Sponsored by
Should M1 hard shoulder become fourth lane?
FURTHER plans have been announced to allow drivers to use the hard shoulder of the M1 near Sheffield after £3 billion widening proposals were abandoned.
But a motorists' organisation has called it a way of creating extra capacity "on the cheap" and voiced safety concerns.
The Highways Agency has already decided to use the hard shoulder as a fourth lane between junction 28 in Derbyshire and junction 31 at Aston.
Now the Government department has announced the same proposals for the motorway between junction 32 with the M18 and junction 35a with the A616, near Chapeltown.
Nigel Humphreys, of the Association of British Drivers, said: "It's road building on the cheap and we do think there are potential dangers. The hard shoulder is there for a reason, to provide an emergency place to stop."
Mr Humphreys said a "better solution" would involve upgrading alternative routes such as the A1 in South Yorkshire.
"It would relieve some of the traffic from the M1. The problem at the moment is that for many journeys, there are not adequate alternative routes," he said.
He added that hard shoulder running - reducing the speed limit to 60mph on all lanes, enforced by cameras, which is in operation on the M42 near Birmingham - was a way of "introducing speed cameras to motorways by the back door".
He said if hard shoulder running was introduced, the three main lanes should instead continue to operate at 70mph and the hard shoulder at 30mph.
Mr Humphreys said: "That way it would only be used when there is congestion and would make it safer if drivers have to stop at the side of the road."
A Highways Agency spokesman said: "The M1 in South Yorkshire is an important route for regional and international traffic. The section between junctions 32 and 35a carries more than 110,000 vehicles each day and suffers from congestion and delay at peak times. Previous studies have investigated options for increasing capacity by widening to four lanes in each direction and by introducing Active Traffic Management with hard shoulder running at busy times."
Consultation on hard shoulder running between junctions 32 and 35a is likely to be carried out in South Yorkshire in the autumn, the spokesman added. The Government originally proposed widening the M1 to four lanes plus a hard shoulder all the way from Leicester to Leeds.
Got a view? Add your comment below.
READ MORE
Main news index
Your letters
Features
South Yorkshire's environmental news
Kids Zone
More business news
More Rotherham news
More Doncaster news
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
