A Review of the Delivery of the Road Safety Strategy - UCL Report
1: The context for this report
The principal aim of the Government's road safety strategy for Great Britain is to reduce death and injury on the roads, and the strategy has as its focus a casualty reduction target for 2010 (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) 2000a).
The target is to reduce by 2010:
- the annual number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) by 40 per cent;
- the annual number of children killed or seriously injured by 50 per cent; and
- the number of people slightly injured per unit of vehicle-distance travelled by 10 per cent;
compared in each case with the average for the years 1994-1998.
The two KSI targets are part of the Department for Transport 's (DfT) road safety Public Service Agreement (PSA) with the more recent addition of the need to tackle the significantly higher incidence of road safety problems in disadvantaged areas (DfT 2003a).[2]
The road safety strategy calls for many agencies and professions, motor manufacturers, business, road-user groups and the public to be committed to reducing death and injury on the road by working together and with central and local government in a wide range of ways. To this end it is presented in terms of ten themes, or areas of concern and action. These are:
- safer road use for children
- safer drivers - training and testing
- safer drivers - drink, drugs and drowsiness
- safer infrastructure
- safer speeds
- safer vehicles
- safer motorcycling
- safer walking, cycling and horse riding
- better enforcement of traffic law
- promotion of safer road use
The choice of themes is oriented towards the principal inputs to improvement of road safety and the outcomes for people who use the roads in different ways in order to encourage participation in the effort needed to implement the strategy. For each theme an action plan is presented, and these overlap in many ways in terms of the main actions by which it is envisaged that casualties will be reduced.
The Highways Agency is responsible for the motorway and trunk road network. It has its own Strategic Plan for Safety with its own casualty reduction targets to the year 2010 for motorways and trunk roads. They are to:
- reduce by one third the number of killed or seriously injured casualties; and
- reduce by 10 per cent the rate of slight casualties.
No additional target has been set for child casualties on the Highways Agency's network but measures for child casualty reduction on trunk roads are envisaged.
There are many other government policies which can have direct or indirect effects on the numbers of casualties on our roads, as outlined in Appendix 2, and many have associated targets and indicators that are currently being used to measure performance. This seems to produce a plethora of targets that can appear confusing at first sight until it is recognised that they are all pointing in the same direction of driving down the numbers of people killed or injured on the roads.
Road safety is only one of many objectives through which government, whether central or local, seeks to improve quality of life. Some other policies may conflict with that of road safety and some may act in synergy with it.
The white paper A New Deal for Transport Better for Everyone (DETR 1998a) signalled a change in transport policy with integration as the key concept. In terms of policies directly impinging on road safety this indicated that the government intended a shift in some journeys from car to a better public transport system, and to encourage more walking and cycling in a safer environment. The white paper also had as one of its core policies managing the existing road network to reduce congestion. There was also a major shift in transport funding arrangements for Local Authorities with the introduction of Local Transport Plans with five year indicative funding.
One implication for road safety is that in order to increase the amount of walking and cycling without increasing casualties the road environment must be made safer to accommodate these activities.
In the context of integrated transport the white paper set out a role for motorcycling:
'Mopeds and motorcycles can provide an alternative means of transport for many trips. Where public transport is limited and walking unrealistic, for example in rural areas, motorcycling can provide an affordable alternative to the car, bring benefits to the individual and widen their employment and education opportunities.'
However, those riding powered two wheelers face the highest risk of death or serious injury of any group of road users and are a source of risk to pedestrians and cyclists. Increased motorcycling therefore reinforces concern for those put at risk by it.
The white paper makes it explicit that transport policy needs to balance safety with several other key objectives, notably economic competitiveness, access to activities, reduction of damage to the environment, and social inclusion - objectives which are sometimes in conflict. In particular, casualty reduction is not to be sought at the expense of opportunity to travel on foot or by bicycle or motorcycle.
1: Section 3.1 and Appendix 3 contain information on the target setting process.
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