{"id":143652,"date":"2021-11-03T22:43:36","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T22:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=143652"},"modified":"2021-11-03T22:43:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T22:43:36","slug":"grant-shapps-considers-halting-new-smart-motorways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/grant-shapps-considers-halting-new-smart-motorways\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant Shapps considers halting new smart motorways"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Minister hints he could put brakes on smart motorways: Grant Shapps is ready to re-examine data after MPs&#8217; report into death trap roads&#8230; as expert says they are also bad for the economy<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Grant Shapps said he will &#8216;carefully study&#8217; a report on smart motorways\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Transport Secretary did not rule out pausing future construction\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>MPs said they want more research into their safety ahead of further roll out\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Grant Shapps last night vowed to \u2018carefully study\u2019 a damning report from MPs into smart motorways.<\/p>\n<p>Significantly, the Transport Secretary did not rule out pausing their construction and said the inquiry had made \u2018a lot of great points\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>He also praised the Mail\u2019s undercover investigation into safety failures on the controversial roads.<\/p>\n<p>But he said he would not take any action until next year, risking a backlash from campaigners who want smart motorways scrapped or put on hold immediately.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, MPs called for a halt to the construction of \u2018all-lane running\u2019 motorways, where the hard shoulder is removed, until more data was available showing they are safe. The report from the Commons transport committee called for emergency laybys to be retro-fitted on existing schemes so they are closer together.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/11\/03\/21\/50026005-0-image-a-29_1635974752868.jpg\" height=\"370\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>MPs have urged the government to stall the further roll out of smart motorways due to safety concerns associated with the removal of a hard shoulder<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/11\/03\/21\/50025997-0-image-a-30_1635974809329.jpg\" height=\"800\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, pictured, said he will &#8216;carefully consider&#8217; the contents of the report by MPs<\/p>\n<p>The MPs also accused road chiefs and ministers of ignoring safety concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Shapps told the Mail last night: \u2018It\u2019s been a great investigation and campaign from the Mail, and I take this incredibly seriously.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We\u2019ve warmly welcomed the transport select committee report, which makes a lot of great points. We now need to check their recommendations against the data.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018One of the great recommendations is to use the Office of Rail and Road to check the data more broadly, and I agree with that as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018So there\u2019ll be more action on this and that action will start immediately, with a formal response in the new year.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Officials are understood to have advised against a knee-jerk reaction because pausing the rollout of ALR smart motorways could leave several stretches of unfinished road coned off \u2013 and potentially dangerous \u2013 until the end of 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Tory MP Greg Smith, who sits on the transport committee, urged Mr Shapps to take action as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u2018The pressing and urgent concerns in the select committee report, coupled with the heartbreaking evidence from the families of those who lost loved ones on smart motorways, require a rapid response from government.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>A former senior transport official yesterday said smart motorways had not improved journey times and could even be hurting the economy.<\/p>\n<p>David Metz, who was chief scientist at the Department for Transport, accused road chiefs of using \u2018biased\u2019 modelling to justify the \u00a36billion investment. And he said the \u2018benefit-cost ratio\u2019 was in fact likely to be negative for vast stretches of the network.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018If better economic modelling and analysis had been done, we wouldn\u2019t have been investing so much money in these roads,\u2019 he said. \u2018So to a degree, this money has been wasted.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Dr Metz said analysis by National Highways had failed to predict the scale of extra traffic using M-roads once the hard shoulder had been converted into an extra lane.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/11\/03\/21\/50026001-10162801-image-a-31_1635975378945.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Data from freedom of information requests he filed showed daily traffic on one section of the M25 grew by 16 per cent \u2013 more than double the average elsewhere \u2013 three years after it became a smart motorway<\/p>\n<p>Data from freedom of information requests he filed showed daily traffic on one section of the M25 grew by 16 per cent \u2013 more than double the average elsewhere \u2013 three years after it became a smart motorway. It meant the initial speeding-up of traffic seen in the first year after it opened in 2015 was wiped out by the third year.<\/p>\n<p>He said this was probably because motorists were switching from smaller roads. His findings, which were submitted to the Commons committee, showed National Highways used consultancy firms to project extra traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Metz, who is now a visiting professor at University College London, said: \u2018There\u2019s a lot of optimism bias in the modelling.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Consultants like to please their clients so there\u2019s a bias to provide the kind of outcomes expected.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Sarah Olney, Lib Dem transport spokesman, said: \u2018It would be ludicrous for the Government to press ahead with these plans when it\u2019s abundantly clear that there are safety pitfalls.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason was killed on a stretch of the M1 with no hard shoulder, said: \u2018We have had a report saying that safety on these roads is not guaranteed and now the benefit-cost ratio is not there, so it\u2019s just an unpicking of the whole package. It\u2019s been coming slowly for a long time, but the whole package has failed.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>She organised a coffin protest in Westminster on Monday demanding the reinstatement of the hard shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10162801\/Grant-Shapps-considers-halting-new-smart-motorways.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister hints he could put brakes on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Grant Shapps considers halting new smart motorways - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/grant-shapps-considers-halting-new-smart-motorways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grant Shapps considers halting new smart motorways - 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