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| New smart motorway plans being scrapped | New smart motorway plans being scrapped |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Emergency bays give cars space to pull off the road when there's no hard shoulder | |
| Plans for all new smart motorways have been scrapped, it has been announced. | Plans for all new smart motorways have been scrapped, it has been announced. |
| Fourteen smart motorways will be removed from government road building plans due to a lack of public confidence and financial pressures, the Department for Transport said. | Fourteen smart motorways will be removed from government road building plans due to a lack of public confidence and financial pressures, the Department for Transport said. |
| Smart motorways are a stretch of road where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and ease congestion. | |
| They also use the hard shoulder as an extra lane of traffic, which critics claim have led to road deaths. | |
| Rishi Sunak said "all drivers deserve to have confidence in the roads they use to get around the country". | Rishi Sunak said "all drivers deserve to have confidence in the roads they use to get around the country". |
| Are smart motorways dangerous? | Are smart motorways dangerous? |
| Fourteen planned smart motorways, including 11 that had already been paused and three that had earmarked for construction, will be removed from road building plans. | Fourteen planned smart motorways, including 11 that had already been paused and three that had earmarked for construction, will be removed from road building plans. |
| Initial estimations suggested constructing the smart motorway schemes would have cost more than £1 billion, the government said, and cancelling the schemes would now allow more time to track public confidence in smart motorways over a longer period. | Initial estimations suggested constructing the smart motorway schemes would have cost more than £1 billion, the government said, and cancelling the schemes would now allow more time to track public confidence in smart motorways over a longer period. |
| Speaking on the ban he pledged last year during his leadership campaign, Mr Sunak said: "Many people across the country rely on driving to get to work, to take their children to school and go about their daily lives and I want them to be able to do so with full confidence that the roads they drive on are safe." | |
| Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: "Today's announcement means no new smart motorways will be built, recognising the lack of public confidence felt by drivers and the cost pressures due to inflation." | |
| Smart motorways make up 10% of England's motorway network. The roads use technology to regulate traffic flow and ease congestion. | |
| What is a smart motorway? | |
| There are three main types: | |
| controlled, which have a permanent hard shoulder, but use technology such as variable speed limits to adjust traffic flows | |
| dynamic, where the hard shoulder can be opened up at peak times and used as an extra lane; when this happens, the speed limit is reduced to 60mph | |
| all-lane running, where the hard shoulder has been permanently removed to provide an extra lane; emergency refuge areas are provided at regular intervals for cars that get into trouble | |
| All three models use overhead gantries to direct drivers. Variable speed limits are introduced to control traffic flow when there is congestion, or if there is a hazard ahead. These limits are controlled by speed cameras. | |
| Related Topics | Related Topics |
| Rishi Sunak | Rishi Sunak |