A traffic management scheme allowing motorway drivers to use the hard shoulder during busy periods has cut journey times, car emissions and fuel consumption, the Transport Secretary said today.

Ruth Kelly said today that a recent trial on an 11-mile stretch of the M42 near Birmingham had shown that opening up the hard shoulder helped to reduce congestion without compromising safety.

The trial could be extended to other motorways, Ms Kelly said, after the M42 experience saw weekday journey times improved by 27 per cent, overall fuel consumption reduced by 4 per cent while vehicle emissions dropped by up to 10 per cent.

“It’s a win win situation,” she maintained. The other stretches of motorway that could benefit would be the 'box' of the M6, M42 and M40 around Birmingham.

Expert View

The scheme will provide some relief but won't eradicate congestion

Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

• More

• Post a comment

Related Links

• Hard-shoulder to reduce congestion

• Hard shoulder motorway scheme - Q & A

The hard shoulder scheme has been adopted as a quick and cheap alternative to road widening because the Highways Agency’s road building programme has run more than £3 billion over budget.

The M42 scheme cost £100 million, compared with the £500 million that it would have cost to widen that section of motorway. Hard shoulders can be converted for use by traffic in only two years, compared with up to ten years to plan and construct additional lanes.

But speaking on BBC Breakfast earlier, Ms Kelly denied that the Government was abandoning its long-term plans for road-widening, which was the only solution in cases of severe congestion. “In those situations you just need to maximise the number of cars that can drive on a particular stretch of road.

“But what I am doing today is asking the question are there bits of the network, and it could be bits of the M1 or parts of the M6 for instance, where an active traffic management approach... might not be a better way to get more people to use the motorway network and improve how reliable their journey times are.”

Neither was the policy move a soft response following the Government’s climbdown from national road pricing in the face of widespread protest, she said.

Ms Kelly said tolls could still be introduced in the bid to tackle congestion on Britain’s roads sometime in the future, but it was more of a long-term possibility.

Road safety campaigners expressed reservations about the plan, citing concerns about emergency access should both lanes and the hard shoulder be blocked. They believe that the Government has failed to allow enough time for any problems to merge, as the report only covers the first six months of the trial.

Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “Our reservations about using the hard shoulder are that in a major incident it may take emergency services longer to reach the scene as well as the practicalities of where drivers are able to stop their vehicles if they break down."

But Ms Kelly insisted the reverse was true, claiming that emergency refuge spots and increased monitoring would mean quicker access for emergency services.

On the M42, emergency refuges for broken-down vehicles have been built at 500-metre intervals. The limit for all lanes is reduced to a maximum of 50mph (80km/h) when the hard shoulder is in use and enforced by cameras.

Access to the hard shoulder is controlled using a series of gantries across the motorway. Sensors under the road surface detect when congestion is building up and send a message to the Highway Agency’s control centre. Screens on the gantries inform drivers that they can use the hard shoulder. The gantries display a red cross over the hard shoulder when it is closed and a speed limit sign when it is open.

The control centre uses a network of CCTV cameras to spot when a vehicle breaks down and cannot reach a refuge. Signs on the gantries are changed in seconds, telling drivers to leave the hard shoulder and alerting them to a hazard ahead.

However the RAC has cited trials in the Netherlands which found that 40 vehicles an hour used the hard shoulder as a running lane when access was not permitted, exposing parked vehicles to the risk of being hit on average every 1.5 minutes.