Motorways: Safety
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the (a) costs and (b) benefits of smart motorways.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood
National Highways publish reviews on major road schemes which measure their impact against anticipated benefits.
National Highways also report on safety data annually, with the latest published data showing, overall, all three types of smart motorway are safer than conventional motorways for those safety metrics which consider the most significant impacts, such as deaths or serious injuries. However, we recognise that the risk of a collision between a moving and a stopped vehicle is greater on smart motorways without a permanent hard shoulder. We will not be rolling out any new smart motorways.
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