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Drivers can use hard shoulder to cut motorway jams
By LAURA ROBERTS
Last updated at 07:57am on 31st August 2006

Drivers will be allowed to use motorway hard shoulders in an attempt to cut traffic jams, it emerged yesterday.

The emergency lane will be brought into use only when congestion builds up.

The cost of the scheme is expected to be much lower than that of widening a motorway itself.

But critics say they fear ambulances and fire engines will take longer to reach crashes if they lose their dedicated lane.

The pilot project will be launched on September 12, when drivers on a stretch of the M42 near Birmingham will be directed to use the hard shoulder when the carriageways become busy.

Hard shoulders can be adapted to cope with traffic in two years, whereas it can take up to ten years to plan and build additional lanes.

Costs are expected to be around 80 per cent lower.

Motorists who break down will be expected to try to coax their cars into newly-constructed emergency refuges - lay-bys built at intervals of around 500 yards.

Digital signs on gantries will tell motorists whether or not they can use the hard shoulder.

The signs will rely on information sensors set into the road surface.

If congestion exceeds a set level, the sensors transmit a signal to the Highways Agency's control centre.

This will in turn see messages

sent to the gantry screens. These will display a red cross when the hard shoulder is closed and a round speed limit sign if it is open.

The maximum hard shoulder speed will be 50mph - a level known to improve traffic flows on the M25 when it is congested.

CCTV cameras will be used to spot vehicles that break down without being able to find an emergency refuge.

The Highways Agency said that the gantry signs can be altered

within seconds to warn drivers of an approaching hazard.

The scheme, which has been four years in the planning, will be launched on an 11-mile section of the M42 from junction 3a to 7.

The Highways Agency is also looking into extending the pilot project to most of the motorway ringing Birmingham. That would include parts of the M5 and M6.

The cost of the experiment is £100million, compared with the estimated £500million cost of building extra lanes A Highways Agency spokesman said: 'We get a big increase in capacity for a fifth of the cost and

there is no environmental penalty because we do not have to extend land boundaries of the motorway.

'It's all about making best use of the available space.'

The AA Motoring trust said, however, that the scheme may encourage drivers to use the hard shoulder even when it is closed, adding to the likelihood of crashing into a broken-down vehicle.

A spokesman said: 'We are concerned that drivers will develop the habit of using the hard shoulder and fail to notice when it is closed.

'They may then crash into a vehicle which has been unable to reach refuge.'

Similar schemes already operate in Germany and Holland, where the number of crashes has declined over the last decade.

Traffic is predicted to increase by 40 per cent or more by 2015, according to the Department of Transport.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: 'Any cost saving in reducing congestion cannot be made at the expense of road safety. Allowing the use of the hard shoulder as an additional lane will require a mind change for many motorists.

'RoSPA has concerns that this could result in drivers who regularly use the hard shoulder on the M42 in congested conditions feeling it is acceptable to do the same thing in congested conditions on other motorways.'

'Best use of space'

I think it's only made the front page because of its imminent introduction - we have discussed it on here before.

I am a great fan of the "spitsstroken" schemes here, and use them regularly.I can think of no good reason why they should not work in the UK, assuming that they are properly implemented.