RESEARCH ARTICLE


Maximizing Motorway Capacity Through Hard Shoulder Running: UK Perspective



P. Chasea, E. Avineri*, b
a Atkins Ltd, Bristol, UK. The study was undertaken while the first author was at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
b University of the West of England, Bristol, UK


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Creative Commons License
© 2008 Chase and Avineri.;

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Centre for Transport & Soci-ety, Faculty of Environment & Technology, University of the West of Eng-land, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK; E-mail: Erel.Avineri@uwe.ac.uk


Abstract

New innovative ways to increase the capacity of motorways in the UK, without the need for substantial landtake and construction, are currently being developed by the Highways Agency (HA). One of these methods is Hard Shoulder Running (HSR), piloted on the M42 from late 2006. Based on interviews and content analysis of media reports, conducted before the piloting of the M42 scheme, this paper outlines the strengths and limitations of HSR as viewed by UK stakeholders. The paper considers the potential impact of the portrayal of HSR in the media, and discusses the informational requirements of UK drivers, paying attention to attitudes and behavior. It is concluded that there are a number of potential limitations to HSR, but relatively few reasons why HSR cannot potentially become successful and acceptable in the UK, as long as the correct level of information and driver education is provided.

Keywords: Hard shoulder running (HSR), motorway capacity, active traffic management (ATM).