All-lane running – Transport Focus response to select committee report

29 September 2016

Today the Transport Select Committee published its report into all-lane running on certain roads.

Guy Dangerfield, head of transport user strategy at the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said:
“In this debate about all-lane running, what is missing is the experience of road users. It is key that, regardless of how safe the statistics say all-lane running is, road users feel these roads are safe too. We will be carrying out research in 2017 to build a picture of road users’ experiences of all-lane running.”

Notes to editors

• Road users will be pleased that a review is underway into the spacing of Emergency Refuge Areas, which will feed into future designs.  Highways England should make it clear about how quickly they will retrospectively implement any new standards on existing all-lane running sections.

• Road users will welcome Highways England’s intention to introduce stationary vehicle detection, although confirmation of how soon this will be working on every section of all-lane running motorway would be helpful

• Compliance with the ‘red X’ is critical to all-lane running working as intended – the more that can be done to ensure road users understand the importance of complying with the ‘red X’ the better.