The UK Government announced a funding budget of £47.5 million this year to help improve safety on some of the most dangerous roads in the country, including the A586, the A35 and the A2010 which are notorious accident blackspots. The A586 has been awarded £1.1m alone and given its reputation locally as a “deadly” road, this is not a surprise.
The 3 primary areas of improvements overall for all roads included in the budget are:
- Signage
- Junctions
- Pedestrian crossings
Road Safety Investigation Branch
In 2022, the Government announced the launch of a new “Road Safety Investigation Branch” (RSIB) which will be looking specifically at how to improve the safety of our roads and reduce the amount of casualties/accidents. Part of this will be to provide insights on new technologies that are being explored now (such as self-driving vehicles), and how to safely introduce these to the roads.
This funding in 2023 is part of the next step in this process, with specialised inspectors being recruited to look at the history of incidents in specific areas, why they happened, and how similar incidents can be prevented in the future.
Impact on drivers
Any road improvements have impacts on drivers such as delays and diversions, although nobody can say that in this case this is a bad thing, as the roadworks set to be undertaken will be for the benefit and safety of all. However, it is important that anyone driving in the areas due to be improved understands there may be delays and they will need to plan their routes accordingly.
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