Nearly £3m boost for safer roads across North Yorkshire
Among the plans including improvements to the A19
Nearly £3 million has been promised to help create safer roads across North Yorkshire.
It's part of a £38.3 million government investment to improve road safety on 17 of the country’s most high risk roads - the Department for Transport has announced today (19 March 2024).
Among the plans including improvements to the A19 - these changes are expected to prevent around 11 fatal and serious injuries over 20 years.
Across the country, improvements elsewhere will include:
• Designing new junctions and roundabouts
• Improving signage and road markings
• New road surfacing and landscape management
• Improved pedestrian crossings and cycle lanes
The £38.3 million funding across England comes on top of the £147.5m already invested to deliver life-saving improvements on 82 high risk roads across England. This round of funding is expected to save 385 lives over the next 20 years, as well as reduce congestion, improve journey times and lower emissions.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said:
“Britain’s roads are some of the safest in the world, but we are always looking at ways to help keep drivers and all road users safe.
“As part of the Government’s plan to improve roads across the country, we’re providing an extra £38 million so that local councils in England have the support they need to keep everyone safe, while reducing congestion and helping to grow the economy.”
According to the Road Safety Foundation (RSF), it is estimated that all tranches of the Safer Road Fund will save nearly 2,600 fatal and serious injuries over the next 20 years.
Dr Suzy Charman, Executive Director of RSF said:
“The Safer Roads Fund is a transformational initiative for road safety and for the local authorities receiving funds. It makes it possible for road safety teams across the country to proactively address risk of death and serious injury for all road users on these routes.
“Systematic changes have already had a big impact on road death and serious injury, for example seatbelts and airbags protect lives when crashes happen. In the same way we can design roads so that when crashes happen people can walk away, by clearing or protecting roadsides, putting in cross hatching to add space between vehicles, providing safer junctions like roundabouts or adding signalisation and/or turning pockets, and including facilities for walking and cycling."
Steve Gooding, Director, RAC Foundation:
“The Safer Roads Fund is the hugely welcome gift that keeps on giving, because today’s announcement means another 120 miles of safer road improvements will be delivered to the benefit of users. Such incremental improvements are key to achieving our collective aim for a safer road network as a whole.”