Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency

Work begins on car-share lane

29 October 2007

Work has begun on a ground-breaking scheme to build a lane of motorway dedicated to ‘car-share’ vehicles.
 
Those driving with one or more passengers could see the time that their journey takes considerably reduced by the introduction of the high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lane on a UK motorway.
 
Vehicles travelling between the southbound M606 near Bradford to the eastbound M62 towards Leeds will benefit from the trial 1.7-mile lane, which will allow vehicles with multiple occupants to bypass traffic at the busy Chain Bar junction.

Transport Minister Tom Harris said: ‘This is a very busy stretch of motorway, but just one in five vehicles traveling between the M606 and M62 has more than one occupant.

‘Car sharing is good for drivers and good for the environment. This trial in West Yorkshire is just one of a series of innovative and imaginative measures being used on the motorway network to tackle congestion and make the best possible use of our available road space.’

The new lane is expected to open in spring 2008 and will use the hard shoulders of the stretch of motorway concerned, which will be replaced with new lay-by areas to provide emergency refuge for broken-down vehicles.

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