MEASURING DANGER ON THE ROAD

The conventional wisdom is that the safety of road travel in Britain has shown immense all-round improvement through the decades. This has not been the case. The mistaken belief seems to have arisen from the fact that, in the long term, total annual road deaths have fallen alongside a massive increase in vehicle numbers. The fall in overall annual road fatalities through the years in relation to motor traffic has been largely because of increased traffic, not in spite of it. Since the 1950s, walking and pedal-cycling have on the best criteria become much more dangerous. There is some evidence that motorcycling is more dangerous. More car drivers survive crashes, but there are strong indications of an increased crash rate per driver. Motorway casualty rates are unacceptably high considering the immense advantages (and cost) of those roads. To measure danger on the road one must study: each road-user category separately; rates rather than numbers; exposure to risk; influences such as legislation, social changes and fortuitous events. Language: en