Road Safety

Introduction

Road safety remains very important to Blackpool Council. Since becoming a unitary authority in 1998 the numbers of people killed and injured on local roads has reduced dramatically, however there is still some work to be done to make Blackpool's roads the safest in the country.

Blackpool's children are particularly vulnerable in the road environment, especially those who come from areas of disadvantage, and a considerable amount of resource needs to be allocated to educating drivers, children and their parents.

In order to improve the health and wellbeing of Blackpool's population, and to reduce congestion and pollution, various activities are taking place to encourage more walking and cycling whilst learning to share the space that is available to all. It is important though that by doing this people receive relevant information and training to reduce their vulnerability in the road environment.

Facts, figures and trends

The numbers of casualties on Blackpool's roads does vary from year to year, however they do continue to demonstrate a downward trend. Having originally adopted targets for a reduction in road traffic causalities by 2010, directed by the government in 2000, these were met by 2004. The involvement of Blackpool Council with Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, the introduction of speed cameras at casualty hotspots in 2002, and the launching of the 'Blackpool is 30 or less' campaign in 2003 made a considerable contribution to the reduction in casualties.

Blackpool was informed in 2002 by the Department for Transport (DfT) that the town had the highest rate for child casualties in the country, compared to the numbers of children resident in the town. This is attributed to disadvantage and deprivation. As a result Blackpool Council placed an emphasis on delivering road safety education to the young people of Blackpool, especially the most vulnerable.

It is felt that measures introduced have been effective as can be seen in the tables above. Research shows that the incidence of being involved in road traffic collisions is highest in areas of disadvantage and deprivation.

Analysis of casualty statistics is regularly undertaken to analyse any patterns, understand road user behaviour and identify target groups of road users. Figure 3 demonstrates that non-car users are the most vulnerable to the most serious injuries.

Although there has been a long term downward trend in the number of road traffic casualties in Blackpool, Figure 4 compares the number of casualties per head of population in Blackpool with the North West and England as a whole and demonstrates that the rate in Blackpool remains significantly higher than elsewhere in the country. 

Figure 4: Reported casualty rate per million population, 2018

Source: Department for Transport

The overall objective for road safety is to continue to reduce the numbers of people killed and injured on Blackpool's roads; working towards making our roads amongst the safest in the country.

National and local strategies (current best practices)

• Strategic framework for road safety (Department for Transport, 2013) - The UK government's approach to continuing to reduce killed and seriously injured casualties on Britain's roads.
• Road Safety Statement 2019: a lifetime of road safety (Department of Transport, 2013) - Road safety statement and two-year action plan, addressing road safety issues throughout the lifetime of roads users.

Recommendation

Road Safety needs to be recognised as an important part of the public agenda when it comes to creating safer communities for all. More partnership working is required with a more integrated approach to campaigns and targeting the public with very important messages.