Overview

Background

Developing a London-wide Road Safety Action Plan is one of the proposals in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS). The Greater London Authority Act 1999 gives Transport for London (TfL) the power to prepare and carry out a programme of measures to promote safety on London’s roads, and to contribute to measures taken by other authorities. TfL also has a duty to carry out and act on road collision studies.

Progress to date

London has achieved substantial reductions in casualties and collisions over the last decade, including great success in reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured and the number of people sustaining slight injuries.

The previous casualty reduction targets had an end date of 2010. By this date, the number of people killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions in the Capital had fallen by 57 per cent, the number of reported slight injuries had fallen by 33 per cent, and the number of children killed or seriously injured had fallen by 73 per cent compared to the 1994-8 baseline. This meant that 3,798 fewer people were killed or seriously injured on London’s roads and 12,994 fewer slight injuries were reported in 2010 compared to the baseline years. Casualty reduction targets for cyclists and powered two-wheeler users, however, were not met. This largely reflected the increased use of these modes.

While progress continued to be made in reducing killed and seriously injured casualties in 2011, 2,805 people were killed or seriously injured on London’s roads. Pedal cycle and pedestrian killed and seriously injured casualties increased by 22 per cent and 7 per cent respectively between 2010 and 2011. This underlines the fact that if future improvements are to be achieved, a strengthened commitment will be needed from all stakeholders and resources will need to be deployed to maximum effect. Road safety practitioners need to be flexible and innovative to continue reducing casualties on London’s roads.

Looking ahead

Looking to the future, this Action Plan proposes to establish a new target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in London by 40 per cent by 2020. The proposed new target for London will be based on the aim of reducing killed and seriously injured casualties from a baseline of the 2005–9 average. This is challenging but achievable, and will help to focus action for TfL and other stakeholders. Achieving this casualty reduction target would result in the number of killed and seriously injured casualties falling from 3,627 to 2,176 by 2020.

The consultation document proposes 70 actions designed to reduce road casualties and to improve perceptions of road safety in London. The actions are described in three broad groups: actions protecting specific road users; actions that reduce risk, and actions that support delivery.

The ‘Towards a Road Safety Action Plan for London: 2020’ document

This consultation document rests on the principle of successful partnership working. It is vital that TfL and its stakeholders collaborate to implement road safety initiatives to reduce further the number of killed or seriously injured casualties occurring on London’s roads. With continuing pressures on financial resources, it is vital that TfL’s road safety programmes provide value for money and that we work even more closely with partners, who share the same objective. We need to ensure that we share resources as well as knowledge and continue to look for innovative ways to take advantage of wider economic and technological developments.