Can we adopt road safety ideas from across the pond?
The UK is always looking for ideas to reduce casualties on our roads, so I thought I would take a look at just three ideas from America.
Idea No 1: Undertaking, in American drivers are allowed to pass other vehicles on either side. This you might think is dangerous, but we in the UK have the same rules for a one-way street. What is a motorway? In my opinion it is a one-way street, except it has better visibility with fewer hazards such as bicycles, pedestrians, parked vehicles etc, yes I know you will say the speeds on a motorway are higher than on one-way streets, but it is all relative.
In my opinion this is an idea we should adopt in the UK, it would help to reduce congestion.
Idea No 2: School buses, in America school buses are very distinctive and have one special rule. ‘Vehicles must not pass a school bus whilst children are boarding or getting off’, all traffic on both sides of the road must stop’ The other good point is children receive training on topics such as evacuating the bus in an emergency.
In my opinion, the UK should adopt this idea and get rid of the practise of the cheapest bidder winning the contract. Giving the contract to transport children to and from school to the lowest tender, results in the coach company using its oldest vehicles on the contract and with margins low, there is often no money for either driver training or training the children.
Idea No 3: Turning left on red traffic lights. The Americans are allowed to turn right (they drive on the right, UK drives on the left) when the traffic lights are red. This appears to work well.
In my opinion, although this works well across the pond, it would be a disaster in the UK. We have very different roads in the UK e.g. we have roundabouts many also have traffic lights on them. Just imagine the chaos if we all turned left on red, well don’t we all turn left when we enter a roundabout? Then there is the problem that a lot of pedestrian crossings are located at junctions, imagine trying to cross a busy road when drivers are turning left on a red light and would it mean that at a Pelican crossing (pedestrian crossing controlled by traffic lights) a driver could turn left if the red light was showing and whilst pedestrians were crossing?
We can learn from other countries, but I believe we have some of the best road safety experts here in the UK, it’s just a pity that our political masters don’t always listen to experts.
