Kelly announces road reforms

Transport secretary Ruth Kelly has announced plans to allow motorists to use the hard shoulder on busy stretches of motorways in a bid to tackle congestion.

 

The scheme is to be adopted following a trial on the M42 motorway near Birmingham, when the hard shoulder was used as an extra lane and the speed limit reduced to 50mph when traffic levels built up.

 

Kelly said the scheme will be extended to a number of motorways in England, including the M1, M6, M62, M27, M4, M5 and motorways which feed into the M25, such as the M20 and M3.

 

The minister also announced that she is looking at options such as having a motorway lane which cannot be used by cars only carrying one person.

 

The idea of a "car share" lane has been successfully introduced in other countries, said the Department for Transport.

 

Kelly said: "Through a mix of managing speeds and opening the hard shoulder as a running lane, the M42 has shown it is possible to smooth traffic flow and improve journey reliability on a notoriously congested route, and it has done so safely.

 

"It provides compelling evidence for developing the concept more broadly to improve motorway performance on congested routes in other parts of the country.

 

"As a first step, the Highways Agency need to establish that hard shoulder running will work at least as well at 60mph as 50mph."

 

Using the hard shoulder is thought to be much cheaper than building new lanes to tackle congestion.

 

British Chambers of Commerce director general David Frost said: "Capacity problems across the UK's road network have created serious difficulties for businesses reliant on the roads to transport and receive goods.

 

"Opening up the hard shoulder is an innovative way in which to immediately help reduce congestion. However, much more still needs to be done to address the wider issue of a lack of capacity across all of the UK's transport infrastructure.

 

"Unless further investment is put into increasing capacity, the country will simply grind to a halt."

 

Hard shoulder driving is well established in some European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands.