On a stretch of smart motorway with no hard shoulder, you see a sign showing an orange telephone symbol on a blue background, and shortly after, an area of orange-coloured road surface set back from the running lanes. What is this area for, and when are drivers permitted to use it?
- It is a temporary contractor's compound and drivers must not enter it under any circumstances, even in a genuine breakdown
- It is an emergency area provided because there is no hard shoulder, and Highway Code Rule 270 states it must only be used in a genuine emergency such as a breakdown
- It is a rest area equivalent to a motorway service station where any driver may stop for a break at any time
- It is reserved exclusively for police and traffic officer vehicles, and members of the public are never permitted to stop there
Why B? And why not the others?
Correct answer: B. It is an emergency area provided because there is no hard shoulder, and Highway Code Rule 270 states it must only be used in a genuine emergency such as a breakdown
Highway Code Rule 270 explains that emergency areas are provided along motorways that have no hard shoulder, or where the hard shoulder can be used as a running lane, precisely because a driver in trouble there would otherwise have nowhere safe to stop. The rule states they are marked by blue signs carrying an orange SOS telephone symbol and may have orange surfacing, and that they must only be used in an emergency, such as a breakdown or a medical issue, not as a general stopping place. That rules out treating the area as an ordinary rest stop available to any driver at any time: an emergency area is not a motorway service station, and using it without genuine need is exactly the misuse the rule is written to prevent. It is also not a contractor's compound closed to all drivers, since the whole point of the orange surfacing and SOS signage is to make it identifiable and usable by any driver who breaks down. Nor is it reserved solely for police or traffic officers; a member of the public having a genuine emergency is the intended user, who should then follow the recovery procedure in Rule 278 to rejoin the carriageway safely.
Source: Highway Code Rule 270, Motorways (GOV.UK)