NINTH REPORT
The Transport, Local Government and the
Regions Committee has agreed to the following Report:
ROAD TRAFFIC SPEED
Conclusions and recommendations
Deaths and serious injuries on our roads bring misery
to hundreds of thousands, including the relatives and friends
of the dead and injured. Although the huge number of serious injuries
on the roads is still declining, the number of deaths, including
pedestrian deaths, has been at the same high level for several
years. We have one of the worst child pedestrian safety records
in Europe, and children from poor families are far more likely
to be killed. Speeding is endemic. Excessive and inappropriate
speed is the largest single contributor to deaths and serious
injuries on our roads and significantly reduces the quality of
life in many urban and rural areas. The failure to tackle the
consequences of speed affects Government policies on the welfare
of children, social inclusion, urban regeneration, health and
integrated transport.
We know what to do reduce the casualties. The Government
has commissioned research and funded the pilot projects which
show what should be done. It also monitors best practice from
the Netherlands and other European countries, particularly in
how to reduce pedestrian casualties. In those places in England
where many of the right measures have been taken, such as York,
Gloucester, Hull, Northamptonshire and Nottingham, there have
been significant reductions in casualties and improvements in
the quality of life. In 1997, TRL estimated that the cost of a
comprehensive series of measures in urban areas would be £3bn..
The sum would be considerably higher today, and measures need
to implemented in rural areas too. Nevertheless, the cost of making
very important changes is relatively small: the Gloucester
Safer City was a £5m project which transformed a whole
city. Unfortunately too few local and police authorities have
put the money and effort into implementing the measures which
are known to work.
A major reason why too little has been done is that
road casualties are a forgotten story which receives far too little
national attention. If any disease killed as many people, as die
on the roads, there would be an outcry. There would be national
campaigns to insist that the Government do something about it.
In its reporting of speed, however, the media too often does the
reverse, implying that drivers are the best judge of the right
speed, and that attempts to get them to observe speed limits in
built-up areas are an unacceptable infringement on their liberty.
Press reporting too often focuses on the inconvenience to drivers,
ignoring the potentially fatal consequences of their attitudes.
A second reason is the slow progress of Government
policy. In March 2000, the Prime Minister launched the Government's
Road Safety Strategy Tomorrows roads - safer for everyone,
but unfortunately since then little has happened: projects have
not been undertaken; some proposals have not been implemented;
others have been dropped. New rules about the location and visibility
of safety cameras have been promulgated which are in danger of
reducing their effectiveness. Reluctant local authorities are
unlikely to implement effective measures for which they may be
criticised if Government Ministers are unwilling to put the case
for them.
The Government's principal task now is ensure that
all local and police authorities give reducing road traffic speed
the same priority as the best. It must insist that they do so
because saving lives is not a matter of discretion. It will also
need to provide the funds to enable it to be done. Specifically,
the Government should:
- improve the National Safety Camera Scheme by allowing
local and police authorities to decide where to site cameras;
and ensure that the whole country is covered by 2004
- issue the promised revised Guidance to local authorities
about speed limits; this should include a number of changes, in
particular, that 30 mph should be the speed in villages,
- re-engineer the roads to ensure that speed limits
are obeyed and to make roads safer and more pleasant for pedestrians
- ensure that the funding of Local Transport Plans
is dependent on measures to reduce speeds; and
- make road safety a priority for the Ten Year Plan
and provide specific funds for a national programme to re-engineer
and re-design our roads.
The Government also has to give leadership. It needs
to make it very clear that speeding is unacceptable. Drivers should
not exceed 30 mph in a residential area where a child might dash
onto the road. The Prime Minister has recently rightly stressed
the importance of basing decisions on scientific analysis. He
now has to decide whether Government policy on speed will be dominated
by concerns about how it is portrayed by a section of the motoring
lobby and in parts of the press. The alternative is to base it
on the detailed research of experts, including TRL, the AA, and
the Royal College of Physicians. The evidence which we received
is that such a policy would be popular with the public for whom
speed is a very serious concern. Drivers are also residents and
pedestrians. With the right policies we could reduce deaths on
the road to under one thousand a year.
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