Deaths and serious injuries on the country’s roads could be reduced by more than 11,000 over the next 20 years by spending £1.4Bn on intervention measures, according to a new study published yesterday.
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The report ‘Building Back Safer: Making roads fit for 2030’ identifies 10% of motorways and A roads in the UK that represent clear priorities for investment.
Expressed in financial terms, the return on investment of preventing 11,387 of the most severe incidents could be a factor of 3.7, or £5Bn. In all, societal loss attributed to road crashes in the UK in 2019 was said to be £33Bn.
Building Back Safer was produced by the Road Safety Foundation and insurer Ageas.
The most persistently higher risk route in the country is identified in the report as the A23 in Lambeth, south London, between Streatham Hill and Thornton Heath. The road accounted for 68 fatal and serious crashes between 2017 and 2019.
Next comes a second stretch of the A23 in Brighton (between the A27 and the A259 coast road) with 58 major crashes in the two year period, followed by the A205 in south west London (Richmond / Wandsworth) with 50 incidents.
According to the study, the most common type of crash on urban roads that led to fatalities or serious injuries involved vulnerable road users, which accounted for 38% of incidents. On rural roads, the most common crashes were at intersections (33% of the total) and on motorways it was shunts (35%).
Road Safety Foundation chair Lord Whitty said: “Ahead of us is a unique opportunity to reshape the way we move – to plan for healthier mobility – redefining our neighbourhoods to support safer active travel.
“Such changes may help us to deliver lower casualty numbers in the future while also helping to achieve health, exercise, net zero carbon and air quality goals.”
Also published yesterday was vehicle speed compliance data from the Department for Transport, which showed that 56% of cars exceeded the speed limit on 30mph roads last year, compared to 53% on motorways and 12% on single carriageway roads with the national speed limit.
But the proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit by more than 10mph was much lower: 13% on motorways, 6% on 30mph roads and 2% on 60mph roads.
RAC road safety spokesman Simon Williams said: “These figures confirm that there were shocking levels of speeding during the first lockdown period in 2020, and it’s clear that some drivers dangerously took advantage of quieter roads to drive far faster than they would do in normal times.
“If traffic volumes don’t return to pre-pandemic levels, it would be terrible if the lockdown legacy was an increase in the number of drivers who consistently speed.”
CIHT are running the latest Future of Transport Webinar on Road Safety on 15 July 2021 (13:00 – 14:00). This event will feature George Henry of Transport Scotland looking at Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2030. Places are still available and you can find out more here https://www.ciht.org.uk/event/future-of-transport-road-safety-a-vision-to-2030/
(Photograph: Stephen Barnes - Shutterstock)
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