Travelling to the western edge of London and back yesterday took us along several stretches of “smart motorway”. These forgo the traditional hard shoulder (emergency lane on the left) in favour of frequent ‘refuge’ bays and use overhead gantries to actively manage traffic.

Data shows that, to date, these are measurably safer than traditional motorways but they aren’t perceived as such by most drivers and, in 2023, the Government declared that no new smart motorways would be built. Is this a ‘head in the sand’ attitude that holds us back from better, safer driving? Having seen several of the control gantries switched off and one or two clearly malfunctioning (flickering with nonsensical patterns of light), I’m inclined to think not. What about situations where the sign showing the removal of a lower speed limit doesn’t show, causing many drivers to have a delayed journey and creating hazards as some start to decide to speed up? What about if a warning to slow down instead displays as an all clear? And, sign issues aside, what about if you break down and your car isn’t able to safely get you to a refuge point?

I don’t mind the thought that motorways are under heavy surveillance and that does seem to have brought down the overall level of speeding but keeping the active management simple seems like a better course because crashes could literally kill.