Motorways move with the times to ease congestion

26 March 2008
 
The UK’s first motorway car-share lane has opened in West Yorkshire.

The 2.7km lane, built by the Highways Agency, links the southbound M606 near Bradford to the eastbound M62 towards Leeds.

pen to cars and taxis with two or more occupants, as well as buses and coaches, it bypasses the congested section where the two motorways merge. The new lane aims to save road-users an average of six to eight minutes per journey.

Opening the lane, transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, said: ‘Currently, four out of five vehicles using this busy junction have only one occupant. ‘I hope this new lane will encourage people to share their journeys, which will ease congestion, cut journey times and improve local air quality.’

The Government recently announced that 800km of England’s motorway network would be considered for new traffic-management measures, which might include more high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, as well as hard shoulder running (Surveyor, 6 March 2008). However, plans for an HOV lane on the M1 were recently dropped, due to safety concerns.

Commenting on the M1 decision, Paul Watters, head of roads and transport policy for the AA, said: ‘It comes as no surprise that the car-share lane on this road has been abandoned.

‘It faced an uphill task of enforcement, deciding which vehicles to allow in, accessing vehicles in and out of the lane, preventing dangerous lane-swapping, and justifying the loss of road capacity if the other lanes became clogged and ground to a standstill.’

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