John Dawson has chaired the management committee of the UK’s Road Safety Foundation for 25 years. An early advocate of the Safe System approach, the charity has raised over EUR 10 million for work under the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. Mr Dawson’s recent work includes developing financial incentives for road safety, support for investment in road infrastructure in south-east Europe, and evaluating applications for funding under the UK Safer Roads Fund, which aims to upgrade the country’s most dangerous roads. He is currently a member of the UK’s Independent Transport Commission and advises the UN Special Envoy for Road Safety. Here, he gives his views on how to make road infrastructure safer.

What are the main challenges today for road infrastructure safety management?
Over the last decade, more than 250 000 people have died on Europe's roads, and the wrenching toll of road crashes has cost more than EUR 1 500 billion in total. Action needs to be proportionate: slowly reducing road trauma is not proportionate. Road travel can be made as safe as rail and air.

It is rational to invest to save lives. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development urges countries to focus on road crash costs and tackle risk systematically. Safe infrastructure is the core of a safe system. The European Commission’s package focuses rightly on main roads. The UN says countries can target the 10 % of roads where 50 % of deaths are concentrated and raise these to a 3-star infrastructure safety rating or better¹. Each star won halves crash costs.

Can you briefly describe the approach you use?
Today, more than half of European countries cooperate in a vibrant programme led by EuroRAP. Members from authorities, civil society and transport institutes measure infrastructure risk and share their results via the latest International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) protocols developed with hundreds of organisations backing the current UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Philanthropy, banks, finance ministries, toll-road operators and insurers are enabling large-scale investment in Safer Road Investment Plans in rich and poor countries alike. Rates of return are higher than most transport investment. Who would not invest in the top priority of saving lives? Globally, applications across 85 countries have helped shape more than EUR 50 billion of investment.

Can you give a concrete example of this?
The Netherlands was the first to commit to a 3-star or better network by 2020 – and will achieve it. In Slovakia, motorways were raised from 27 % at 3-star to 77 % in just 18 months through affordable lifesaving improvements like safety barriers. In England, a new EUR 200-million Safer Roads Fund triggered Safer Road Investment Plans for the 50 most dangerous local main roads: on national roads, the aim is zero harm by 2040 with tough intermediate star-rating goals.

What could road authorities do better?
As at the EU level, many authorities have already adopted ‘vision zero’ and the mission to make road travel as safe as rail and air. Thousands of engineers worldwide have been trained to use exciting new ‘proactive’ tools which help tackle high infrastructure risks efficiently before people are killed and better target road spending to save lives. In most countries, authorities are building new partnerships with NGOs, charities and transport institutes better placed to explain the investment needed and why we can’t safely use new 5-star cars on 1-star roads.

In your view, how can the EU help?
First, by supporting the transparency needed. You cannot manage what you do not measure. Civil society and parliaments need internationally recognised metrics showing how safe main roads are today to debate what can and should be done. Secondly, by promoting financial incentives such as Safer Roads Funds which support the necessary large-scale infrastructure safety programmes. Thirdly, by supporting education, training and path-finding projects on busy high-risk roads throughout Europe.

How should we invest in road infrastructure safety?
Even in the safest countries, some main roads are 50 times riskier than others. We need specific star-rating goals for 2030 and beyond backed by financial incentives to save lives. For the European Commission, that means specific goals to bring Europe’s key trade routes (TEN-T) up to 3-star and 4-star safety ratings.

1) The UN Decade of Action for Road Safety highlights the need to raise the inherent safety and protective quality of road networks for the benefit of all road users, at least at the level of 3 stars out of 5. The use of minimum star rating targets for new road projects enables an immediate confirmation of the safety of the road prior to approval and construction.