..presenting road safety across the UK


ROAD SAFETY NEWS - WEEK COMMENCING 5 JANUARY 2004

Wrong gear contributing to safety camera misery, says IAM
New research shows that three-quarters of all of drivers in built-up areas are breaking the speed limit by mistake - simply because they're in the wrong gear - according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

The IAM and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme commissioned research to establish the scale of the problem and at the same time analyse contributory factors. The poll is thought to be the first to focus on the causation of speeding offences by addressing aspects of driver behaviour.

"Quite often, otherwise safe drivers are on the wrong end of the camera because of a moment of inattention. A typical scenario is a flash and a fine, with immediate points on the licence, because a driver has let his or her speed ‘drift up’ by perhaps just a few miles an hour," said IAM chief examiner Bryan Lunn.

Drawing on a survey base of 1000 participants, MORI took a typical 30mph urban driving situation and asked: Do you ever find the car tends to ‘creep’ above 30mph without you realising it? 74 per cent said yes.

Then pollsters asked drivers of manual cars which gear they are normally in if they are doing a steady 30mph. Nobody questioned was allowed to just say ‘top gear’. The vast majority of respondents (79 per cent) have modern, five speed gear boxes. To do a steady thirty miles an hour, the majority (54 per cent) of the drivers surveyed thought that they should be in fourth gear.

"Driving habits mean people want to change up the gearbox as quickly as possible without thinking too much about it," said Mr Lunn. "The IAM believes that drivers in manual cars could prevent themselves going too fast inadvertently by using the interim gears - especially third gear - more often and for longer in urban driving."

For further information visit iam.org.uk or ring 020 8996 9600.
Sustainable transport towns short list unveiled
Seven English towns have made the shortlist to receive funding through the DfT’s Sustainable Transport Town initiative.

The DfT has set aside £7.5m to help develop plans for sustainable transportation in two towns in England. These towns will incorporate all aspects of best practice to encourage walking, cycling and other public transport use and act as showcases for other towns wishing to promote greater travel choice.

The short listed towns are Halifax, Darlington, Peterborough, Worcester, Hereford, Wolverhampton and Weston-Super-Mare. Each will now submit fully worked up plans to deliver a sustainable transport scheme through reducing car dependency, tackling traffic congestion and helping the provision of a wider diversity of modes of transport for the public.

The towns on the shortlist were chosen from fifty outline schemes submitted at the end of September. The two winning towns will be announced next year.

More @ www.dft.gov.uk.
Officials call for national data collection centre
Speed camera fines should be used to fund a national data collection centre on road accidents – thereby saving local authorities ‘a fortune’ in verifying information on crashes, senior county officials urged recently (Surveyor 18 December).

Brian Goodwin, chair of the CSS traffic and safety group told an AA seminar that better data is needed as part of ‘mass action’ to reduce road deaths and serious injury.

Given that councils are finding it increasingly difficult to locate accident blackspots, more route action is needed, which is justified in cost terms by ‘whole life benefits’ – typically road improvements have a 300 per cent rate of return over their life, Brian Goodwin added.
Welsh speed action dies a death
Welsh Assembly plans for a new rural road hierarchy and the introduction of urban 20mph zones have had the brakes applied – to the annoyance of road safety campaigners and some ministers (Surveyor 18 December).

Former transport minister Sue Essex proposed a three-tier speed hierarchy for rural roads, and new residential developments to be subject to a 20mph limit - to help meet targets to reduce road deaths and serious injuries.

After last May’s elections, however, Ms Essex moved to a more senior post in the Welsh cabinet. Her successor, Brian Gibbons, has said Wales cannot act independently to introduce wholesale changes to limits.

Although the Assembly set up a ‘chapter five’ management sub-group - named after a section of the road safety strategy for Wales, which was published in January 2003 - the emphasis has now shifted to more conventional methods of curbing speed.
Scottish minister announces speed scheme pilot
Scottish transport minister Nicol Stephen has invited councils to come up with schemes to reduce traffic speeds on the approaches to towns and villages. Mr Stephen backed a suggestion that speeding vehicles might be forced to a halt using interactive traffic signals (Surveyor 18 December).

The minister told MSPs that following the Scottish Executive’s recent drive to introduce 20mph zones around every school, the new priority is to reduce speeds on roads outside built up areas. He wants to find out how best to achieve this by encouraging authorities to trial different methods.
PACTS issues Parliamentary Briefing
PACTS has produced a Parliamentary Briefing calling attention to the safety implications of the Traffic Management Bill. The Bill’s second reading will take place on 5 January 2003.

Click here to read the briefing:
http://www.pacts.org.uk/TrafficManagementBill2ndReading.htm.
Walking and cycling strategy disappoints campaigners
The final version of the Welsh Assembly’s walking and cycling strategy has been published - to sighs of disappointment from walking groups who had hoped that it would adopt targets so far resisted in Whitehall (Surveyor 18 December).

Wales has deferred to the UK Government by stalling on walking targets until the DfT publishes its own walking strategy. The targets are given a low priority in the strategy, pushed back until 2006 or beyond, despite indications earlier in the year that the document would include a target to increase the amount of walking.

Actions given a high priority include encouraging councils to adopt cycle parking standards and policies to safeguard disused railway lines for both walking and cycling, and a user code of conduct for shared routes.