to stop to recharge your car, but for how long.
London to Edinburgh requires one stop in Tesla S. A 45 minute charge at Charnock Richard Services on the M6. Perfect for a coffee and a wee – which you should be having anyway.
The average length of a car journey in this country is 6 miles. Electric cars cope fine with most journeys most of the time. Your objections are just noise.
April 21, 2021
I guess you can afford a Tesla S (Ā£74,000) that you can charge in the garage at your expensive house in the country, some of us can’t.
I notice you’ve commented on the potential journey to Scotland, but ignored the (lack of) generation of power, caused by green madness.
April 21, 2021
How much is a Tesla Andy ?
April 21, 2021
Yup. Along with all the other electric car drivers so don’t forget your waiting time… for the jerk who goes for an hour long walk or a meal and leaves his charged car in the bay.
Just like people who leave their cars in car washes and then do the shopping in the forecourt shop before buying a ticket.
Or cyclists who refuse to pull over for the queue of traffic behind them… the mentality for inconveniencing others is already out there.
April 21, 2021
and did it say you could have full lights on, radio going, heater going, wipers going and you doing 60 or 70 most of the journey to Scotland in minus temperatures in winter months?
April 23, 2021
And a 6 hour queue for the charger at popular times. Even more at some of them in Calfornia around Thnksgiving and Christmas.
April 21, 2021
Spot On
April 21, 2021
150 miles? what about when in winter and wet and cold, heater and fan on, wipers on, heated windows front and rear on, lights on?
And – Anyone seen any car progs showing Electric Vehicles towing trailers, Horse Boxes or Caravans?
April 21, 2021
How do you charge your battery car when you’ve been trapped in a smart motorway hold up for hours
April 21, 2021
Old Albion
“…..many will no longer drive.”
and many, including myself will refuse to work.
Miserable motoring = refusal to work.
April 21, 2021
We have the government minister appointed to the post of Minister of Transport from 1959 to 1964. He was the Minister who oversaw Britainās entry into the motorway age, sponsored Dr. Richard Beechingās controversial pruning of Britainās railway network, and between them we have inherited the country’s traffic problems of today and the pollution that it has caused. The word Greed comes to mind, that same greed where ministers are using their positions of today. Where is this country’s Oliver Cromwell, he is so much needed now to cleanse parliament of those that call themselves Honourable Gentlemen.
There is a reserve fix of sort that would help the excessive road traffic problem, albeit for a short period of time, and that is to make public transport FREE or for a small donation for any given journey, short or long. This would encourage people to use the public transport system, therefore instead of buses and trains being driven virtually empty during the non rush hour period they would be full, equally instead of a few people paying an excessive amount of fare, there would be a greater amount of people paying the same amount of fare, or possibly more, it may even get to the stage where additional vehicles and drivers are required.
April 21, 2021
Re Smart motorways- Iām sorry, but I do not believe they are safer than regular ones with a hard shoulder. How can a breakdown in an active lane, be safe?
Reply Hard shoulders are dangerous and are wrongly used by people who are not in an emergency. This is all based on official data.
April 21, 2021
Reply to reply You’re killing those in an emergency and saving those wrongly using the hard shoulder? This is daft. Stop those wrongly using hard shoulders and you have a win-win
Reply I expressed no such view but presented the facts about relative safety.
April 21, 2021
And suggested a solution which has just the outcome I described.
April 21, 2021
Reply to reply
Please can you provide the hard statistics of those who use the hard shoulder wrongly and the hard statistics of when the hard shoulder is used for an emergency/breakdowns/accidents?
April 21, 2021
official data – my a**e.
April 21, 2021
Yup.
The fact is that the country has become dangerously overcrowded and they need more space on the roads, like they need more space for just about everything else too.
Now they’re trying to tell us it’s for our own good… or even make us think it was our own idea.
April 21, 2021
Officials produce data to cover their mistakes, as shown by the NHS covid disaster.
April 21, 2021
Reply to reply – then again with no hard shoulder the emergency services etc have no access should an incidence require assistance.
April 21, 2021
JR:
“This is all based on official data. ”
Thing is JR, we don’t believe ‘official’ data.
Fair to assume this has something to do with total lack of trust with hidden agenda governments.
April 21, 2021
So you’re saying we should protect idiots from pulling onto the hard shoulder and being hit whilst expending themselves at their convenience at the expense of genuine breakdowns on a dangerous highway without pull-ins?
April 21, 2021
SJS, pull ins are an irrelevance, possibly no more than a political gesture. In the 80s I had a high speed blowout front wheel puncture in the fast lane of a motorway. You can safely bet I was not driving at the then limit of 70. Fortunately I was driving a Citroen CX with instant compensatory suspension height for any wheel punctured. I was able to slot over to the hard shoulder and come to a halt without difficulty. On a so called smart motorway, clever reversal of meaning, my problems would only be starting. How to get out of a vehicle stopped on a live motorway and escape over the barrier without getting killed. God help any driver with a disabled blue card.
The motorway would be smart if the in peril driver could trigger his own rear safety zone electronically for up to 500 yards behind him. Red flashing lights in a left hand barrier come to mind triggered from the car. Automatically triggered in the control centre for said smart motorway so that they could take immediate extra steps. Give it some thought.
April 21, 2021
I guess you have never had your car malfunction on a Motorway John, otherwise your view of the dumb name “Smart Motorways” may change.
Why on a perfectly level stretch of road do you want to fence in traffic with crash barriers, so that they cannot pull off in the case of an emergency.
Just remove the crash barriers and let people pull over to the side even if it has to be onto a level area of grass. Indeed you could have saved money by not installing crash barriers in the first place.
No problem with widening roads for extra capacity if that is what is required and needed, but for goodness sake allow people to pull over to safety if there is a problem.
April 21, 2021
If any policy needs a U-turn it’s, er, this one.
April 21, 2021
I heard that yesterday more people died on our roads than died from COVID. Logic suggests we lockdown all cars and bikes at once and only allow lorries on the roads. I am happy to buy a lorry.
April 21, 2021
+1
The Tory government is in serious danger of becoming the worst we’ve ever had.
What is the point of the vaccine ? And if they don’t work then is Boris seriously suggesting that we all stay locked down and masked up forever ?
Old grey misery-men are sucking the life out of this country and their mish mash of rules don’t make any sense.
They are losing control from what I’m seeing from day to day now. People have had enough and the Government has lost authority.
April 21, 2021
more people died from falling off ladders than died of Covid.
April 21, 2021
I believe I am, or have been, a heavy user of motorways. I have never seen anyone using the hard shoulder for leisure purposes although I must admit to having seen men stop to urinate.
That said, in recent years I have noticed cars on the hard shoulder and the people who were travelling in the car up on the verge out of harmās way.
April 21, 2021
No-hard-shoulder motorways have been associated with lower speeds, often just 50 mph whilst under construction, as with the M4 in the Wokingham area. I wonder if the government is comparing fatalities on them with hard-shoulder fatalities on normal-speed motorways. That would be a false comparison, and quite in keeping with the government’s current use of statistics for other matters.
Your piece would have benefited from an awareness, Sir John, of a Sunday Times article earlier this month on the subject. It mentioned that a report commissioned by a solicitors firm and carried out by engineering consultants Royal HaskoningDKV found that the continued use of smart motorways, which it says have the āhighest rate of people killed or seriously injuredā of all roads, is not justified. The South Yorkshire Police Commissioner has also spoken out against ‘smart’ motorways on safety grounds, as have numerous drivers’ associations and others.
And now Grant Shapps admits that properly monitored safety camera surveillance, which I thought had already been installed on these stretches of motorway, still hasn’t been. But not to worry, it will be, he says…
April 21, 2021
We should be able to expect less issues with smart motorways over the last 18 months as less traffic would have been using them.
As for this:
What a meaningless statistic- Why aren’t the actual deaths used instead?
April 21, 2021
Just like only one covid death per 500 billion covid cells? Or perhaps not.
April 21, 2021
talking of A and B roads John. We used to live along side the A714 in Southern Scotland. It wasn’t very busy during the day but used to have very large lorries using it and after 6pm it was very quiet. However, just like with most A roads the speed limit was 60mph and some motorists used to drive this fast. It was a very rural road with bends and twists and many entrances to farms etc. There were often accidents along it. Surely the speed limit on such roads needs to be looked at?
April 21, 2021
Ministers must instill confidence in the public in respect of All Lane Running motorways if they want to persist with them.
Each week a selected Minister (in due course perhaps chosen by public vote) should stop the ministerial limousine in a motorway lane with contemporaneous live streaming of pictures of the scene to YouTube. Accountability, leadership and democracy in action. The U.K. would be the envy of the world once more.
April 21, 2021
John, the government need to speak to vehicle manufacturers about the limp mode in new vans, where vehicles just cut out and you can’t get to a safe stop point. Please ask the Transport Department to speak to motorway transport drivers to get the feedback you need to make better judgements they are using these smart motorways every working day. If I were in charge of transport I’d also analyse every single one of the motorway accidents causing injury.
April 21, 2021
You donāt need to worry. Boris is accelerating his Green agenda targets. Soon only the super-rich will be on our roads. The rest of us will be huddled at home trying to keep warm from our ground heating boilers and trying to repay the massive debt we owe China and the banks.
If MPs donāt remove Boris and Gove soon they will send your party into oblivion.
April 21, 2021
Here is a suggestion to reduce pedestrian deaths at night. Too many dress in dark grey,blue, or black. They may look highly fashionable close up, but unless in direct street lamplight they can be almost invisible. Use the law, an MPs answer to everything, to force them to wear Dayglow visibility bands as a minimum or better still reflective outer garments. For a short time we might think them to be roadworkers, dustmen, or heaven forbid policemen, but what the hell, more will stay alive.
April 21, 2021
I suspect many pedestrian casualties are caused by people on their mobile phone, not aware of their environment, stepping out into the street without looking.
If change of law is needed, extend the ban of the use of mobile phones to include people proceeding by foot.
Agree about wearing high vis for pedestrians. How can you expect drivers to give way at zebra crossings when the pedestrian is in stealth mode?
April 21, 2021
How is the ‘data’ calculated? How can you compare a relatively few miles of death trap motorway (not smart) with hundreds of miles of proper motorway. How can you compare the M25 with a motorway in open country? I suspect the figures are like the Covid ones – designed to produce the answer the Minister wants. Covid death figures were wanted high at first to enforce what they wanted, and now they are an embarrassment they are looking at ways to reduce them by saying they ‘might’ be overinflated by 25 percent. Lies, damned lies and statistics. Just tell the bean counter what you want and they will provide the figures. Common sense, not ‘data’ say these motorways are death traps.
April 21, 2021
Sir John
It takes some believing about Smart Motorways being safer.
I think the more interesting stat would be the deaths per mile figure. There are not so many miles of Smart Motorways as there are standard motorways and I wonder if the figures have been used creatively to show what the state wanted them to show. Hopefully I am just being my cynical self and my government would never lie to me.
I suspect whatever the truth is, many people will not be able to afford to drive cars come 2035.
April 21, 2021
lies, damn lies, and statistics.
April 21, 2021
Abd.org.uk make a lot more sense than any politician or member of the public sector.
April 21, 2021
The not so safe or smart ‘Smart Motorway’ – Highways England TV add promotes ‘got a problem’ just indicate and turn left..! Does that mean everyone around you can read your mind and disappear? That is the voice of those that brought a new meaning of safety on our roads.
When a car dies, gets a puncture etc the ability to turn left, drive another currently – one and a half miles to safety doesn’t actually exists. So death and carnage is what is being proposed and now even promoted. A motorway used to be the safest place to be, with the safety net removed from nearly all the busiest roads the message comes over as ‘cost and profit’ for private enterprise is more important than ‘life’. Highways England cant get to a stranded motorist in less than the 10 or so seconds it takes for carnage to take place so why the pretence, why keep banging on about the surveillance, the monitoring, the escape route a mile and a half away and so on. The Big Brother overwatch is solely their to generate income remotely for the private operators.
Cynically it is as much about the private companies now running the motorways being able to increase revenue by speeding fines.
I would suggest although it is not in their nature that the emergency services, the police, ambulance crews, fire brigades stay well clear of ‘Smart Motorway’ until Highways England has blocked the flow and provided ‘safe passage’. How much do the emergency service bosses value the life of their staff, will the be held accountable and accept responsibility for deliberately pointing their own people in harms way? When it is Highways England that is directly responsible for creating the problem and sorting it out
Not forgetting the 4 lane bits of the M25 still have the hard shoulder to escape too – so it can be done.
April 21, 2021
It seems to me the biggest improvement to the safety figures would result from banning motorcycles and cycling.
Motorcyclists in particular are very dangerous, I see them racing along at insane speeds all the time.
Anyway, we are not driving around for the fun of it. The majority commute to work by car and time is money. Every ludicrous cut in speed limit, every cycle lane, every impediment put on the roads has an economic cost in increasing journey times.
Also Sir John, ask them what is the carbon footprint of a speed hump.
April 21, 2021
As a regular user of the M4 between Reading and Maidenhead as well as the M3, I have been severely inconvenienced by the long sections of roadworks necessary to implement the so-called smart motorways.
These road works have gone on for far too long as the amount of labour deployed whenever one drives along the 50 mph limited sections is woefully inadequate.
But, Sir John, perhaps you could talk to the DofT about the section of the M4 that runs past your constituency ?
I have noticed that while building the Smart motorway, they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds erecting tall steel fencing where they would otherwise have been plenty of room to add a new hard shoulder!
In this area, they have obstructed the area where a hard shoulder could have been built with massive blocks of concrete to provide the necessary cantilever wherever they need new signs above the motorway to make the smart motorway work.
Surely an additional hard shoulder could have been built covering at least 80% of the length of the smart motorway and this would be infinitely better than no hard shoulder at all.
I can’t think of a logical reason why this would not have been a far cheaper and infinitely safer solution.
Nobody I have ever discussed this subject with supports Smart Motorways, without exception, they would all like to see the whole project abandoned
Finally, you should ask why the construction work is continuing, yet there is no effort being made to install the additional refuges that Grant Shapps promised to build only last week. He said that no additional smart motorways would be opened until they were built. These should therefore already be under construction.
April 21, 2021
Smart motorway sections have very high traffic densities. Before they were converted, they also had very high traffic densities. Smart or not, you tend to get little in the way of fatal accidents in traffic jams. The criteria for evaluation has to be for similar stretches of road before and after conversion, and it should cover the entire experience.
My experience is that lowered and varying speed limits leads to excessive tailgating and speedo watching rather than road watching, which leads to shunts and blocked roads, as well as braking reaction chain induced jams. I suspect we would do better by promoting adaptive cruise control. I tend to plan routes to minimise smart motorway sections as much as possible, for example avoiding the M1 and using the M40 instead.
April 21, 2021
Adaptive Cruise Control is brilliant. You can choose how much distance you want between you and the car in front. I love it.
April 23, 2021
I read that Mercedes has found that equipped cars are involved in 20% fewer accidents. Of course that applies not just to smart motorway sections, but all driving. I know that experiments have shown that it also helps to eliminate traffic jams caused by reaction braking and the consequent driver frustration. Not having to fiddle with your cruise control because the car in front is doing 48mph rather than 50mph through the roadworks is a help too.
April 21, 2021
just never get into the leftmost, ‘slow’/ lane.
April 21, 2021
Training needs to be improved as just passing the Driving Test is just a start to get minimum capability.
The IAM Advanced Driving and RoSPA’s driver training courses should be required for older drivers and all bike riders for their own safety and the public.
I am lucky to have been trained by IAM Advanced Instructors 20 years ago and can often see basic mistakes, lack of awareness and “car body language” attitude problems developing and stay well back ” To let Charlie carry on” as they say.
The simple bike rider’s head-turning look back before actually turning to save being mown down and steamrolled aka “The Lifesaver” is missing in many cases and tells me an amateur needs training .
I cannot believe after decades of road deaths that the Govt cannot give better initiatives, encouragement and publicity for this especially when they want more folks to get on their bikes! Yikes…..
April 21, 2021
More people are still having distractions from digital devices from phone conversation to Sat nav etc because of the change in speeds of drivers has become more noticeable in recent years I would suggest….
April 21, 2021
āThe Minister assured us the data shows that the smart motorways are one third safer in terms of death rate than the standard motorway.ā
Oh, well, it must be true, then.
April 21, 2021
chuckle…
April 21, 2021
The fundamental weakness of smart motorways is that the motorist may not be. It is difficult to see how radar and gadgetry can ever fully overcome this. It will be interesting in due course to see if the claimed mortality improvements hold up when the data are properly examined, but I am not optimistic.
April 21, 2021
“The Minister assured us the data shows that the smart motorways are one third safer in terms of death rate than the standard motorway.”
That cannot be true John.
April 21, 2021
I hope you can head off the ridiculous proposal to force over 70s drivers to be certified by a GP. That’s a silly knee-jerk reaction by a grieving mother who simply wants to lash out at a group of statistically very safe drivers instead of the individual involved, just to make herself feel better.
Apart from the idea being statistically massively flawed (older drivers are the safest group), the strain on GPs will be immense – they are already under strain and have many better things to do.
April 21, 2021
XY
I disagree. I’m on the way to 70 myself, and I have to say; a lot of over 70’s simply should not be driving a vehicle. There is a clear problem with awareness, faculty and reaction.
Many over 70’s could not perform an emergency stop. Absolutely the most crucial element of safe driving.
When I get there, I’d rather surrender my licence than have the guilt of ploughing into a mum and children on their way to school etc. When the time comes, think of others and do the right thing.
I’m all in favour of faculty and reaction testing.
April 23, 2021
The most crucial element of safe driving is having sufficient awareness and anticipation to avoid the need for an emergency stop.
April 21, 2021
Safer roads are simple to achieve….
1) Tax the crap out of big head German cars and bully boy SUV’s & get them off the road.
2) Automatic custodial sentence and five year ban for anyone driving too close to the vehicle in front.
3) ‘Causers’ of tailbacks to be named, shamed, and made liable for costs to anyone delayed.
4) Disallow ‘accident’ from being a defence….there is no such thing as a traffic accident, either someone does something they shouldn’t have, or fails to do something they should have.
April 21, 2021
I am a road cyclist and own 2 French made carbon fiber bikes, I’m not sure if the UK still makes bikes if it does they are not high spec carbon fiber. Cycling is big business and growing with high spec cycles from France Germany and Italy available – well done the EU.
However cycles cannot and should not be used on major roads and as I also use the M1, ideally we need to get freight on to the rail network to reduce lorry congestion. I do need to use the A roads to get onto the M road and these are often congested.
We need a good network especially rail and within towns and cities Trams, to reduce the overall car usage. I make use of the rail network for meetings and some times Tram for cross city routes.
April 21, 2021
David Brown
“We need a good network especially rail and within towns and cities ”
……I’m waiting for some government to re open where possible the branch lines that Beeching murdered. If we still had them there would be a lot less road congestion.
Or maybe no government wants to admit they should never have beed closed in the first place.
April 22, 2021
What role did the EU play in the development and manufacture of your bikes? Any?
April 21, 2021
I take it the 9 deaths on ‘smart’ motorways must all be in my area as there seems to be one every week. There were two fatalities just last week.
So called smart motorways have speed limits which inevitably cause congestion by deliberately slowing the traffic, posting up signs such as “incident slow down” when in fact there is no such incident and of course we have cameras every few hundred yards which Highways England like use to slow you down by constantly varying the limit. This is not done for safety we are told but ‘ air quality’.
Tell me again Sir John how much congestion costs the economy each year and then tell us how smart motorways are a benefit ?
April 22, 2021
On smart motorways, Highways England’s own standard for the emergency lay-bys is 500 m spacing. I believe that the average actual spacing is about 2.5 miles, which is obviously less safe. I thought that so far there have been in excess of 30 deaths on smart motorways, mainly incurred by people in broken down vehicles that couldn’t make it to an emergency lay-by. There’s no need for complacency.
April 22, 2021
Does anyone else remember the days when there were Traffic Police patrol cars on motorways? They could keep a watchful eye out for crazy drivers and people misusing the safety lanes etc. Wouldn’t it be simpler and cheaper to just revert to that system than faffing about with radar and ‘smart’ lanes?