Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note which outlined proposals to develop a Safer Speeds City Policy and Road Safety Toolkit. In addition, the briefing note provided information on the types of road safety measures available with details of the advantages and disadvantages of each measure. Information on the intervention criteria to identify locations for scheme consideration and implementation was also included in the briefing note.

Coventry City Council receives many concerns from local residents and elected members about road safety from across the city. This included a significant number of petitions requesting road safety measures.

The City Council is committed to improving safety for all road users and to reduce the number of casualties on our roads. As the West Midlands Road Safety Lead authority, Coventry developed the West Midlands Regional Road Safety Strategy. As part of the commitment to delivering road safety, Coventry was determined to reduce the numbers of people killed or seriously injured (KSI’s) by over 40% over the next ten year period (based on the 2015-17 average). Coventry has developed its road safety priorities in line with the West Midlands Road Safety Policy. It was envisaged that the policy would enhance collaborative working with our road safety partners, including West Midlands Police (WMP) and West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS).

The effects of road traffic collisions has a devastating impact on people effected and their families. Additionally, aside from the human element, traffic collisions have a major detrimental impact on traffic flow by increasing congestion, reducing capacity, worsening journey time reliability and affecting network resilience together with an adverse impact on the economy. 

Road safety is vitally important to promoting Coventry’s local transport system that promotes economic growth, is safe for all road users and improves the quality of life in our communities.

The Council is committed to the promotion of road safety schemes where the benefits can be shown to outweigh any disadvantages. In particular the Council would give priority to those schemes where the accident reduction potential is the greatest. Interventions would be data and intelligent-led and locations for road safety action would be prioritised where criteria has been satisfied and where feasible solutions can mitigate accidents trends.

The briefing note stated that physical measures, road safety measures and the road safety technology would be taken into account to determine evidence based road safety interventions. The policy would also include different types of pedestrian crossing facilities available and their suitability for different types of road environments.

The policy would be underpinned by a bespoke Coventry City Council toolkit that would identify the different types of traffic calming used and the implementation criteria for each measure.

The criteria for selecting a site for road safety intervention was currently based on 6 or more personal injury collisions over a 3 year period. However, it was no longer possible to intervene at all locations that satisfy this criteria. To ensure effective resource allocation, the policy would evaluate amendments to road safety intervention criteria to ensure the most serious accidents are tackled. The policy would evaluate collisions over a three year period, with added weighting applied to three key criteria; collisions, casualty class and timescales. It was hoped that this would ensure the most severe collision trends involving the most vulnerable road users are prioritised.

The briefing explained the benefits of having a road safety policy and toolkit. It was proposed to finalise the Road Safety Policy in May/June 2019.

The Scrutiny Board questioned Officers on aspects of the report, particularly in relation to:

·  Enforcement of 20mph speed limit

·  The difference between a Vehicle Activated Sign and Speed Indicator Device

·  Reasons for change to policy

·  How future proof was the new policy given that cars in future will have speed inhibitors built in

·  20mph scheme was implemented a number of years ago yet still no progress has been made, why should this be any different?

Members were assured that the new policy would allow for flexibility to prioritise resources to the areas with highest issues in order to reduce speeds and accidents.

RESOLVED that the Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board (4):

1.  Supports the progress of the Safer Speeds City Policy and the development of the Road Safety Toolkit.

2.  Supports the road safety intervention criteria to identify locations for scheme consideration and implementation.

3.  Requests that the Cabinet Member report outlining the final Safer Speed City Policy be submitted to the Board for consideration before being submitted to the Cabinet Member for final approval.