Atkins director for intelligent mobility Louise Lawrence – who worked in motorsport earlier in her career – asked participants to consider what lessons the highways sector can learn from racing. She also pointed out that professionals should be driving safety change and forcing technology to keep up, rather than the other way around.

One participant remarked that whenever a safety improvement is introduced to Formula 1, everyone in the racing community benefits; something which the highway profession should replicate.

Another said that Formula 1 would never tolerate different standards for different racetracks, as we have with public roads. “The surface conditions are consistent and while the bends are different on each course, the run off areas are the same. How can we expect people to drive safely on our network when we accept such variants in condition?”

One roads director said that poor human behaviour is still at the heart of many accidents on the public highway and noted that F1 drivers would never get away with driving dangerously.

And another urged the introduction of safety targets to UK roads and said infrastructure should be made more forgiving as “drivers do make mistakes”. It was also said that motorists’ attitude to speed needs to change. “We have a societal problem with people driving too fast,” one participant remarked. “We changed behaviours when it came to drink driving; why can’t we do the same with speeding?”

* Creating safer highways will be discussed at a CIHT event on 5 December in London entitled ‘More Data, More Safety?’ It will explore the promise that data can improve safety and address concerns that much information is being collected but never used. The afternoon event will be chaired by CIHT Road Safety Panel chair Rob McCartney and feature presentations from Dr Rachel Aldred of the University of Westminster, Michael Barratt of Transport for London and John-Paul Doherty of Atkins Global.

For more details and to book your place, visit the CIHT website.

Photograph: Cristiano Barni – Shutterstock