10.3 Safety Issues Addressed by Engineering Measures

We will implement schemes where they have the greatest potential to reduce the number of road casualties

By implementing schemes in disadvantaged areas and other sites with a high rate of road casualties, we will work to reduce danger and achieve the greatest possible reduction in road casualties.

10.3.1 Speed Management and Danger Reduction

Driving too fast is a factor in the majority of injury collisions. It threatens the safety of other road users, particularly vulnerable ones, and causes damage to communities. The County Council will continue to develop its speed management programme to reduce danger and encourage all riders and drivers to travel at speeds consistent with their immediate environment and conditions. A growing toolkit to manage reduce danger includes the following measures;

• 20mph Zones based around schools where children make daily journeys; physical measures make the zones self-enforcing
• School Safety Zones pilot with an advisory 20mph limit and accompanying flashing signs at the start and end of each school day
• Interactive signs - these have proved popular with motorists and greater use will be made of them at sites where they offer an effective solution to problems of speeding
• Driver Feedback Signs pilot at locations where safety cameras are temporarily decommissioned
• Home Zones in residential areas
• Quiet Lanes and Green Ways in rural areas
• Review of speed limits to make rural roads self-explaining and encourage greater compliance with speed limits.

These schemes are complemented by the safety camera programme of the Lancashire Road Safety Project. The community is engaged in two initiatives. Sites of local concern are put forward by the Community Safety Partnerships. The police have introduced a trial of Community Road Watch which allows community members to monitor designated streets for drivers travelling at excess speed or using a hand-held mobile phone.

10.3.2 Child Safety

There are a disproportionate number of child casualties in Lancashire, particularly in those wards amongst the 10% most deprived in the country. Lancashire will develop a Child Safety Audit to identify the key factors in injury collisions. The results will be used to target initiatives - Local Safety Schemes as well as other programmes - where they will be most effective. A Vulnerable Road User Audit on each scheme will assess its impact on pedestrians and cyclists, particularly children.

10.3.3 Rural Safety

Less than 25% of all injury collisions occur on non-motorway rural roads and yet 32% and 58% of serious and fatal injuries respectively occur on these roads. Lancashire will develop a methodology of rural Route Assessments to identify, prioritise and treat lengths of road with a high severity ratio. Particular attention will be made towards providing a safe road environment for those motorcyclists who ride sensibly within existing Highway Law. 

Further work is needed to examine the effect fast or busy roads have on the footpath and bridleway network in rural areas. An important area of  work is to identify the potential to provide routes to link footpaths and bridleways that are segregated from fast traffic. There are likely to be a number of instances where improvement of the highway verge can improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.

Severance of the Rights of Way network by busy or fast roads causes problems for users in Lancashire and acts as a deterrent to active travel. The Rights of Way Improvement Plan identifies a number of paths that border areas of population or are promoted routes and are crossed by busy or fast roads.

10.3.4 Safety in Deprived Areas

In our LTP1, we demonstrated the close correlation between areas of substantially higher accident rates and areas of deprivation. The thrust of our work since then has been to prioritise locations with poor accident records in such deprived areas. We have implemented area calming schemes and 20mph zones in areas of need.

We will continue the work in the second LTP and we will ensure the best use of local resources by working with our partners and local agencies to deliver area wide safety schemes linked to other programmes, including the EU Urban 2 programme to deliver innovative approaches to community safety challenges in Burnley. The ELEVATE Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder is active in the more deprived areas of four districts of East Lancashire. We will add value through the integration of safety improvements to provide more effective local solutions. Notable schemes in our programme are;

• West Accrington and Church Elevate Area Package
• Whitefield and Bradley Elevate Area Access Improvements
• Burnley Elevate Area Transit Links
• Towneley Improvement Zone.

10.3.5 Community Safety

The perception of danger on the highway is a real problem that can cause concern and inhibit mobility. Fear of traffic can result from personal experience of excessive size, volume or speed of vehicles. Fear of crime on the highway can result from anti-social behaviour and from neglected and ill-lit areas. Lancashire County Council will reduce the factors that cause the perceived danger and that affect the quality of life in a community. Lancashire will support Community Safety Partnerships to reduce crime and the fear of crime through sensible design and management of open space and urban highways. We will continue to work with our local communities through the Local Safety Partnerships to set policy and local priorities. Measures we employ will include;

• Restricted access for inappropriate traffic to residential areas
• Area traffic calming schemes to reduce speeds
• Improved levels of street lighting to deter criminals intent on petty crime
• Development of alleygating to discourage use of back alleys by potential criminals
• Removal of overgrown shrubs and hedges to improve the public perception of safety
• Higher standards of street cleaning and maintenance
• Presence of Neighbourhood and Street Wardens.