What has been and what could be achieved
114. Steps have been taken to improve enforcement,
engineering and education. However, it is possible to do much
more. Implementation has been spasmodic, particularly of traffic
calming and other engineering measures. As the Slower Speeds Initiative
noted
"the European best practice study shows that
we differ not in policies but in the scale and intensity of implementation".[198]
If our society were to match the scale of implementation
seen in some other Europe countries, reductions in speed and casualties,
and improvements in the quality of life would be very considerable.
115. The effect of widely applying well-researched
and understood measures to improve enforcement, engineering and
education would produce very impressive result both in reducing
lives and transforming the quality of life of millions of people.
Even spreading best practice to all parts of country would have
an enormous effect. Many of the very high total of deaths and
serious injuries to which inappropriate speed contributes could
be avoided. Total deaths could be reduced to under 1,000 per year.
The Government's target of reducing the number of people killed
and seriously injured by 40% could easily be exceeded. However,
progress to date is slow, and the Government's new rules about
the location of safety cameras threaten to undermine this target.
198 RTS 34. Back
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