Better information for your journey
The National Traffic Control Centre collects real-time information on road conditions
Lane Hog!
John Stapleton looks into why people Lane Hog and what effects it has on the driver hogging the lane and other road users.
Educating tomorrow's drivers
See how we are driving through key messages about safety on our network for the drivers of tomorrow.
Meet the Ancestors
Find out about the history of roads and the work the Agency does to preserve archaeological remains.
See when traffic will be lightest
Our traffic forecaster can help get you there quicker
How is the pilot being assessed?
Results from the first six months
The first six months of hard shoulder running on the M42 have shown that innovative thinking can help cut congestion.
Initial fears from safety campaigners have proved unfounded as the number of accidents on the stretch has actually decreased – the accident rate went down from 5.1 a month to 1.5 a month.
As well as the decrease in the accident rate, the first six months of the trial on the M42 have seen other significant benefits for motorists, the environment and the economy. Use of the hard shoulder in peak periods saw average journey times fall by more than a quarter on the northbound carriageway and drivers’ ability to predict their weekday journey times improved by 27%. Alongside this, overall fuel consumption reduced by 4% and vehicle emissions fell by up to 10%.
The scheme is also very popular with motorists, with 68% saying they felt more informed about traffic conditions and 60% saying that they would like to see it extended elsewhere on the motorway network.
The following two documents outline the results of the first six months of ATM operation. The first is an overview containing the main facts and figures and the second is the full evaluation report. (Please note that the full report is a large file which will take some time to download. If you are using Internet Explorer, you might find it easier to right click on the link and select Save Target As.)
- M42 Active Traffic Management Results – First six months (PDF 85KB)
- For the full evaluation report please visit the Department for Transport website
What happens next?
On 25 October 2007, the Secretary of State for Transport announced a feasibility study into how ATM technologies and other advanced signalling and traffic management techniques might be applied more widely across the motorway network to cut congestion and benefit road users. Further details are available on the Department for Transport website
