A road safety campaign, with 'unprecedented' influence says its plans could save thousands of lives and £6BN a year if taken on by the Government.
The Campaign for Safe Road Design – a consortium of the UK’s leading road safety and design bodies – believes a national Safe Road Infrastructure Programme could reduce the amount of people killed and seriously injured (KSI) on the roads, by a third in less than a decade.
This, which they say could be developed with only modest investment in signs, lines and kerbing, would result in a reduction of 10,000 KSIs and would be worth £6BN annually.
The campaign, supported by the AA and RAC, as well as council groups like the CSS, is focusing on A roads outside major towns, where two-thirds of road deaths occur and says the programme must be delivered by local authorities.
However, the onus would be on central government to set out a framework for delivery.
Chairman of the campaign, John Dawson, said local authorities need ‘management information’ and guidance to help them improve rural road design.
‘Many of them feel they can’t get through to their political masters to convey how important this is,’ he told Surveyor.
‘The social and economic returns are among the highest in the economy,’ Dawson said. ‘While any road design programme must be delivered by local authorities, we need a commitment from the Government to make safe road infrastructure programmes central to its road safety strategy beyond 2010.’
Road safety minister Jim Fitzpatrick, speaking at the launch of the campaign this week, said the Government was ‘open to any suggestions’ for the post-2010 strategy, which goes out to consultation later this year, and acknowledged that engineering was ‘crucial in reducing KSIs’.
He also announced the Government was providing funds to the Road Safety Foundation so that the 46% of inter-urban A roads not currently covered to EuroRAP risk mapping standards can be surveyed by the end of 2008.
But Matthew Lugg, engineering chair of the County Surveyors’ Society, which is backing the campaign, warned that councils cannot access traditional money to make a difference, as much of it was ring-fenced or tied up in TIF and Productivity TIF.
However, he said he was looking in to implementing collapsible signage – commonplace on trunk roads – across Leicestershire, where he is director of highways.
Such products are an example of the kind of modest investment advocated by the campaign. ‘But redesigning a road, which is often needed, is expensive,’ Lugg said.
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