Drivers are set to benefit from huge safety improvements on major motorways across the UK as more emergency areas get rolled out.
National Highways announced it has added an extra 150 emergency stop areas to smart motorways as part of a £390million project to make roads safer.
The project began in June 2023 after multiple concerns were raised by experts and drivers over the safety risks smart motorways posed to drivers.
Smart motorways have faced heavy criticism over the years due to the lack of a hard shoulder, with the previous Conservative Government agreeing to stop making them in 2023.
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New emergency refuge areas have been installed on the M25, M1 and other major motorways
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Since then, National Highways has been working on adding new emergency areas with stopping areas now found on key motorways, including the M1, M3, M4, M5, M20, M25 and M27.
National Highways chief executive, Nick Harris, said: "All new emergency areas have now been installed, marking the end of this important safety scheme.
"Emergency areas provide drivers with more frequent opportunities to pull over should they break down or experience difficulties. The latest analysis continues to show that, overall, smart motorways remain our safest roads. I’d like to thank drivers for their patience throughout the work."
The agency had previously stated that the project would result in around 50 per cent more emergency refuge areas on all-lane running (ALR) smart motorways compared with the total in January 2022.
Smart motorways operate throughout certain sections of UK motorways and use real-time traffic management techniques.
This includes variable speed limits as well as using the hard shoulder as an extra lane, to increase capacity and reduce congestion. But this has meant that if a vehicle were to break down, drivers would have to stop in live traffic.
Meanwhile, the Future of Roads Minister, Lilian Greenwood, explained that the Government take "road safety seriously".
She added: "That’s why I’m pleased to see the installation of more than 150 additional emergency areas on smart motorways across the country, helping to keep people safe. We’ve been clear, we will not roll out any new smart motorways."
A few years ago, a petition gained more than 300,000 signatures with angry drivers demanding that the then-Conservative Government reinstate hard shoulders on smart motorways.
The petition detailed: "I’m a lorry driver and I drive up and down these motorways every day. I’ve seen cars stranded on these roads, and it is incredibly dangerous for them to be a sitting duck next to traffic travelling at 70mph and more. It can be deadly.
"It can take up to 17 minutes for highways authorities to notice you have broken down in a lane of live traffic and to display a Red Cross above the lane to indicate to other road users not to use that lane, during that time cars and trucks are still approaching you from behind at some speed! If a car or worse a truck, was to hit you at this point, it would have catastrophic results."
A concerned driver commented on the petition, saying they would rather avoid a smart motorway and take the A-roads than risk breaking down in the middle of the road.
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The last smart motorway was rolled out in 2023 with the Government stating it would not introduce any more
PA"I would be terrified to break down when I have children in the car. Bring back the hard shoulder! Who is responsible for the Smart motorway idea?" they questioned.
Despite calls from thousands of drivers, the Government has rejected proposals to reinstate the hard shoulder on existing smart motorways, opting instead for emergency refuge areas.
A National Highways spokesperson told GB News: "Safety is our number one priority, and we’re doing everything in our control to make sure our roads are even safer.
"Our latest analysis continues to show that overall, smart motorways remain our safest roads. We have completed all of our stocktake actions including upgrading the technology to detect stopped vehicles and improving response times to live lane breakdowns. On top of this we have delivered on our commitment to install 150 new emergency areas."