Do you think 'smart motorways' are a good idea? Tameside Radio presenter Alex B Cann isn't a fan of them and sets out his argument here...

If you’re a driver, there’s a good chance you’ll have been on the M60 ‘smart motorway’. 

Perhaps you’ve also had the pleasure of a trip to Meadowhall using the M1, or driven from Simister Island across to Yorkshire on the M62. I can’t wait for the latter to be upgraded, as no-one ever seems to know which lane they need to be in!

I passed my driving test back in the mists of 1995, when unleaded petrol cost 49.9p a litre and my Mini City tank cost under £20 to fill. 

There was no theory test to pass in those days, and furry dice were the height of sophistication. Well, I always thought they were, until Sofia my wife told me years later they were actually not, and hadn’t been for years. The same goes for the stuffed Bagpuss toy I used to have stuck to the back window. 

While we’re talking accessories, does anyone have beaded seats these days, or Feu Orange car fresheners?!

Anyway, I digress a trifle. 

I wanted to write a little something about why I believe ‘smart motorways’ are a really bad idea. 

I’ve been in a few minor bumps in my 27 years of driving, but the single most spine chillingly terrifying moment was when I got a flat tyre on the M1 near Sheffield a couple of years ago. 

It’s an ‘all lanes running’ motorway, with no hard shoulder and just a few well spaced out refuge areas.

I drove for a lot longer than felt safe in order to reach the next designated layby, so I could call the breakdown service (I’m afraid I have no idea how to change a tyre, or do anything very practical). 

I’d just watched a Panorama documentary the week before this happened, and seen some horrific cases which resulted in the loss of life whilst motorists got out of their vehicles to exchange details on the same stretch of road and a lorry ploughed into them. My heart truly goes out to their loved ones, who will miss them every single day.

I’m just not convinced the layout of these motorways does anything either for safety or traffic flow. 

The Government has in the past made vague noises about reviewing them, but now they seem to have backtracked on this, instead insisting they are safe.

A recent National Highways report confirmed last week that the number of serious injury collisions on the M1 between Junction 32 and Junction 35 in South Yorkshire has increased since the motorway was reconfigured. 

It’s a stretch I know very well, as I use it every weekend to travel from Tameside Radio and see my friend Tom in North Notts. It is invariably clogged up on a Friday afternoon, and the variable speed limits do nothing to help the traffic flow, it seems to me.

The same report shows that Junctions 10 to 13 in Bedfordshire are actually slowed down by the new layout, causing a drag on the economy that does not justify the costs incurred by the work.

Another study of 4,500 respondents back in April this year showed that 85 per cent want a halt on any future construction of ‘smart motorways’ until the safety case is fully proven, while 84 per cent had little faith in the current safety systems to detect stopped vehicles, and more than 80 per cent wanted refuges to be spaced at 500 metres apart of less.

At the very least, more of these refuges are needed than we currently have available to drivers. If time allows, I’ll often drive a longer A or B road route to avoid having to use ‘smart motorways’ at all. As we look towards the future, I firmly believe we need some bolder thinking from the Transport Secretary, and a decision to ban any further erosion of the hard shoulder on motorways.

Whilst it’s still a dangerous place to break down, it does enable stranded motorists to exit their vehicle on the passenger side and wait behind the barrier, as opposed to being a sitting duck in a live lane.

Turning finally to the recent protests on the M25. After 18 months of the pandemic and all the disruption caused to lives, I can’t find any sympathy for those who blockaded part of the M25 and stopped motorists from getting to work this week. Besides, all those idling exhausts won’t have done much for pollution levels in the area.

You can listen to Alex every weekday from 7am to 11am and on the 'Super Scoreboard' show on Saturdays from 3pm to 7pm, on Tameside Radio 103.6FM. 

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