What is the general population’s perception of smart motorways in the UK?

Motorway users have various opinions about the types of smart motorways. Motorwayutilization can be affected if road users have a negative perception ofcertain types of smart motorways, particularly on the topic of safety. There are three types of smart motorways that can be found in the UK. These are ControlledSmart Motorways(CSM), DynamicHard Shoulder(DHS),and All-Lane Running(ALR). This study focuses on the comparison of ALR and DHS smart motorways as ALR smart motorways are developedto replace and improve upon DHS smart motorways. The aim of this project is to understand how the general population perceivessmart motorways in the UK. This aim will be achieved byanswering a series of these research questions: (1) How does existing knowledge of smart motorways affectthe perception of smart motorways; (2) How does age affectthe perception of smart motorways; (3) How does car ownership affect the perception of smart motorways? Data werecollected using an online survey disseminated to the UKadult population ofvehicleand non-vehicledrivers via social media and advertisements. Descriptive statistics and cluster analysis were used to analyse the dataset and find similarity clusters. The primary research shows that ~57% of the survey respondents had never heard of or did not know the meaning of the 3 different types of smart motorwaysand only ~13% of respondents fully understand the different types. Car owners in both cluster analysis models show substantial variation in the results of the comfort / smart motorway choice variables. This research demonstrates that greater knowledge and awareness about smart motorways arerequired to improve the perception of smart motorways. It would seem that this is particularly true for all-lane running smart motorways which are both the newest and most physically different type of smart motorway with their removal of the hard shoulder