Thursday 28th January 2010

A-Roads 'Too Dangerous' Claims Report

Safety assessors call for more sanitised rural roads

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Two-thirds of Britain's single-carriageway main roads fall below acceptable safety standards, according to a report attributed to the Road Safety Foundation but paid for by the Highways Agency.

The report is part of 'EuroRAP' (that's the European Road Assessment Programme and not a genre of Continental dance music, before you ask), and it rates the majority of the UK's A-road network with two stars out of a possible four.

"Single carriageways lack most of the safety features that would protect road users and almost two-thirds (62 per cent) get an overall rating of two stars," says Dr Joanne Hill, director of the Road Safety Foundation. "Some 91 per cent fail to reach high standards for run-off. Head-on collisions are prevented only by road markings. Where road sections have junctions, few layouts rate well."

The Road Safety Foundation wants more protection for drivers on these rural roads. "A quarter of all British rural road deaths involve hitting roadside objects," says Dr Hill. "It is common to see unprotected steep embankments, poles or trees that have grown far too close to the road. A quarter die at junctions and there are simply too many junctions that do not provide protection to turning vehicles."

As the star rating scheme was carried out with Highways Agency funding - an agency with a voracious appetite for tax-payers' cash - we're not too surprised by the report's conclusions.

Ironically, road safety charity Brake is calling for the opposite approach: "Britain's A roads must not be upgraded to be pseudo-motorways with wider lanes, crash barriers or other measures that encourage faster speeds, more environment-damaging car use, and encroach into our countryside," it says. "Many of Britain's A-roads are in rural areas and inevitably bendy, single carriageway and with lots of brows. What these roads need is slower speed limits of 40mph rather than being derestricted and speed cameras to enforce those limits, as has been recognised by many rural local authorities implementing such measures."

So where lies the future of the UK's A-road, we ask? If EuroRAP (and the Highways Agency) gets its way, it seems it'll be all about unsightly crash barriers and dull, sanitised road layouts from Dover to Fort William. If we follow the Brake route we'll have a country covered with speed cameras, and woe betide anyone who allows their car's speedo to trickle above 40mph.

There's got to be a better way. We would never condone irresponsible driving on PH, but a society so risk-averse that it attempts to eliminate all possible dangers on the road is ridiculous.

Surely the motoring public can be trusted with a little common sense and intelligence? And if they can't, let's make the drivers better, not the roads safer. It's got to be more effective (and cheaper) to teach people how to properly control and understand a 1.5-ton machine capable of 130mph than it would be to cover the country with speed cameras or entirely remodel the UK's road network. But then that wouldn't make a good headline...

[soad]

That's just great - lower speed limits and more scameras to magically solve the issues.
Yes, there are a lot of accidents caused by ones driving too fast for the conditions and/or their ability/lack of skill.

Edited by soad on Thursday 28th January 12:49

[Motorrad]

I can't believe the PH editorialising on this report. Suggesting people improve their driving skills and take some personal responsibility.

No, no, reduced speed limits is the way forward.

[sanctum]

Accidents happen, they can't all be avoided and there is diminishing returns for trying.
The government need to get a focus on the comparisson between how many die on the road every year and deaths from other more preventable causes nationally and globally, then spend budget appropriately rather than funding these useless reports.

[Snoggledog]

Motorrad said:

I can't believe the PH editorialising on this report. Suggesting people improve their driving skills and take some personal responsibility.

No, no, reduced speed limits is the way forward.

And installing more cameras. And making it law to have a speed detection box installed in your car. And having satellite tracking. And having UK wide CCTV. And have joe public armed with speed cameras which are hot linked to the government.

Hang on.. Karl Marx & Josef Stalin will be along in a moment to help set this all up. Welcome to the Union of Democratic British Socialist Republics (UDBSR)

[tobster911]

Article said:

Ironically, road safety charity Brake is calling for the opposite approach: "Britain's A roads must not be upgraded to be pseudo-motorways with wider lanes, crash barriers or other measures that encourage faster speeds, more environment-damaging car use, and encroach into our countryside," it says

That just says it all really... SPEED IS EVIL and is all that matters, let's not make roads safe by design - lets make them dangerous and SLOW because that will automagically make them safe. Because as we all know, SPEEDing above 20mph has been proven to cause cancer and war and famine and in fact, everything bad in the world is speed related as identified in a recent government commissioned survey.

I simply can't believe I just read that!

[Black S2K]

It's a good report;

The Europrats HAVE confirmed that we have been raped for our VED/fuel duty and that the Gov'ts have negligently failed to invest in basic road measures.

And of course BRAKE have made themselves look like the hair-shirted religiously-deluded once again.

Sorry, dunno what I was on about there - life is perfect in Big Brown's gulag archipelago!

[350Matt]

Brake - that lot want to get some perspective, I know they were set-up by a grieving mother who's child was knocked down and killed by a car so I do have some sympathy but this doesn't make them road safety experts - soundbite experts more like

Why aren't they calling for eh Green cross code adverts to be re-instated?

[A Scotsman]

Roadside executions are very obviously the way forward.

Anyone caught doing 41mph during the day or 31mph after dark will simply get a bullet in the back of the head and their body impaled on a stake next to their burnt out car which will of course be destroyed because it uses petrol or diesel and these things are evil.

[nonuts]

Can we shoot the ***** that come up with these reports in the first place, roads and driving are dangerous. Live with it.

[James Junior 14]

Good call PH I fully agree.

The number of st drivers in this country beggars belief and I think a lot of this stems from people not having a basic understanding of how to drive safely and properly.

A well educated and capable driver understands how and when to control his or her speed and car appropriately, without the need to be constantly told what speed limit to adhere to on a certain stretch of road.

So many people have no understanding of even the basic principles of driving, such as braking in a straight line before bends and accelerating out, or using the correct lane on the motorway, or progressive braking. We need to radically overhaul the driving test in this country to actually teach people how to drive, not just how to reverse around a corner keeping within six inches of the kerb!

Constantly dumbing down everything is just going to create a nation of zombies and does not encourage personal responsibility, something we desperately need more of in this country.

[jamoy]

well if people drive like tools then any road is dangerous. Add in blind corners, slippery, untreated surfaces and mud over the road from farming vehicles then risk is increased. But how many times do u actually get to reach the 60mph barrier on a rural road? I don't think reducing the speed limit and adding cameras will increase road safety sufficiently. However, improving driving standards might.

[soxboy]

PH Editorial Staff claim there must be a middle way. Of course there should be a middle way but it seems nobody wants to stand above the parapets and make the sensible suggestion.

Come on PH, get your name in the press as a response to this sort of article. We need a balanced opinion on these reports.

(Or am I being cynical in thinking that there is a balanced opinion, it just never gets published?)

[milady]

I guess with all this extra safety on A-roads, there will be fewer deaths and as a result fewer organ donors. Or am I being a bit cynical?

[lonefurrow]

The simple fact of the matter is that if everyone on the road drove to the standard of the advanced driving test (I haven't done this, but have had advanced road training, read books and applied the theory) at all times, accidents and related injuries would drop substantially, potentially very close to zero (depending on the definition of close).

Therefore, by making the driving test that hard (perhaps 2 stage), and forcing re-testing every 5 years, this would be achieved, as would a massive reduction in vehicles on the road (due to the harder test) and pollution (driving should be a privilege, not a right).

However, the tax loss would have to be made up somewhere (although massively reduced NHS costs and carbon footprint reduction costs?). This could be done by reviewing road/petrol tax and maybe by taxing the re-testing. Of course, this would presumably be offset by massive insurance premium reductions.

The other method is using GPS (or euro equivalent) technology, but then that is obviously abhorrent to us all as an attack on personal freedoms - George Orwell, eat your heart out.

Edited by lonefurrow on Thursday 28th January 13:10

[gj88]

This country...

All I can do is

The roads are fine, just make them smoother.

[tobster911]

James Junior 14 said:

Good call PH I fully agree.

The number of st drivers in this country beggars belief and I think a lot of this stems from people not having a basic understanding of how to drive safely and properly.

A well educated and capable driver understands how and when to control his or her speed and car appropriately, without the need to be constantly told what speed limit to adhere to on a certain stretch of road.

So many people have no understanding of even the basic principles of driving, such as braking in a straight line before bends and accelerating out, or using the correct lane on the motorway, or progressive braking. We need to radically overhaul the driving test in this country to actually teach people how to drive, not just how to reverse around a corner keeping within six inches of the kerb!

Constantly dumbing down everything is just going to create a nation of zombies and does not encourage personal responsibility, something we desperately need more of in this country.

+1 totally agree

[king arthur]

40mph on all A roads? FFS. Here, take my car keys, I fking give up.

[James Junior 14]

soxboy said:

PH Editorial Staff claim there must be a middle way. Of course there should be a middle way but it seems nobody wants to stand above the parapets and make the sensible suggestion.

Come on PH, get your name in the press as a response to this sort of article. We need a balanced opinion on these reports.

(Or am I being cynical in thinking that there is a balanced opinion, it just never gets published?)

I agree, although a contributor entitled 'pistonheads' might be suspected of being perhaps a touch biased?!

"Motoring enthusiast website Pistonheads was heard to comment "we absolutely think this is a stupid f*cking idea. All these hippies should be given a tick bath and then rounded up and put to work in the mines. Yes all of them."

Pistonheads, maybe you could rebrand as 'The Institute for responsible driving enthusiasts who absolutely comply with all speed limits at all times, but like to drive briskly where conditions allow.'

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

[SirRalph]

riggers said:

Surely the motoring public can be trusted with a little common sense and intelligence? And if they can't, let's make the drivers better, not the roads safer. It's got to be more effective (and cheaper) to teach people how to properly control and understand a 1.5-ton machine capable of 130mph than it would be to cover the country with speed cameras or entirely remodel the UK's road network.

Edited by soad on Thursday 28th January 12:49

That's pretty much spot on and is the solution to the majority of motoring issues in the UK!

[Andy ap]

every driver must spend at least two hours on a skid pan before being let losse on the road.

I think the problem lies in driver skill, although having said that the u.k government cant look after their roads either! potholes here and there!