On 22nd November the Government published its response to its call for evidence on the Cycling and Walking Strategy Safety Review, available here. The report outline the 50 Actions that the DfT will take.
The main outcomes of the response are that the DfT will:
- Review the existing guidance in the Highway Code to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians
- Invest £100,000 to support police enforcement by developing a national back office function to handle dash-cam footage
- Improve enforcement against parking in cycle lanes
- Appoint a cycle and walking champion
- Encourage local authorities to increase investment in cycling and walking infrastructure to 15% of total transport infrastructure spending
- Engage with cycling and walking bodies to develop a behaviour change campaign
Other key points to note are:
- DfT’s commitment to publish Highways England Cycling and Integration Designated Fund programme information as part of the Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2) (5C)
- Safety around schools: Publish the results of 20 mph limits evaluation and disseminate to local authorities. (6B)
- Review pavement parking laws (6C)
- Commission new research to understand the advantages and disadvantages of a change to a presumed liability system (6F)
- Support for improved vehicle safety standards, including TfL’s direct vision standards for HGVs and the proposed amendments to European car safety standards, including fitment of automatic emergency braking that detects pedestrians and cyclists, and intelligent speed assistance. (Ch8)
PACTS Executive Director David Davies said, “The 50-point action plan published by the DfT today has the strong backing of the roads minister, Jesse Norman MP. His recent promotion to Minister of State will give him extra clout in Government circles. We are pleased that something that started as focusing on cyclists has been broadened to address safety of pedestrians and horse riders too. We are also pleased that a number of the actions recommended by PACTS in our response have been included in the plan.”
“Speed is a key factor in relation to danger reduction, road casualties and to vulnerable road users’ perceptions of safety. It is disappointing, therefore, that speed hardly features in the plan. The findings of the Atkins 20mph Research Study (published at the same time) show that signed-only limits have only a small effect and nothing is proposed to make them more effective. Worryingly, the plan seems to see 20mph limits as a matter for school zones only. On rural roads, compliance with the 60mph limit is taken to indicate safety. No measures are proposed although they may be in the context of the forthcoming Road Safety Action Plan in which rural roads is one of four priorities. There are no targets or indicators to measure success.”
The Government news article on the subject is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bold-new-measures-to-keep-people-safe-on-the-roads
There is also a Written Ministerial Statement available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/governments-response-to-the-cycling-walking-investment-strategy-safety-review
The full call for evidence response document and action plan is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy-cwis-safety-review
The call for evidence had initially been launched in March 2018. The PACTS response can be downloaded here.
