MPs and campaigners are calling for the rollout of smart motorways across the UK to be halted over safety fears.
The UK government is planning to remove the hard shoulder from all future smart motorways and use the lane for live traffic are “premature”, a report from Commons Transport Select Committee (TSC) has said – but a cross-party group of MPs has called for a suspension on the rollout of these digital traffic management methods.
Campaigners have long argued that the scrapping of hard shoulders has put drivers at greater risk of accidents.
They have condemned what they call “death trap highways”.
In the TSC’s new report, MPs said the government has failed to deliver on promises to bring in safety improvements to stretches of smart motorway and said it was time to stop any further rollout of smart motorways until five years of safety data is available and improvements can be independently evaluated.
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Demonstrators carried 38 cardboard coffins to the Houses of Parliament on Monday in protest over the government’s motorway plan – which was first announced in March last year – with each coffin representing one of the people officially listed as being killed on smart motorways between 2014 and 2019.
Around 53 people are thought to have died on smart motorways since 2014.
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At least four coroners cited the lack of hard shoulder as playing a significant part in the road deaths they were investigating.
Campaigners have long argued that the scrapping of hard shoulders has put drivers at greater risk of accidents / Credit: Flickr
The Department for Transport (DfT) and Highways England promised safety improvements on these sections of road, but the MPs report concluded that those steps do not fully address the risks associated with the removal of the hard shoulder.
The TSC urged ministers to “consider alternative options for enhancing capacity” on motorways.
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It is calling on the government to install controlled smart motorways, instead of all-lane running motorways.
Controlled smart motorways have a permanent hard shoulder, use technology to regulate traffic, and have the “lowest casualty rates” of all roads across motorways and major A roads in England.
The TSC’s report said: “The government and National Highways should pause the rollout of new all-lane running schemes until five years of safety and economic data is available for every all-lane running scheme introduced before 2020 and the implementation of the safety improvements in the government’s action plan has been independently evaluated.”
Claire Mercer – whose husband, Jason, died on a smart motorway stretch of the M1 in June 2019 – welcomed the recommendation the rollout be paused, adding: “That will give us more time to get into the High Court and get these banned anyway”.
'They were stranded in a live running lane.'
The rollout of smart motorways should be suspended due to safety concerns, according to MPs.
Claire Mercer's husband died on a smart motorway in 2019 and she is now campaigning against smart motorways. pic.twitter.com/fj05EWxYeD
She added: “There’s a really strong feeling against these [and] we need to embarrass the government into actually doing something.
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“We don’t need a raft of changes.
“We just need the hard shoulder back in every single instance.”
An additional 300 miles of smart motorways without hard shoulders could be rolled out across England by 2025.
Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons
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Mancunian has been named one of the ‘most attractive’ accents in the UK
Emily Sergeant
Manchester is, once again, celebrating what we already know – our accent is one of the “most attractive” in the UK.
In case you missed it, earlier this year, Manchester welcomed in 2023 with the news that our city’s accent had been named the “sexiest” the country has to offer – with a survey of 2,500 people by casino comparison site Best Casinos discovering that over half of respondents ranked it the most pleasing regional accent to the ear.
And now it turns out that that survey wasn’t a fluke, because a new study has called the Manchester accent one of the “most attractive” in the UK.
On a top 10 list compiled from the findings of a new survey of 2,000 people aged 18 to 55+ by online language tutoring service Preply, the Mancunian accent has claimed a pretty respectable fifth place.
But while there’s no doubt we can hold our heads high and be proud of claiming a spot in the top 10, this title does become a bit less impressive when you realise which other regional varieties have placed higher than us.
Mancunian has been named one of the ‘most attractive’ accents in the UK / Credit: Preply | Pexels
Fellow Northern accents Scouse and Geordie have taken second and third place on the list respectably, and the Welsh capital’s Cardiff accent rounding out the top five.
For us northerners, the grim reading continues when you learn that the London accent has clinched the top spot.
The Most Attractive Accents in the UK
London
Liverpool
Newcastle
Cardiff
Manchester
Glasgow
Birmingham
Bristol
Leeds
According to Preply, 21% of women survey respondents voted for the London accent as the most attractive in the UK, compared with just 15% of men, while 10.4% of the population picked the unique sound of the Liverpool accent as second best.
Only 8.7% of survey respondents considered the Mancunian accent to be the most attractive.
The results from this survey do, at least, go some way to shattering the findings from two surveys published last year that found the Manchester accent is considered to be one of the ‘least respected’ nationwide, especially in the corporate world of work, and that Northerners with strong accents are considered ‘less intelligent’.
Featured Image – Unknown
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The first bright yellow Bee Network bus has hit the streets of Greater Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Greater Manchester residents will soon start to see bright yellow double decker buses travelling the region’s streets in the coming weeks.
With exactly six months to go before Greater Manchester “brings buses back under local control”, Mayor Andy Burnham has joined a number of other local leaders in unveiling the brand-new ‘Bee Network’ co-branded buses.
In what marks the biggest change to transport in Greater Manchester for almost 40 years, according to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), bus operator Diamond – which currently runs services in Bolton – has teamed up with Go North West to run the first franchised services in Wigan, Bolton, and parts of Salford and Bury from September this year.
Diamond has agreed to start transforming their buses into Bee Network ones from this week, with more set to appear on the roads every month.
The first bright yellow double decker bus has now hit the streets of Bolton, and is serving the number 8 route – which connects Bolton and Manchester city centre via Farnworth and Salford.
The Bee Network is coming in September.
But from April you might see some yellow buses out and about. 🚌
If one of your buses is now yellow, please contact your bus operator in the usual way if you need them. 👍 #GetOnBoard for more info 👇
— Transport for Greater Manchester 🚲🚶🏾♀️ (@OfficialTfGM) March 24, 2023
As already announced by TfGM and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), when franchising is officially introduced on 24 September 2023, 50 brand-new electric Bee Network buses will hit the streets on day one, alongside new ‘Euro VI’ vehicles, and dozens more co-branded buses from the existing fleet.
A further 50 electric buses will then be introduced onto the network in March 2024, which is when the second part of franchising starts.
All of the 270 new electric Bee Network buses will be fully accessible, with wheelchair bays, hearing induction loops, audio and visual announcement systems, and anti-slip flooring.
Mayor Andy Burnham said the first Bee Network bus entering service is “very much the start of our journey”, and added that the scheme will “ultimately deliver a greener, integrated and more inclusive transport system that will transform how people travel around our city-region.”
The first bright yellow Bee Network bus has hit the streets of Greater Manchester / Credit: TfGM
Transport Commissioner Vernon Everitt also called the first bus’s introduction onto the streets as “a further significant step” towards the integration of the Bee Network and the “transformation” of public transport and active travel in the region.
He continued: “From September we’ll also have dozens of new state-of-the-art buses serving passengers in Wigan, Bolton, and parts of Salford and Bury.
“These will be the first of many across Greater Manchester that will, alongside the new lower fares – which are already increasing ridership – and improvements to travel information, improve bus travel for everyone who lives and works here.”