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The performance of stopped vehicle detection technology on smart motorways has been flagged in a new report

11 January 2023

A safety report by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has flagged the Stopped Vehicle Detection (SVD) technology used on all lane running (ALR) smart motorways.

Although the technology was put in place on all ALR smart motorways six months ahead of the deadline, as of the end of September 2022, the OPR report says that the performance of these systems falls short of requirements.

These shortfalls include a significantly higher false detection rate than the standard allows.

Performance of the technology was noted to range between 63.8 per cent and 83.5 per cent across locations.

National Highways says it is seeking to resolve these issues by the end of June 2023.

The report praises National Highways for achieving substantial improvements in attendance times for traffic officers with a national average response time of 9 minutes and 49 seconds in September 2022. However, it also calls for ‘focused attention’ from National Highways on:

• ‘Faster roll out of SVD – whilst roll-out installation has been completed to plan (now covering over 200 miles of ALR), the performance of this system is not yet stable nationally and not yet meeting the requirements set by National Highways. This is of critical importance and National Highways is intending to address this matter as a part of its ongoing stabilise and tune – optimise – enhance (STOE) programme of works for SVD.’
• ‘Faster attendance by National Highways traffic officers – substantial improvements in response times have been achieved and, in September 2022, the company met its revised 10-minute response time milestone. The company is committed to maintaining its focus on this area. We will continue to monitor its performance as it will carry on reporting to us until the end of RP2.’

You can read the full report here.

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