Comparing local authority road safety performance
Road safety comparison sites launched.
People up and down the UK will be able to compare their local council’s road safety performance with other parts of the country, thanks to a new website launched by Road Safety Minister Stephen Hammond today (21 March 2013).
The new road safety comparison site sets out collision and casualty figures against population, traffic levels, road length and authority spending to show how local authorities have performed over the last 7 years. As well as putting casualty figures in to context the site provides a mapping facility so that people can see how many cyclists or children have been involved in collisions on a particular road. This is part of wider government moves to improve transparency and accountability by providing people with easy-to-access information on how services are being delivered.
In addition, the department is launching a new research portal - the road safety observatory - giving road safety professionals access to research on a variety of relevant topics.
Stephen Hammond said:
This new comparison website will give local residents a more accurate picture of their council’s performance in reducing road casualties and will allow councils to make more meaningful assessments of the work they are doing to improve road safety.
If a council is performing particularly well then I want to see them sharing best practice with others so that they can improve and people across the country can benefit.
In addition, the road safety observatory will be a valuable resource for all those with an interest in road safety by providing a one-stop-shop for road safety research.
The road safety comparison site can be found at http://road-collisions.dft.gov.uk/
The road safety observatory provides a tool for professionals and practitioners, giving them the access to empirical research by taking that research and summarising it into a set of plain English, the site can be found at www.roadsafetyobservatory.com
Notes to editors
This road safety observatory site has been partly funded by the department and the project run by a board including road safety partners, including RoadSafe, the Parliamentary Accounts Committee for Transport Safety (PACTS), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), the RAC Foundation, the Association of Directors for the Environment, Planning and Transport (ADEPT), Road Safety GB, the South West Health Observatory, The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Automobile Association.
The launch of these 2 sites fulfils a commitment set out in the strategic framework for road safety to develop 2 new online areas which would enable the public and road safety professionals to compare local authority performance on road safety.
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Related documents
- Road Safety written statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, 21 March 2013