Government’s Road Strategy sets out path to improve road safety
Transport East welcomes the Government’s new Road Safety Strategy, which outlines an ambitious pathway to making the nation’s roads safer for drivers, passengers and pedestrians.
The strategy focuses on supporting road users, deploying technological interventions, improving infrastructure, and ensuring the right enforcement is in place.
As a highly rural region with limited public transport, many communities rely on private vehicles to stay connected across the East and to travel to essential destinations such as work, education and shopping. Our Travel and Behaviour Survey highlighted that 63% respondents in the East drive a car as their main mode of transport.
This is why we welcome the Government’s ambition to make our roads safer. While Britain’s roads are currently the fourth safest in Europe, progress on reducing those killed and seriously injured on the network has plateaued, and we know that the number of collisions is increasing across our region, particularly among motorcyclists and pedestrians.
We particularly welcome the recognition that rural roads can present heightened dangers, with journeys on rural roads six times more likely to result in a fatality. The proposals to update speed guidance should improve this and the work to better understand the different types of rural roads is a first step to a more tailored approach to safer rural roads.
Our Transport Strategy embeds the Vision Zero approach to road safety, an ambition shared with our regional partners. We encourage those in the region with expertise and views to respond to the consultations on specific changes the Government is proposing, and will be watching closely for the next steps following the strategy to help make our roads safer for everyone who uses them.