Why Driver Anxiety on Smart Motorways Has Doubled in a Year

The proportion of drivers who feel nervous on smart motorways with no hard shoulder has jumped from 23 per cent to 46 per cent in a single year, according to the AA’s latest survey. At the same time, National Highways’ own evidence shows that thirteen out of sixteen smart motorway schemes are not delivering the financial or safety benefits they were built to provide.

The Numbers Behind the Fear

The AA’s 2026 research shows anxiety climbing across every type of smart motorway. On All Lane Running sections, where the hard shoulder has been permanently converted into a running lane, driver nervousness has doubled year on year, from 23 per cent to 46 per cent. On Dynamic Hard Shoulder sections, where the extra lane only opens at busy times, anxiety rose from 30 per cent to 47 per cent over the same twelve months.

A National Highways report published in February 2026 gives those fears some backing. Of sixteen smart motorway schemes assessed across England, only three are on course to deliver the value for money originally projected when they were built. A further six were rated “not on track, poor” or “not on track, low.” Two sections, the M25 All Lane Running stretch between junctions 23 and 27, and the M6 Dynamic Hard Shoulder section between junctions 5 and 8, were rated “very poor.”

Lower than expected traffic growth is the main reason the schemes are missing their targets. Fewer drivers are using the extra capacity than was forecast when the conversions were approved, which means the safety and congestion trade-off drivers were asked to accept is delivering less benefit than promised.

National Highways has stressed that most schemes are still meeting their predicted safety improvements even where the financial case has fallen short, a distinction that offers little reassurance to a driver who breaks down in a live lane. A scheme can hit its casualty-reduction target on paper while individual drivers still spend anxious minutes waiting in a running lane for a gap in traffic or a rescue that hasn’t arrived yet.

The gap between how safe smart motorways are meant to be and how safe drivers feel using them is the real story here. A road can hit every casualty target National Highways set for it and still leave the person behind the wheel white-knuckled every time a warning light flickers on. The reassurance of a permanent hard shoulder isn’t something a statistic replaces for the driver stuck in the moment.

What Happens If You Break Down

The core danger of All Lane Running motorways hasn’t changed: a car that breaks down in a live lane has no hard shoulder to pull into. Emergency Refuge Areas are spaced roughly every 0.75 to 1.6 miles depending on the route, meaning a driver who loses power or has a tyre blow out mid-lane can be 75 to 120 seconds from the nearest safe stopping point at motorway speed, and considerably further if traffic is heavy.

National Highways has retrofitted 150 additional refuge areas as part of its National Emergency Area Retrofit programme, bringing the average gap down to around 0.75 miles on the busiest All Lane Running stretches. Stopped Vehicle Detection radar now covers every smart motorway and is designed to spot a stationary vehicle and trigger a red X to close the lane within 20 seconds, but that still leaves a window in which a stopped car sits in live traffic with only its hazard lights for protection.

The government cancelled all further smart motorway conversions in 2023, but the 17 per cent of the network already converted stays in operation while National Highways works through the safety and value questions the reports keep raising.

Who Is Responsible

National Highways commissioned and published the February 2026 report itself, and the agency has been open about the schemes’ shortfalls. The Department for Transport approved the original conversions and holds the budget for any further retrofit work, including a full reversal of All Lane Running back to a permanent hard shoulder, an option campaigners have pushed for after fatal breakdowns first drew scrutiny to the programme.

Reversing a scheme back to a permanent hard shoulder costs tens of millions of pounds per stretch of motorway, and no funding has been committed for that at scale. Until it is, drivers on the affected routes are relying on refuge spacing and detection technology rather than a hard shoulder that’s always there.

What Happens Next

No new smart motorway conversions are planned, so the network stays fixed at its current 17 per cent share of All Lane Running and Dynamic Hard Shoulder mileage unless ministers order a reversal of existing schemes. The Office of Rail and Road continues to monitor smart motorway performance independently of National Highways, publishing its own assessment of whether safety data supports keeping the schemes running as they are.

The two worst-performing sections identified in February, the M25 stretch between junctions 23 and 27 and the M6 stretch between junctions 5 and 8, are the most likely candidates for a closer look at reconversion if funding is found, purely on the strength of the “very poor” rating that makes them hardest to defend on value grounds alone. No timetable for a decision on either section has been published.

Transport committees in Parliament have taken evidence on smart motorway safety and value for money on several occasions after the 2023 conversion freeze, and continued pressure from MPs representing constituencies along the worst-rated stretches is one of the few levers likely to move a reconversion decision up the priority list ahead of a formal government review.

How to Protect Yourself

Check your route before a long motorway journey using the National Highways app or website, which flags which sections are All Lane Running and shows live refuge area locations. Knowing in advance which stretches have no hard shoulder gives you time to plan fuel stops, rest breaks and vehicle checks before you reach the section where a breakdown carries the most risk.

If your car develops a fault, get to a refuge area, an exit, or a service station if you can reach one safely rather than waiting for a warning light to become a full breakdown in a live lane.

If you do stop in a live lane, put your hazard lights on immediately, keep your seatbelt on, and call 999 rather than getting out of the vehicle unless staying inside is clearly more dangerous. Exiting on the passenger side and standing behind a barrier is only advised if you can do so safely.

Report near misses and refuge areas that are blocked, occupied, or too far apart to National Highways directly. Its evidence stocktake relies partly on driver-reported incidents, and a documented pattern of problems on a specific stretch carries more influence with campaigners and MPs pushing for reconversion than individual complaints in isolation.

If you break down and are struck while stationary, or a Stopped Vehicle Detection system fails to activate in time, the National Highways customer contact centre and your MP’s office are both starting points for a formal complaint, and incidents feed directly into the evidence used for future funding decisions.

Breakdown cover carries more value on an All Lane Running motorway than almost anywhere else on the network. A policy that promises fast attendance and a tow to safety is worth having when the nearest refuge could be over a mile away, and drivers who’ve let cover lapse on an older car are taking on a bigger risk than they know on these specific stretches. Check that your policy explicitly covers roadside assistance in a live smart motorway lane. Some cheaper policies exclude recovery from a running lane and only cover breakdowns on a hard shoulder or in a refuge area.

Sources:

• The AA: Smart Motorways 2026 survey findings
• Highways Industry: Why the AA is Warning of a Smart Motorway Confidence Gap in 2026
• National Highways: Smart Motorways Evidence Stocktake
• RAC Drive: National Highways report reveals smart motorways not delivering financial benefits
• Motoring Chronicle: Drivers Were Wrongly Fined by a Speed Camera Fault for Four Years