According to reports by the Times, drivers are to be given the option of paying to drive faster in extra lanes on up to 500 miles of Britain 's most congested motorways. The toll lanes, part of a government plan for road pricing, will have signposted speed limits 10 or 20mph faster than on adjacent uncharged lanes.

The lanes will be created from 2010, either by turning the hard shoulder into a running lane or by building an extra lane.

Drivers travelling with at least one passenger may be allowed free access to some of the lanes but, on others, the Department for Transport (DfT) will make all vehicles pay to ensure that traffic flows freely.

Similar toll lanes are in use in America, where they have been dubbed "Lexus lanes" because of the perception that only wealthier drivers can afford to use them. The DfT has yet to decide how much motorists will pay to use the lanes but in America drivers pay about £5 at the busiest times.

The speed limit for each lane will be displayed on overhead gantries. The lanes will be enforced by CCTV cameras on the gantries, which will also carry beacons to detect pre-paid tags in the windscreens of passing cars.

The toll lanes are likely to be introduced on the most congested sections of the M1, M4, M3, M5 near Bristol, M6, M20, M23, M27 and M62, the DfT said yesterday. The Highways Agency believes that it could save more than £1 billion by abandoning plans to widen parts of the M1, M6 and M62 and instead converting the hard shoulder into a running lane from 2010. Motorway widening costs up to £40 million a mile; hard shoulder conversion costs £10 million.

Motoring and business groups welcomed the idea of toll lanes but expressed concern that using the hard shoulder would not provide as much extra capacity as building a new lane.

Edmund King, the president of the AA, said that once toll lanes had been introduced it would be a simple step to introducing charges on the other lanes. He said that drivers would be willing to pay a toll for a fast journey on an extra lane but not for a slow trip on a converted hard shoulder.