Drivers are to be given the option of paying to drive faster in extra lanes on up to 500 miles of Britain’s most congested motorways.

The toll lanes, part of a government plan for road pricing, will have signposted speed limits 10 or 20mph faster than on adjacent uncharged lanes.

The lanes will be created from 2010, either by turning the hard shoulder into a running lane or by building an extra lane.

Drivers travelling with at least one passenger may be allowed free access to some of the lanes but, on others, the Department for Transport (DfT) will make all vehicles pay to ensure that traffic flows freely.

Similar toll lanes are in use in America, where they have been dubbed “Lexus lanes” because of the perception that only wealthier drivers can afford to use them. The DfT has yet to decide how much motorists will pay to use the lanes but in America drivers pay about £5 at the busiest times.

The speed limit for each lane will be displayed on overhead gantries. The lanes will be enforced by CCTV cameras on the gantries, which will also carry beacons to detect pre-paid tags in the windscreens of passing cars.

The toll lanes are likely to be introduced on the most congested sections of the M1, M4, M3, M5 near Bristol, M6, M20, M23, M27 and M62, the DfT said yesterday. The Highways Agency believes that it could save more than £1 billion by abandoning plans to widen parts of the M1, M6 and M62 and instead converting the hard shoulder into a running lane from 2010. Motorway widening costs up to £40 million a mile; hard shoulder conversion costs £10 million.

Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, said: “Allowing motorists to enter a reserved lane if they are carrying passengers or willing to pay a toll gives them a real choice without having to change their route.

“If your journey is absolutely essential, such as when catching a flight or attending a funeral or important business meeting, you will know you are going to get there on time without having to allow an extra half hour in case of gridlock.”

Ms Kelly said that the initiative would help the Government to move beyond the “sterile debate” between road-pricing enthusiasts and those who claim it will be a stealth tax.

But she made clear that the Government believed that road pricing, in which drivers would pay a fee for each mile travelled on all congested roads, was the best long-term solution. Trials of road pricing will begin in the autumn and local charging schemes in Manchester and Cambridge are likely to be approved after the local government elections in May. Ms Kelly said that councils could bid for a share of £200 million a year, which the DfT would make available until 2019 for local congestion-charging schemes.

Motoring and business groups welcomed the idea of toll lanes but expressed concern that using the hard shoulder would not provide as much extra capacity as building a new lane.

David Frost, the director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “We need extra capacity and that means building new roads. Opening up motorway hard shoulders cannot be a long-term answer to solving congestion on our motorways.”

Edmund King, the president of the AA, said that once toll lanes had been introduced it would be a simple step to introducing charges on the other lanes. He said that drivers would be willing to pay a toll for a fast journey on an extra lane but not for a slow trip on a converted hard shoulder.

Peter Hendy, the chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport, said: “This is a clever way forward on the contentious issue of road pricing because it gives people a choice.”

Friends of the Earth said: “Extra motorway lanes are not the answer to Britain’s transport problems. The additional capacity will encourage more traffic, which may lead to more climate-changing pollution.”

Rob Gifford, the director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said: “Two limits on the same motorway could confuse drivers. The Government would need to think very carefully about the unintended consequence of more crashes on a more controlled network.”