"Smart" motorway innovation for achieving greater safety and hard shoulder management

"Smart" motorways are becoming more prevalent through technology-driven approaches such as active traffic management (ATM) systems, hard shoulder management (HSM) control systems and digital enforcement cameras. Such technologies are able to monitor and respond to fluctuating traffic conditions by altering the speed limit to smooth traffic flow, activate warning signs to alert users of hazards up ahead and permit the use of the hard shoulder, either permanently or at peak times. This paper investigates smart motorways as a way of reducing congestion achieving greater road safety and improving hard shoulder management. This research is one of the first which deals specifically with the topic of smart motorways, where much of the focus to date has been on smart cities alone. A questionnaire approach was undertaken with 124 members of the public relating to their knowledge of smart motorways. The results indicate that user knowledge of smart motorways was lacking in some areas and that there is an inclination to wilfully ignore some of the "smart" rules of the road which contrary to the intention of smart motorways, may increase the safety risk and CO₂ emissions.