§ 2.42 p.m.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the tests on crash barriers and double steel rail safety fence being carried out on an eighteen mile length of the M.1 have now yielded enough information for further extension of these crash barriers to be proceeded with.]
§ LORD LINDGRENNo, my Lords. The double steel rail was completed earlier this year, and erection of the wire rope barrier will start in the spring of next year. At least two years' experience of their effect on accidents will be necessary before any conclusions can be drawn.
LORD ST. JUSTMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his Answer. As I am sure he is aware, last week in another place his Minister, when making a statement upon the speed limit to be brought in on motorways next year, stated that a certain number of people from his Ministry had gone to Germany to study the problem on the German autobahns, and, as I think the noble Lord is aware, these barriers are being erected along the whole length of every single German autobahn.
§ LORD LINDGRENYes; we take advantage of the experience of any and every other country so far as we can. But the noble Lord will, I am sure, admit that so far as the German autobahns are concerned, many of them were built pre-war and many were constructed immediately after the war. Most of them are dual-lane roads, and not three-lane roads as ours are, and that makes a considerable difference, together with the fact that the density of traffic on the German autobahns is at the moment much greater than that on our motorways.