A guinea pig on the M42, this morning
Since the spring of 2005, motorists using the M42 in Birmingham have been guinea pigs in the government’s latest bid to beat traffic congestion.
The £100million Active Traffic Management trial employed a number of techniques to help traffic flow more smoothly, including setting variable speed limits, using matrix information screens, and opening up the hard shoulder as an extra lane in peak travel periods.
The Department for Transport has released figures from the first six months of the trial, which claim a 26% reduction in northbound journey times, while southbound travel times dipped by 9% on average.
While our first thoughts about using the hard shoulder were the amount of debris that tends to accumulate there, apparently 84% of drivers were happy to use it as an extra lane.
The government also claims a reduction of injuries from accidents, from 5.2 to 1.5 per month, while fuel consumption and vehicle emissions dropped by around 4% and 10% respectively.
Now that the measures have been deemed successful, the scheme will be extended with a £150million extension to the motorways around Birmingham, with the government looking to extend the measures further to improve the flow of traffic on motorways throughout the UK.
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