They are a technology-driven approach to the use of highways in England. They increase capacity and relieve congestion while maintaining safety. Smart motorways are said to help make journey times more reliable.
The hard shoulder is used for traffic, either permanently or at peak times. This creates an extra lane to provide additional capacity. According to Highways England, technology is used to monitor congestion levels and change the speed limit when needed to smooth the traffic flow. This reduces frustrating stop-start driving and improves your journey reliability.
A recent survey by GEM Motoring Assist, a British road safety and breakdown recovery organisation, revealed that two thirds of motorists are concerned about safety on smart motorways.
In the survey, which was completed during March 2018 by more than 2,500 people, the main concern (expressed by 51 per cent) was of breaking down with no access to a hard shoulder.
“The prospect of breaking down on the motorway is scary at the best of times,” said GEM road safety officer Neil Worth. “But in a smart motorway environment, when there may be no hard shoulder, it becomes a great deal more worrying.
“If your car develops a problem in a stretch of smart motorway, GEM’s advice is to try to get to the next junction or service area. If that’s not possible, then pull in to the next emergency area. These are easily identified by blue signs with orange SOS symbols next to them.”
Highways England, which operates, maintains and improves England’s motorways and major roads, said smart motorways make allowances for car breakdowns.
Emergency refuge areas provide an area of relative safety following a breakdown on a smart motorway. If you are driving at 100kph you will reach a place you can stop in an emergency every 75 seconds on average.
There is an emergency telephone in such safe zone. This connects you to Highways England's regional conctrol Centres and pinpoints your location.
