Extra emergency areas to be added to M4 near Reading to make smart motorway safer.

National Highways has announced where 150 extra emergency areas are to be created in a bid to make smart motorways across Berkshire safer.

In April, the Government announced the cancellation of planned projects to build all-lane running (ALR) smart motorways, which can use the hard shoulder as a live traffic lane.

Eleven stretches of motorways in England have been identified to be upgraded with the places to stop, while work is already underway on doubling the number of areas on the M1 in south Yorkshire, combined this will bring the total to 150.

It is part of a £900 million scheme aimed at improving the network by 2025, while a total of £105 million is being spent on improving operational technology.

The additional emergency area that has been planned to make the smart motorways safer in Berkshire includes between junction 10 and 12 on the M4.

Nick Harris, chief executive of National Highways, said: “Safety is our highest priority and we are committed to further improving all-lane running motorways.

“We have completed key upgrades to improve the performance of technology to detect stopped vehicles, and today we have set out the next sections of motorway to benefit from the programme to install more than 150 extra emergency areas to give drivers added reassurance.

“We are also continuing to invest £105 million to improve the resilience of our operational technology systems.”

Edmund King, president of the AA motoring group, welcomed the additional safety measures but called for hard shoulders to be reinstated on all motorways.

He said: “The fundamental problem remains that stopped vehicle incidents are more frequent on all-lane running ‘smart’ motorways compared to motorways with hard shoulders.

“To address this, the hard shoulder needs to be reinstated or at the very least the number of emergency areas needs to be radically increased.

“The prospect of breaking down or stopping in a live lane is daunting as our AA call centre operators who take the distressed calls can confirm.

“The advice remains that if you break down in a live lane and can’t exit the vehicle safely via the passenger seat, you should keep your seat belt on, put on hazard lights and other lights and dial 999. It is an emergency.

“We welcomed the scrapping of new ‘smart’ motorways but even with the progress made with new technology on existing ones, more needs to be done to reduce the dangers of live lane stops.

“We have called for more ‘controlled motorways’, which the report shows have lower killed or serious injury rates (KSI) than all-lane running (1.31 compared to 1.43). These motorways have the benefit of ‘smart’ motorway technology whilst also having a hard shoulder.”

A National Highways spokesman said the report “includes the safety evidence (2017 to 2021), which continues to show that overall, all three types of smart motorway are safer than conventional motorways in terms of deaths or serious injuries”.

He added: “Together, the investment in extra emergency areas, along with additional technology like stopped vehicle detection (SVD), better and more signs for emergency areas, and more information about smart motorways online and in an updated Highway Code, aims to help road users feel even safer and more confident on the strategic road network.”

Work had already begun in June on more than doubling the number of emergency areas on the M1 in South Yorkshire between junctions 32 and 35a.

Let us know what you think about smart motorways. Do you think they are safe or a concern for drivers?