How to make roads safer now and for the future

ongoing

Operators across the road network from local authorities to national transport bodies, identify improving road safety as a top priority. With the number of people killed on Britain’s roads increasing from 1,730 in 2015 to 1,792 in 2016, the priority to make roads safer is much-needed. The Road Safety Foundation has identified the most dangerous stretches of road in their recent British EuroRAP Results 2017 report ‘Cutting the Cost of Dangerous Roads’. The British EuroRAP network (motorways and ‘A’ roads outside of built-up areas) accounts for 10% of the total road network, upon which 51% of the fatal crashes occur. The largest single cause of death on the network was run-off road crashes (30%) and the largest single cause of serious injury on the network was crashes at junctions (33%). These figures are tough to read but the report also highlights that last year, in a major innovation, the government allocated £175m to tackle a portfolio of “the 50 most dangerous roads” in England. The 50 local authority ‘A’ roads posing the highest risk of death and serious injury to their users were identified by the Road Safety Foundation through the 2016 analysis. The report goes on to show that serious road crashes, and their costs, can be targeted, but overall only 1% of road sections have shown significant improvement over the past year. More than 550 road sections, nearly one in 5 of the total, still have unacceptably high risks.