The strategic roads monitor has ‘begun’ work to assess the effectiveness of radar-based stopped vehicle detection (SVD) technology on smart motorways, a year after a recommendation from MPs that was agreed by ministers in January.
Following a recommendation (recommendation 4) in the Transport Select Committee’s November 2021 report on smart motorways, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is conducting an independent evaluation of the effectiveness and operation of SVD and other safety systems in place.
The committee referred to ‘serious concerns about the accuracy and reliability of this technology’.
This followed concerns about the effectiveness of the current radar-based SVD system, which were first raised by Highways last year and cited by the AA in its evidence to the committee.
The ORR has also been tasked with implementing recommendation 6 – evaluating the success of the Government’s 2020 smart motorway action plan in reducing incidences of live lane breakdowns on all-lane running motorways; reducing the time that people who breakdown or stop in a live lane are at risk, and educating drivers on what to do if they breakdown in a live lane.
Writing on the organisation’s website, Adam Spencer-Bickle, head of economics and policy, highways at the ORR noted: ‘Following a commissioning phase over the summer, we have begun our work on recommendations 4 and 6 which we see as a long-term area of work to take forward over several years.’
Mr Spencer-Bickle added: ‘We expect the format and content of our report to evolve as we develop our work on recommendations 4 and 6.’
The ORR has declined to elaborate on its progress in advance of publication of a wider safety report next month, which Mr Spencer-Bickle said will include ‘an initial progress update’, or to state when the evaluation would be published.
A spokesperson told Highways: ‘We’re planning to publish a progress report setting out our work and findings to date in mid-December.’
The apparent slow progress for the evaluation and its categorisation by the ORR as a ‘long-term’ exercise mean that ministers could decide whether to resume the roll-out of all-lane running smart motorways without knowing how effective SVD is.
In January, in response to another recommendation in the committee’s report, the Government said it would pause the roll-out until five years of safety and economic data was available for every scheme introduced before 2020.
