Do we need dual carriageways?

Yesterday the BBC reported that the East Midlands Regional Assembly failed to get government spending to dual the A46 between Newark and Widmerpool.
The section of road has a high number of accidents and sees 23,000 vehicles a day.
One of the big issues for the East Midlands and Lincolnshire is that we have lots of major A roads, but they are only single carrigageway. The costs and disruption to upgrade these road are massive, however could there be a compromise.
The main problem with these roads is slow moving vehicles and impatient drivers. If we had frequent overtaking spots (a bit like crawler lanes without the hills), you would only need to gain an extra lane (which in some places can be taken from the two lanes already there). By telling drivers who wish to travel at the speed limit that they can overtake in half a mile they will be more likely to wait and then overtake safely.
Will we see this happen? Who knows.

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