Continuing traffic increases on the national road system lead increasingly to regular overloading during peak hours, especially on motorway sections in agglomeration areas. Therefore, the hard shoulder usage has been considered a possible measure for quite some time by which short term capacity overload and road safety problems associated with it can be decreased. We can distinguish between small-scale, local hard shoulder usage as the extension of entry and exit zones, weaving sections or auxiliary lanes on upgrades (group A applications) and section-wise conversions between two or several grade-separated interchanges or junctions (group B applications). The small-scale applications of group A are usually permanently implemented, i.e. that the road marking of the cross section is there to last for a long period of time and the former hard shoulder is no longer recognisable as such for the road user. These applications can be found on Swiss motorways already today and the experiences made with regard to the defusing of conflict situations have been positive. However, in Switzerland section-wise conversions between two or several grade-separated interchanges or junctions have not yet been realised (group B applications). With these applications the question arises whether the hard shoulder should be converted permanently or only temporarily. Both modes of operation have their advantages and disadvantages regarding traffic flow, road safety, maintenance and operations as well as costs. Additionally they strongly differ from each other regarding the requirements for road side equipment.

In the project "Requirements for the roadside equipment at the rededication of hard shoulder", the foundations for a Swiss standard were be developed.

To assess the application of the reclassification concrete and the ability normalise criteria are formulated. A distinction is made dynamic applications, static applications and cases where no application is possible. The assessment of equipment requirements will be based on traffic engineering, safety and legal criteria depending on the application.