Road Safety Strategy

We asked for feedback from organisations and members of the public on the proposals within the draft road safety strategy.

In total, 243 consultation responses were received from 51 organisations 189 individuals and 3 Councillors.  The former Economy, Skills and Sustainability Overview and Scrutiny Committee also discussed the draft strategy on 23 October 2015 and their comments were included in the consultation review. 

Response data shows that Road Safety is seen as a significant issue in Birmingham (83% of respondents agree with this statement ‘a lot’). Amongst organisations this level of agreement rose to 94%.  Road safety also affects travel choices in Birmingham, with 83% of people stating that it affects the way they, or their family, choose to travel in some way.

Responses showed strong support for the strategic outcomes of the strategy.  All the proposed outcomes were considered important, with ‘reducing the number and severity of collisions’ and ‘reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured as a result of collisions’ eliciting the highest ‘very important’ responses.  For the majority of outcomes, only 3% or fewer of the respondees selected ‘not important’.  Slightly more people (11%) felt that ‘more people making their journeys on foot/bicycle’ was not important, and 5% felt the same about a reduction in total cost to society of collisions.

Views as to whether the road safety strategy addressed vulnerable road users sufficiently were very varied.  Organisations gave a more positive response than individuals and councillors, with 66% agreeing or remaining neutral, as opposed to 40%. 

Responses were slightly more positive on whether the strategy set the correct balance between the needs of Birmingham’s road users. 78% of organisations agreed that it did or were neutral.  However the response from individuals and councillors was again less positive with 52% agreeing or remaining neutral.

On the whole there was agreement that the Road Safety Strategy reflects Birmingham’s road safety challenges correctly. Very few organisations (3%) disagreed with this statement whilst 18% of individuals disagreed.

As a result, a number of recommended amendments have been made to the strategy.  Some are minor amends related to clarification of details, removing small errors, or altering text, whilst others are more strategic.

The revised strategy also takes into account increased resource pressures on Road Safety delivery, and will align closely to Future Council plans and the Business Plan and Budget 2016+.  This has led to an emphasis on partnership working with the Birmingham Road Safety Partnership being a focus for Road Safety delivery across the city, combining resources, campaigns and communication and ensuring direct delivery is coordinated and prioritised in a data-led way.

In summary, key amendments in the final strategy document include:

• A focus on the Birmingham Road Safety Partnership for coordinating all Safer People delivery;
• Development of resources for reporting local road safety and speed concerns;
• Opportunities to trial new technologies, for example Countdown Traffic Signals;
• More coordinated resources to tackle school parking enforcement;
• Alignment with the Young Active Travel initative and Modeshift STARS;
• 20mph roll-out and supporting ‘hearts and minds’ programme a key priority;
• Consideration of future funding models with a focus on sourcing external funds/resource and utilising Corporate Social Responsibility;
• Combined cycle training actions reflecting a forthcoming new Bikeability delivery model; and
• Greater reference to wider cycling infrastructure guidance – Cycling Design standards and the emerging Road Space Allocation Policy.

The final strategy is available at www.birmingham.gov.uk/roadsafetystrategy