The Concept of Smart Motorways

By 2050, Two thirds of the world's population are soon to be residing in cities, this means a rise in the number of people and cars on roads, currently 55% of the world's population currently live in urban areas and this percentage is estimated to rise to 68% over the next 30 years. Smart motorways are one of the implemented strategies to accommodate for the population growth, smart motorways were introduced in 2006 and was first implemented on the M42 in the West Midlands in UK. Smart motorways are well known in the UK as there are many schemes constructing them at this time, the popular question which is asked by the public is what is a smart motorway and why is it smart? This paper is aimed to evaluate smart motorways, how they operate and what makes them smart. This paper will be beneficial to any researchers on technology in smart cities and widen knowledge on smart motorways. This paper also explores issued faced with contractors when constructing these smart motorways, the technologies used within the smart motorways will be discussed and technologies used within the construction stage will also be analysed. This paper will conclude on smart cities, are they worth it?