Rural Road Environment Policy Paper
Rural Road Environment is a policy paper by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Its purpose is to:
- Explore the influence of the road environment on the likelihood and severity of road crashes and road casualties in rural areas
- Promote good practice in the management of the rural road environment
- Develop RoSPA's policy positions in relation to the rural road environment.
The full paper is available to download: Rural Road Environment (PDF 232kb)
Summary
Environmental factors, including the road environment are the prime cause in 2-3% of accidents and contribute to around 18% of road accidents in total. However, altering and redesigning the road environment can have a much greater influence on preventing accidents.
The road environment gives road users instruction, warning and information about the safest way to use the road, it is crucial that the road environment therefore provides appropriate information to the people using it. However, the nature of a road, and the environment through which it runs, also gives road users clues about how they can use it. Sometimes these clues can be complex and contradictory, or ambiguous.
In 2007 there were 2,946 fatalities on the roads of Great Britain, and 27,773 serious injuries. Around 70% of fatal accidents in the UK occur on rural roads.
Whilst casualty rates on both urban and rural roads have been dropping, the fall in casualty rates on rural roads has been much less rapid.
Engineering the rural road environment may be one of the best ways to bring the rural casualty rates down further. In rural areas, engineering that targets whole routes or wide areas may be the best strategy. This can create consistency along the length of commonly used routes, or add to the character of the area.
Self explaining roads can create a simple and clear road environment, rather than one which is complex or contradictory. Some methods to do this may be to alter the perceived road width with markings or roadside islands or changing or removing the centre line.
Forgiving road sides can reduce the risk of injury if a vehicle leaves the road, and moving badly positioned signage and vegetation can address this issue.
As a driver approaches a village they need to be informed that they are about to enter a different environment with different hazards. Village gateways can be used to clearly mark the entry to a village and can be used in tandem with other road safety engineering initiatives within the village itself.
Recently there have been rural road safety demonstration projects in Devon, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Northamptonshire. These have all demonstrated aspects of good practice.
All of the schemes were underpinned by the strong use of data by the Local Authority before introducing the safety measures, and as well as Stats 19, data from the PCT and Fire and Rescue service was used.
The public were consulted by all four of the Local Authorities to understand public opinion and views of roads in the project area. It is essential that this should be done before any scheme, rather than during it.
All of the projects highlighted the importance of augmenting road engineering with education and information campaigns.
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