The crash rate on major local authority roads in England is four times that on National Highways’ strategic road network (SRN), a major new report has found.
The Road Safety Foundation’s (RSF) annual crash risk mapping report argues that investing £2.5bn in road safety schemes – mostly in local roads – could prevent more than 17,000 deaths and serious injuries over the next 20 years, saving society nearly £9bn.
Driving Change: Investing in Safer Roads analyses the performance of road networks in England, Scotland and Wales, identifying opportunities to invest in road safety schemes based upon the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) that should be achievable on each road.
It also contains a map showing the statistical risk of a fatal or serious injury crash occurring on Britain’s motorway and ‘A’ road network from 2020 to 2022.
The risk is calculated by comparing the frequency of road crashes resulting in fatal or serious injury (FSCs) on every stretch of road, and the volume of traffic each road is carrying.
This year, 2% of England’s roads are classified as high-risk, rising to 3% in Scotland and 5% in Wales.
But the crash rate on the English local authority roads identified by the Government as the major road network (MRN) is 41 FSCs per billion vehicle kilometres, compared with nine FSCs per billion vehicle kilometres on the SRN.
The number of fatal and adjusted serious crashes per 100km road length on the MRN – known as crash density – is also more than three times that of the average road in Scotland and Wales, and more than double that of strategic roads across Britain.
RSF executive director Dr Suzy Charman said: ‘The high crash density and risk on the Major Road Network makes it a priority for road safety investment, and yet we still do not measure and track road safety performance on it.
‘Moreover, there is no dedicated funding stream to address safety here. We estimate that on the MRN a £1.2bn investment would prevent 7,875 deaths and serious injuries over 20 years, with a net present value of £4bn.’
Overall, the RSF identified 9,453km of ‘high-return’ roads, across 584 routes, on which it said a £2.5bn investment could prevent 17,101 deaths and serious injuries over the next 20 years and deliver a benefit to society of £8.7bn.
Dr Charman added: ‘The opportunities to reduce death and serious injury are clear, and the impact of such investment would mean not just casualty savings but also tangible relief for an overburdened NHS and social care system.’
The RSF said its annual crash risk mapping dataset has been used by several strategic and local authorities to understand the safety performance of their roads and prioritise routes for road safety investment.
In the case of the SRN, National Highways has prioritised routes with a high crash density and a low star rating. With the Government’s Safer Roads Fund, local authority routes were selected based on the potential return on investment.
The RSF said schemes funded by the £185m Safer Roads Fund are expected to prevent 2,600 fatal and serious injuries over 20 years, with a societal benefit of £1.2bn.
Dr Charman said: ‘There is little doubt that the numbers stack up for investment in infrastructure safety measures.
‘The investment portfolio opportunities that we identify in this report have high indicative benefit-cost ratios, which is why we are calling for ambitious investment in strategic, major and local roads.’
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