M4 Route Management Strategy

This Highways Agency plan aims to improve the M4 - in London it is considering various strategies including extending the bus lane or tolls.

There are several options under consideration, of which one has already been ruled out.

The Highways Agency (HA) did consider a £2 toll for the London section of the motorway, but this was ruled out by transport secretary Alastair Darling recently.

The existing M4 bus lane has been successful - it not only improved average bus journey times but car journey times too! However, the remaining section without a bus lane is on the elevated section which only has two lanes anyway - therefore extending the bus lane would mean that only one lane would be available to private vehicles.

Opening the hard shoulder as a traffic lane is a controversial move already due to be piloted on the M42 around western Birmingham.

These are intended to keep vehicles moving, by making everyone move at a steady slower speed rather than stop-start, and is already in use on the western sector of the M25 - although it has not improved traffic enough to avoid widening that section.

No current news for this project.