Citation

West-Oram F. Traffic Eng. Control 1991; 32(7-8): 359-363.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Hemming Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A one-third reduction in Great Britain's road casualties was proposed by the British Department of Transport in a 1987 report. The premise was that there had been a downward trend in total annual casualties through the years, indicating a steady improvement in road travel safety, and that all that was needed was to accelerate this trend. The author has already pointed out in an earlier paper that the premise was unsound because of the changing pattern of road traffic. This had concealed long-term increases in casualty rates to pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists among the more recent fall in total annual casualty numbers. The present paper further develops this theme on the basis of more recent information and Department of Transport progress reports. A new target and systems for achieving it are proposed. The basic objective must be to improve the safety of travel for every category of road user, not just reduce total casualty numbers.

Language: en