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In 2007, 2,946 people were killed on Great Britain’s roads,
which is 18 per cent less than the average number of deaths between
1994 and 1998. Travelling by road is still one of the riskiest
daily activities, however, and it accounts for nearly 97 per cent
of all transport fatalities. Pedestrians and cyclists are among the
most vulnerable road users, having little or no physical protection
and with a higher rate of fatality per distance travelled than for
any other mode of transport except for motorcyclists.
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The Department for Transport (the Department) has several
initiatives to reduce congestion, improve local environments, and
encourage healthier and safer lifestyles, which entail, among other
things, encouraging more people to walk and cycle. Over the last 30
years the average distance people walk each year has fallen by 19
per cent, while the distance people cycle annually has declined by
24 per cent; and although in the last decade these distances have
stabilised, they have shown no evidence of recovering to past
higher levels. Nearly
one quarter of all trips are one mile or less, and over
40 per cent are within two miles and so potentially suitable
distances for either activity. Improving the actual and perceived
safety of walking and cycling will help to increase the uptake of
these activities. Improving child safety on the roads is also a key
strand of the Government’s Public Service Agreement to improve the
safety of children and young people, who are more dependent than
adults on walking and cycling.
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The Department’s Road User Safety Division leads the promotion
of road safety and had a budget of £36 million in 2008-09 for its
road safety activities. Local highway authorities are responsible
for most of the expenditure on road safety schemes, over £135
million in 2005-06. The Department must therefore work with local
highway authorities and other organisations to improve the safety
of pedestrians and cyclists and indeed other road users. The
Department leads strategy and research; funds innovative schemes
and disseminates lessons so that local highway authorities know
what improves road safety; and develops and manages the
Think! national road safety publicity campaign. It is also
responsible for the legislative framework.
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In this Report, we examine
whether the Road User Safety Division is improving safety among
pedestrians and cyclists. We examine specifically whether it has an
effective strategy and programme of activities for these groups and
whether it works well with other organisations.
Key findings
Trends in deaths and serious injuries among pedestrians and
cyclists
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Against the average number of deaths and serious injuries for
the years 1994 to 1998, the Department’s current strategy is to
reduce by 2010 the number of people killed and seriously injured by
40 per cent; the number of children killed and seriously injured by
50 per cent; and the rate of slight injuries per 100
million vehicle kilometres by 10 per cent. The Department is on
track to meet these targets with reductions to 2007 of
36 per cent, 55 per cent and 32 per cent in each respective
category. The Department is now formulating its strategy for the
period after 2010.
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The underlying picture is complex.
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There is a slower rate of fall in
the number of fatalities (18 per cent) than that for the
seriously injured (37 per cent) compared with the average number
between 1994 and 1998.
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There are different trends within particular groups. Overall,
deaths and serious injuries fell 11 per cent from 2004 to 2007,
while for cyclists they rose by 11 per cent from 2004 to 2007,
despite the amount of cycling staying broadly constant.
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The Department publishes
disaggregated data, which make clear the underlying trends on a
quarterly basis.
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Research by both the Department and others indicates that
serious injuries are under-recorded, with less severe serious
injuries more likely to be classified as slight by the police. The
Department uses data collected by the police, but not all road
accidents are reported or recorded and it cannot be sure whether
the under-reporting of casualties has changed over time. Our own
analysis suggests that the numbers of seriously injured casualties
may be under-recorded by as much as two-fifths for pedestrians and
one-fifth for cyclists. The Department is taking steps to match
hospital data with the police data to improve its understanding of
under-reporting.
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In 2007, the Department reported a reduction of 41 per cent
in the number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured and of 31
per cent among cyclists compared to the average between 1994 and
1998. This decline is attributable to improved safety levels rather
than to a decline in walking and cycling, as in the last 10 years
the amount of walking has remained constant at about 200 miles per
person per year and cycling has declined slightly from 43 to 39
miles per person per year. The Department produces regular and
extensive analyses across all road user groups including
pedestrians and cyclists and has a good understanding of which
pedestrians and cyclists are most at risk and the factors that
increase the severity of casualties. It is more difficult to
identify the factors which lead to accidents as they are complex
and varied.
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Pedestrians over the age of 70
account for a disproportionate share of deaths, while children
under the age of 15 account for less than would be expected given
their share of the population and the amount of time they spend
travelling on foot.
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Child pedestrians are most at
risk from 3pm until 7pm, especially during the weeks after the end
of British Summer Time.
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Cyclists are more likely to be
killed in collisions with lorries.
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Pedestrians are at high risk when
they do not pay sufficient attention to the roads.
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There is a disproportionately
high level of pedestrian and cyclist casualties in deprived
areas.
- Collisions with vehicles travelling at more than
20 miles per hour increase the severity of pedestrian and cyclist
casualties.
The road safety strategy
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The Department’s road safety strategy includes work and
activities to address the particular risks to pedestrians and
cyclists outlined above. These include publicity aimed at changing
their behaviour as well as encouraging other measures which have an
impact on the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. The strategy does
not contain specific targets, however, for reducing casualties
among pedestrians and cyclists or any particular group of road
users other than children. Unlike some countries, it also does not
include activities to minimise the severity of casualties once an
accident has occurred. For example, Australia’s road safety
strategy promotes activities to improve the medical care of
casualties of road accidents. The Department is liaising with the
Department of Health in formulating its new road safety strategy,
but the extent to which it will use health measures is currently
unclear. The Department began public consultation on its new
strategy in April 2009.
The effectiveness of activities to improve the safety of
pedestrians and cyclists
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The Department needs to encourage and help local highway
authorities to invest in the most effective road safety measures.
For example, the Department’s research has shown that 20 miles per
hour zones enforced by measures such as road humps can reduce
accidents involving pedestrians by 63 per cent and cyclists by
29 per cent. It can take local highway authorities a long
time to secure agreement from local interest groups and to
implement such changes to roads. The Department does not monitor
the adoption of such measures.
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It is difficult to assess the
effectiveness of education, training and publicity initiatives. The
Department funds some innovative projects, some of which include
educational programmes, which offer an opportunity to assess their
effectiveness in a more controlled environment. This opportunity
may however be lost, as local highway authorities felt that they
did not have the necessary expertise to evaluate their success, and
the standard of evaluation plans varied in the projects that we
examined.
On working with other organisations
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The Department has to work with many organisations, and
generally it has a good working relationship with them. The
Department depends on its policy and technical advisory roles to
build relationships with those who influence and deliver road
safety. Its approach to date has been informal and based on staff’s
personal contacts built up over time. The Department also needs to
be more innovative in the dissemination of lessons and information,
for example, by targeting specific information at those who are
most likely to use it.
Conclusion on value for money
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Encouraging people to walk and cycle more by making these
activities safer will help with the introduction of measures to
reduce congestion, improve the environment and encourage healthier
lifestyles. Deaths among both pedestrians and cyclists have fallen
since the mid-1990s, but more remains to be done to improve their
safety: deaths among pedestrians have fallen by 36 per cent, but
Great Britain is some way behind some of the better performing
nations; cyclists’ deaths have fallen by 27 per cent, but deaths
and serious injuries among this group have risen by 11 per cent
since 2004.
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The Department had a programme budget of £36 million to
cover its road safety activities in 2008‑09. This funding is not
directed to specific road users and many other bodies contribute to
road safety, so it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of
the Department’s specific contribution. The Department has,
however, taken a number of relevant measures.
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It has provided a general
strategy for road safety, which includes a programme of activities
based on firm evidence that address the issues that affect
pedestrians and cyclists. The strategy has also provided a focus
for other organisations working in this field, with whom the
Department generally works well.
- It has developed media campaigns through its Think!
campaign to change the beliefs and attitudes of road users,
including pedestrians and cyclists. While the Department evaluates
these changes it is not possible to connect them directly to
reductions in road casualties.
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Through its research programme,
it has developed a good understanding of which pedestrians and
cyclists are most at risk and where and when accidents occur, and
provided evidence of the effectiveness of engineering solutions in
reducing the incidence and severity of casualties.
Recommendations
On measuring road safety amongst pedestrians and
cyclists
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The Department’s
current targets for road safety do not distinguish between
different trends in deaths compared to serious injuries, or among
particular groups. To increase transparency,
the Department should set targets that report separately the
numbers of people killed and those seriously injured, and further
subdivide these between different groups of road users.
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Some types of
serious injuries are under-recorded. While it is difficult to
measure serious injuries accurately, there are a number of other
sources of data on road casualties which can improve the
Department’s understanding of the robustness of its data and enrich
its understanding of safety on Great Britain’s
roads.
The Department should:
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complete by Autumn 2009, when it
publishes the new strategy, its work on assessing the usefulness of
Hospital Episodes Statistics (hospital admissions) data and how it
might complement the police data; and
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assess whether and how it
can use other data, such as that collected by the Department for
Work and Pensions on motor collision injury compensation claims, to
improve the reporting of trends in road safety.
On encouraging implementation of measures to reduce casualties
among pedestrians and cyclists
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Research has shown
that some measures are effective in reducing the incidence and
severity of casualties among pedestrians and cyclists. For example,
20 miles per hour zones in urban areas that are enforced by
physical measures such as road humps can reduce accidents involving
pedestrians by 63 per cent and cyclists by
29 per cent.
- The Department should more systematically
identify local highway authorities that have introduced effective
measures such as 20 miles
per hour zones successfully, and share the lessons with other local
highway authorities, including how best to secure agreement locally
to such changes and to implement them.
On maximising the Department’s investment in innovative road
safety projects
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Physical changes
to make roads safer can take a long time because many groups need
to agree to changes on road layouts, or equipment and services need
to be procured. Valuable lessons on how to manage these issues
could be learnt from the Department’s funding of innovative
projects, but some local highway authorities find it difficult to
complete them within the Department’s
timescales.
- The Department should allow a lead time before projects
commence so that local highway authorities can undertake sufficient
consultations or procure specialist staff or equipment prior to the
core project start, in return for guarantees that authorities will
spend the money in the year in which the Department has budgeted
for it.
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Without robust
evaluations of these projects the Department cannot establish the
value for money achieved from its investment in them, and there is
a risk that it will not be able to identify or disseminate
wider lessons.
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As a condition of its funding of
partnership and demonstration projects, the Department should
require local highway authorities to adhere to prescribed
evaluation standards.
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The Department should fund
fewer, larger projects to allow it to fund more robust
evaluations.
On working with other organisations
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The Department relies on
other organisations such as local highway authorities to improve
safety for pedestrians, cyclists and other road users, but does not
have an explicit strategy for working with them.
The Department needs to develop an explicit strategy
which:
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identifies which groups will
contribute to the delivery of improvements to pedestrians and
cyclists and how they will do so;
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identifies key contacts in each
relevant body and communicates regularly and formally with them;
and
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develops key indicators to
assess how well it works with other bodies, such as whether shared
objectives with those bodies have been achieved.
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The Department disseminates too
much information that is insufficiently focused, and local highway
authorities and other groups interested in road safety would find
more interactive dissemination events more useful.
The Department should gear its
communications more actively towards specific target
audiences, providing:
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more detailed and
technical information to those working in the road safety arena and
provide them with opportunities to share and discuss this
information alongside their own experiences and particular
challenges; and
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more easily digestible information set in a
practical context for others such as road safety charities; for
example about risks to pedestrians and cyclists when clocks change
in the autumn and by making cyclists and drivers of heavy goods
vehicles more aware of the specific risks posed by lorries.