Burnham targets end to road deaths by 2040
Vision Zero sets out Greater Manchester’s ambition to reduce fatalities and life-changing injuries on its roads to zero over the next 15 years while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for its residents.
The Vision Zero Strategy and Action Plan have been developed by the Safer Roads Greater Manchester Partnership, which brings together local organisations to collaborate on road safety. The strategy is due to be signed off by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority this Friday.
It is estimated that in 2022 approximately £46m of economic output of the city was lost due to fatal, serious, and slight injuries on its road network. Congestion costs Greater Manchester £1.6bn a year in lost productivity.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is a pioneer of the strategy, he said: “Road deaths and collisions should not be seen as an inevitable consequence of using our roads; we don’t accept this for any other mode of transport, so it is time to stop accepting it on our roads.”
Reducing collisions will save lives and reduce costs – in 2022, road causalities in GM cost almost £500m in medical, emergency services, road and property damage, lost output, and insurance costs, according to a GMCA report.
The strategy highlights that roadside infrastructure needs to be “forgiving to account for peoples’ vulnerabilities to collision forces when these inevitable mistakes happen”, and road infrastructural changes should be designed to incorporate other interventions.
This means proactively managing spaces shared by different transport modes to protect vulnerable road users, targeting the most dangerous roads and also undertaking network-wide improvement programmes.
The report includes plans to separate different road users by providing more cycling and walking paths, as well as road widening.
Partners on the plan include Greater Manchester’s 10 local authorities, Transport for Greater Manchester, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the NHS, National Highways, and both GMP and GMFRS.
Plans dictate a ‘Safe System’ approach “whereby people, vehicles, and the road infrastructure interact in a way that secures a high level of safety for all”, the report states.
First implemented by Sweden in the 1990s, the adoption of the Safe System approach means that the impact of a collision can be minimal, saving lives and preventing life-changing injuries.
The five components of the Safe System approach devolve responsibilities to specific bodies. They are:
- Safe Streets – TfGM
- Safe Speeds – GMP
- Safe Road Users GMFRS
- Safe Vehicles – TfGM and GMP
- Post-Crash Response – NHS Care Trust and GMP.
Each sub-group has a designated lead partner who will be responsible for coordinating interventions to ensure that collective actions strengthen the road system.
These components will combine to “reduce risk and severity of a collision and reduce the likelihood of death or life-changing injuries if a collision does occur.”
A draft strategy was formally agreed upon in January, the draft action plan was then published in June.
The strategy sets an interim target of a 50% reduction in road traffic deaths and life-changing injuries by 2030.
The Vision Zero plan is not a funded delivery plan and the actions within the plan require funding to deliver in full.
The action plan is set to be reviewed every three years and will be monitored by safety performance indicators.
He needs to look at bus safety as well. Every day it seems there is a serious bus incident reported in the MEN. Are bus drivers under too much pressure to get to places on time that they have become complacent?
By Anonymous
Install a few red light cameras. Simple solution. The amount of people that run lights is ridiculous
By Quail
Whilst the ideas are commendable I just wonder if they are practical or whether this is yet another project that Burnham can achieve further self publicity for himself
Much of the damage here is caused by the irresponsibily of the working person and that is difficult at any time to eradicate
By Richard
Place your bets, folks.. what will Burnham end first. Road deaths or homelessness?
By Anonymous
Admirable but utterly unachieveable. How does he propose stopping malicious deaths, say? Or drunk drivers? People can exercise their free will at any time to the detriment of themselves and others, and there’s nowt Mr Burnham can do to stop that. Why does he make himself a hostage to such fortune?
By Anonymous
The standard of driving is horrendous, but no consequence for putting everyone at risk. Every traffic light needs a camera with instant penalties/bans for jumping red lights. There is no excuse.
By Salford6
Empty words when schemes such as the A6 without segregated cycle lanes, Eccles new road resurfaced and bus/cycle lanes removed with no protection against heavy HGV traffic, and dangerous “parallel routes” are being approved under his watch.
As with scrapping the clean air zone, it’s cars and congestion first in Andy’s Manchester
By Heaton Chapel
I suspect people are being too literal in the thread. I suspect this means that we’ll begin over time to engineer out some of worst examples of design as a matter of policy.
By Rich X
Headline grabbing nonsense. All PR and no actual substance.
By Peter S
Yeah. It’s all a bit difficult.
Let’s not have any targets to stop killing people.
Let’s do nothing.
By Anonymous
@Richard
‘working person’ ?
By Anonymous
Next up – Andy Burnham eradicates the common cold!
By Anonymous
@Anonymous 12:32 – Living on a 20mph road that is also a bus route, bus drivers are definitely part of the problem! Regularly speeding down the road at well over the speed limit. Needs to be some serious training and/or monitoring of bus driver behaviour.
By Anonymous
Commendable goal, but hard to take credibly given the snail’s pace at which LAs are installing ANPR cameras.
As for nay-saying that vision 0 is unachievable, well worth a quick internet search to see European cities – in some cases larger than Manchester – that have achieved just that and achieved in multiple years on the bounce.
By Anonymous