A promised new European Directive on road infrastructure is unlikely to require new measures in the UK.
Motoring organisations behind the European Road Assessment Programme had hoped the Directive would pave the way for new measures on tackling blackspots, along the lines of the ‘mass-action’ approach on high-risk single carriageway roads (Surveyor, 26 January).
But the ~Institution of Highways and Transportation~ believes proposals for the Directive that the European Commission has unveiled would not require procedures to be changed in the UK. The consultation document identifies four best practice procedures currently in use in member states that could improve safety across the EU, if extended more widely.
But highway authorities were already carrying out the four procedures – assessing the road safety benefits of proposals, carrying out road safety audits, treating blackspots, and inspections of roadside features – so were unlikely to need to make changes, the IHT’s director of technical affairs, John Smart said.
The measures as proposed would only apply to the Trans European Network routes, mostly managed by the ~Highways Agency~ EuroRap had urged a focus on single-carriageway routes in order to secure further casualty reductions.