Is the UK’s financial crisis threatening road safety?
Wednesday 22 Feb 2012 | By Quentin Dewart
The results of the recent swingeing cuts in public spending are gradually coming to light. One serious effect that many pundits in the transport industry are drawing attention to is the threat to road safety posed by significantly reduced highway maintenance budgets.
Back in October last year, the Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) gave evidence to the Transport Select Committee in Westminster on the importance of standards, compliance and research for the government to achieve the goals set out in its Strategic Framework for Road Safety. The RSMA has been established for more than 30 years, representing the road-marking industry and raising standards in terms of quality, training and operator health and safety. Through its campaigns in the media and its dealings with both local and national government, the RSMA aims to demonstrate the link between the quality of road markings and the number of deaths or serious injuries on the roads, thereby setting challenging targets for those responsible for highways across the UK.
In its evidence, the RSMA insisted that if the UK wanted to continue to improve its road safety record while also meeting the stringent demands of the debt crisis, the government needed to implement a 'rigorous' approach to standards and an 'enlightened' attitude to commissioning research. The RSMA also sounded a warning bell regarding the coalition's commitment to localism. While acknowledging the expertise and experience of highways engineers operating in local authorities, the RSMA voiced concern that a dogmatic approach to localism might result in a lowering of standards - in particular, in the quality of road markings - on roads under local authority control.
The RSMA put its head above the parapet again recently, when it called for action from the Highways Agency (HA) on the stand-off between the HA and its managing agents over payments for road-marking maintenance. At a meeting with officials from the Department for Transport and the HA before Christmas, the RSMA's National Director, George Lee, commented, "We've had reports from member companies that significant road-marking maintenance programmes are not taking place because of disputes between managing agents and the Highways Agency over how these programmes should be funded."
As there is always a lag between current road traffic accident activity and the official statistics being published, it may be a while before we are fully aware of the human cost of the public sector spending freeze.