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A shoulder (American English), hard shoulder (British English) [1] or breakdown lane (Australian English) is an emergency stopping lane by the verge on the outer side of a road or motorway. Many wider freeways , or expressways elsewhere have shoulders on both sides of each directional carriageway—in the median, as well as at the outer edges ...
Close to junctions use of the hard shoulder as a lane is restricted to traffic exiting or entering at that junction. [12] ATM involves converting the hard shoulder into a normal lane during periods of high traffic flow to expand the capacity of the road [13] and may reduce the need to widen motorways. [13]
The traffic management technique, including hard shoulder running, was first used in its full specification in the UK on the M42 motorway in the West Midlands in 2006. [8] [3] A higher speed limit of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) was trialled on the southbound carriageway between junctions 4 and 3A from 2008 (a 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) increase on the previous maximum permissible speed).
Work to introduce dynamic hard shoulder running on approximately 15 miles (24 km) of motorway between Luton and Milton Keynes (J10-J13) was completed in December 2012, at a total cost of £327 million. [36] This made the hard shoulder available to be opened as a traffic lane where additional capacity was necessary.
The passing lane is commonly referred to as the fast lane, and the lane closest to the shoulder the slow lane. Some jurisdictions, particularly on limited-access roads, ban passing-lane driving while not overtaking another vehicle; others merely require slower cars to yield to quicker traffic by shifting to slower lanes, or have no limitations.
Both directions of motorway traffic are directed onto the westbound carriageway contraflow at a speed limit of 50 mph. The eastbound carriageway will then be closed and used for HGV queuing in two lanes (the hard shoulder and 3rd lane) with the other two lanes reserved for emergency vehicles, maintenance vehicles and amenities.
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A local-express lane system (also called collector-express or collector-distributor) has more than two roadways, typically two sets of 'local lanes' or 'collector lanes' and also two sets of 'express lanes'. "Cars only" lanes may be physically separated from those open to mixed traffic including trucks and buses.