Issue 2 - March 2008

Government Support Strengthens

The drive of leading countries towards transparency in road safety has led to a significant increase in the number of road authorities and government organisations actively pursuing road infrastructure in the effort to meet national and EU casualty reduction targets. 

At the launch of the Campaign for Safe Road Design in July 2008, Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick expressed the government's support for the Road Safety Foundation's proposals to extend its EuroRAP Risk Mapping and Performance Tracking to all 'A' roads. 

In November 2008, Department for Transport (DfT) and the Foundation reached agreement to undertake this analysis to help contribute to the shape of the government's forthcoming policy statement on road safety strategy beyond 2010. The analysis will assess risk rates of the motorway and A-road network, and will for the first time, extend the evaluation to both primary and non-primary roads. The Foundation is grateful to the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund for their financial support of this work.   

Flash results from the analysis were presented to DfT in January 2009 and results will be available for the government Consultation Paper planned for release at the end of March 2009. The Road Safety Strategy itself is due for release in November 2009.

A Safe Road Infrastructure Initiative

British professional institutions in line with best international practice (e.g. OECD Towards Zero: ambitious road safety targets and the safe system approach, October 2008) are advocating moving safety engineering from 'reactive' engineering to 'proactive' engineering. Most road deaths occur where there are measurable known risks.  The Campaign for Safe Road Design advocated that if Britain is to reduce casualties substantially, it must move to programmes where high risks are systematically identified and removed along whole routes and networks.   

Members of the CSS, IHT, IHIE and the Road Safety Foundation are currently undertaking a demonstration project to show how a practical programme of high return infrastructure safety investment can be generated based on systematic risk analysis, of the type already operated in the UK within the EuroRAP programmes. The project aims to:

• Validate potential costs and benefits at the local and national level
• Achieve support of local and national authorities and representative organisations
• Identify barriers and potential solutions for safe infrastructure programme delivery
• Encourage a consistent national approach to safe infrastructure improvement
• Contribute to guidance for Highway Authorities
• Refresh route safety strategies and priorities as part of road safety strategy post 2010

The Highways Agency and two local road authorities in the South East with strong safety engineering skills are actively participating in modeling the scale of casualty saving and economic return possible. Results are due in summer 2009.

Partner Activity

The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) have taken every opportunity to mention and promote the Campaign by using conferences and meetings with members to circulate Campaign material. They also updated their website with news of the Campaign.

The IAM Motoring Trust gave the Campaign launch a full colour spread in their 2008 Summer edition of Advanced Driving. With a readership of 130,000 this is a significant piece of promotion. The IAM Trust has also used campaign themes in submissions to the Scottish Road Safety Strategy, resulting in a section dedicated to "Designing for Human Error". The Trust also intends to use Campaign themes in their submission to the DfT consultation on new targets and strategy for 2010, due in Spring 2009.

RoadSafe published an article on the Campaign in their winter 2008 magazine, and have publicised the Campaign on their website, in monthly blogs and in the news section. In 2009 they are continuing with this support. After a meeting with the DfT Road Safety Advisory Panel, officials confirmed that the post-2010 strategy will focus on important issues such as:

• men between the ages of 16 and 30 
• rural roads  - particularly 'A' roads
• metropolitan pedestrians and cyclists
• Motorcyclists
• inappropriate and excessive speed
• drink and drug driving
• basic driving standards

Backing by the partners has been crucial in the success of the Campaign and we would like to thank them for their continuing support.

The Future of the Campaign

The Campaign has now been running for 6 months and has gained professional support and recognition from the public and informed media. The website continues to draw visitors and comments and with the support of Campaign partners, the initiative appears likely to achieve its aims of ensuring that the government's road safety strategy review contains a formal safe road infrastructure initiative. It has helped raise awareness of the huge economic cost of road casualties, the huge contribution that safe road design can make in cutting casualties, and the concentrated problem on British 'A' roads.

Once the government's consultation document has been released, and the Campaign has hopefully welcomed the inclusion of a Safe Road Design Initiative, it is proposed to keep the Campaign for Safe Road Design in operation at least until DfT announce their new road safety strategy for the coming years in November 2009. The Campaign will then be used to launch an initiative targeted at ensuring implementation.

The Road Safety Foundation has offered to arrange a dinner among interested Campaign parties to chart the way forward following launch of the government's consultation document. We will keep you updated about that, the government's announcement and any direction the Campaign for Safe Road Design takes.