fewer than half of British motorists know what the policies are on smart motorways, a new study has revealed.
A survey of 2,010 UK motorists found that 75 per cent know what a smart motorway is, but only 48 per cent are aware of the policies that apply to them. even a lot more worryingly, 25 per cent know neither what a smart motorway is nor what the policies are.
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England is currently the only part of the UK that has smart motorways. When the survey results are whittled down to just those from English respondents, though, the results aren’t much better – 77 per cent know what a smart motorway is, 52 per cent know the policies for driving on one and 21 per cent don’t know what they are at all.
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The survey – which was commissioned by road safety charity Brake and breakdown company green Flag – also found 78 per cent of motorists leave a two-second gap between themselves and the automobile in front when driving on a motorway, as mandated by the highway Code, but 18 per cent admit to not doing this.
Furthermore, only 26 per cent of respondents could correctly state that a automobile needs 96 metres – or roughly 24 automobile lengths – to stop from 70mph, with 63 per cent wrongly thinking the distance to be less than this.