Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2030 Draft Public Consultation

The Road Safety Framework to 2030 sets out a compelling long-term goal for road safety, Vision Zero, where there are zero fatalities and injuries on Scotland’s roads by 2050. The journey to achieving this vision will also include ambitious interim targets where the number of people being killed or seriously injured on our roads will be halved by 2030. Views were sought on the proposed vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world, outcomes, Safe System approach to road safety policy and delivery, list of challenges and strategic actions, Interim Targets, Intermediate Outcome Targets and Key Performance Indicators, governance structure and feedback from the previous Framework on what worked or worked less, to inform proposals for achieving the targets and the vision.

In total, there were 203 responses to the consultation, of which 67 were from organisations and 136 from individuals.

Key themes from the consultation responses were as follows:

• A desire for greater levels of funding and resources, without which it was perceived that it would not be possible to achieve the Strategy’s vision or outcomes.
• Improved infrastructure and road design that allows for safe travel by all road users. Some respondents also perceived the current vision to be too driver-centric.
• Reduction in speed limits, with calls for 20mph limits and zones particularly in urban areas and/or where there are vulnerable road users.
• Increased levels of enforcement to improve the effectiveness of road safety interventions, with a perceived association between higher levels of enforcement and higher levels of obeying traffic regulations.
• Ongoing monitoring and review as an essential element in delivery of a road safety framework, alongside effective governance. Organisational responses also called for improved and additional data sources.
• Road safety to be better aligned with other Government policies and strategies.
• Requirement for a more definitive commitment to each of the actions, outcomes and KPIs.

The new framework continues to have a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030 and five strategic outcomes built around the Safe System;  Safe Roads & Roadsides, Safe Users, Safe Speeds, Safe Vehicles and Post-Crash Response. However, various changes have been made to the original consultation version, either as a result of latest Scottish Government policy, consultation responses, or considerations from the impact assessments.  Clarification has been made that the Framework will focus not only on road casualties reduction (“old-fashioned” approach) but also road danger reduction (New holistic approach encompassed by the Safe System). We introduced the concept of equality of restraints applied to road traffic whereby there needs to be a balance between freedom from road traffic harm and freedom to travel. Road safety is now defined as any policy, project, plan, programme or strategy that aim at reducing the number and severity of road traffic casualties or reducing road danger through better education, designing, building, operation and use of the road system. An additional two actions have also been added, resulting in a total of 12 Strategic Actions.  The additional actions are listed below

• Engineering: we will improve road infrastructure and maintenance.
• Inequality: we will reduce road safety inequality due to socio-economic disadvantage of people living in areas of deprivation