Austin Ten Drivers Club

National Highways continue to claim that "The latest data shows that, overall, in terms of serious or fatal casualties smart motorways are our safest roads"

But that is not what is said in the detail of the reports over the past few years which include the following :-

• "The risk of a livelane collision between a moving and a stopped vehicle is greater when compared to conventional motorways", and
• "We also recognise that the overall injury collision rate for all smart motorway types are higher than conventional motorways", and
• "The risk of collision between a moving and a stopped vehicle is greater on ALR and DHS motorways than on other motorway types"

ALR = All Lane Running
DHS = Dynamic Hard Shoulder running

https://nationalhighways.co.uk/media/ui ... r-2022.pdf

If you break down you DO need to worry about what is coming over the Horizon. A vast & fast Post Office truck perhaps?

Yes, Smart Motorways are anything but.
The hard shoulder can be pretty scary never mind having to stop on a live lane.

They have been proven to be a bad idea. I have seen a few major crashes where a stopped vehicle has been hit it what should be the hard shoulder. I was a curtain sider hit by another lorry. Curtain sider was about half the length it had started out as and not much left of the cab of the wagon that went into it.