Skip to main content

Report - How safe are you on Britain’s roads?

The 2014 report from the Road Safety foundation, How safe are you on Britain’s roads? claims that the majority of British road deaths are concentrated on just 10 per cent of the British road network, motorways and 'A' roads outside major urban areas. The report measures and maps the differing risk of death and serious injury road users face across this network, sometimes 20 times or more different. It also tracks which roads have improved, and those with persistent and unacceptable high risks. It highlig
November 27, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The 2014 report from the 776 Road Safety foundation, How safe are you on Britain’s roads? claims that the majority of British road deaths are concentrated on just 10 per cent of the British road network, motorways and 'A' roads outside major urban areas. The report measures and maps the differing risk of death and serious injury road users face across this network, sometimes 20 times or more different.

It also tracks which roads have improved, and those with persistent and unacceptable high risks. It highlights roads where authorities have taken effective action. On 15 stretches of roads, low cost action such as road marking and improved signage has reduced serious crashes by 80 per cent, worth a staggering US$0.6 billion to the economy.

The report shows major differences not only between individual roads but between whole regions. The risks road users face overall on the major roads of the East Midlands are a startling two thirds higher than neighbouring West Midlands - greater than between many European countries.

Risk on the roads depends on the way we drive, the vehicles we drive and the roads we drive on. But, with similar vehicles and drivers, it is the in-built safety of the roads in the West Midlands that explains its better performance - more travel is done on safer roads. The motorways and single carriageways of the West Midlands have the greatest in-built safety of any region.

It is often neither difficult nor expensive to raise infrastructure safety. It brings high returns to the economy. It requires systematic measurement of risk. The in-built safety of the infrastructure of roads, like cars, is now measured worldwide.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Need to analyse risks of 5.9GHz spectrum sharing
    February 27, 2013
    Scott Belcher of ITS America explains why moves towards spectrum sharing in the 5.9GHz band should not be allowed to proceed until further analysis of the risks to road safety has been undertaken. The ability to move people and goods safely and efficiently has always had a direct impact on a country’s economic advantage and its citizens’ quality of life. It is estimated that by 2050, the number of vehicles around the world is set to double to two billion, placing enormous demands on the global transport
  • Blind spot detection should be mandatory by 2015, say engineers
    April 19, 2012
    Collision-avoidance technologies which could help eliminate cyclist and pedestrian deaths caused by driver ‘blind-spots’ should be made mandatory for all UK buses and lorries by 2015, according to a new report published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The ‘Intelligent Transport Intelligent Society’ report also calls for eCall to be integrated into all new road vehicles within the next two years. “The alarming rise in cyclist deaths on British roads needs to be addressed urgently,” says Philippa
  • Guide on how to improve bike network connectivity with modest changes
    June 1, 2012
    The Mineta Transportation Institute has released a peer-reviewed research report, Low-Stress Bicycling and Network Connectivity. As part of its work, the research team created measures of low-stress bicycle route connectivity that can be used to evaluate and guide bicycle network planning. As a result, the team proposed a set of criteria by which road segments can be classified into four levels of traffic stress (LTS). The report includes a sample case study in which every street in San Jose, California, is
  • AAA urges Trump Administration to focus on deteriorating roadways
    May 3, 2017
    Key roadway improvements have the potential to save 63,700 lives and prevent 353,560 serious injuries in the US over a 20-year period, according to a new report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. With the US ranked nearly last among high-income nations in annual traffic fatalities, which continue to rise, AAA urges the Trump Administration to make repairing and maintaining America's roadways a top priority. With an investment of US$146 billion, the report recommends six cost-effective roadway impro