Tragically the number of people killed and seriously injured (KSI) on our roads remains too high, with almost 30,000 KSIs in the year ending June 2024, a similar level to the previous year. One death or serious injury on our roads is one too many and attitudes across society have changed, with the public increasingly expecting government to deliver zero harm on our roads. However, the challenge of getting to zero harm is significant, and it is vital that organisations in the highways sector work collaboratively, learns from others, and effect exceptional delivery. Arcadis is committed to a zero harm vision and is working with our partners and clients to this end.
What are some of the key challenges around zero harm on our roads?
Driver behaviour
Fatigue, distraction and dangerous driving continue to be leading causes of harm and challenges for the sector to address. According to the UK Department for Transport data, 56% of fatal collisions in 2023 had at least one speed related factor assigned.
Conditions of and on our roads
More extreme weather events, an evolving blend of vehicle types and aging infrastructure assets all pose risk in relation to achieving zero harm.
Scale of interventions
The sheer scale of road networks means that highway asset owners and operators face funding and capacity pressures when implementing solutions to deliver zero harm.
What are the key opportunity areas for zero harm?
Data
Increasingly novel data sources allow more proactive analysis to drive insight-based decision making. Working with our partner Michelin Mobility Intelligence, we examine rich data like harshness of braking, rash driving, speeding, route choices and much more to intelligently inform road safety interventions and associated asset management. AI and machine learning integration gives us the opportunity to supercharge the analysis of this data.
Communication with end users
Increasing digital connectivity and communication provides the opportunity to directly engage drivers on key road safety matters. For example, real-time audio alerts pushed out to connected users based on defined locations, speeds and scenarios.
Taking an end-to-end view
This involves identifying trends and challenges earlier and considering the full spectrum of possible hard and soft infrastructure interventions. This is important to maximising the number of interventions and optimizing their impact.
Pivot points for the sector
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CollaborateAchieving zero harm on our roads is a big challenge that cannot be met by any one organisation. Collaboration between organisations across the private and public side of the highways sector will be crucial in bringing to bear a full range of tools and capability that deliver end-to-end solutions. Arcadis are collaborating closely with Michelin Mobility Intelligence, harnessing multiple data sets from many sources including connected vehicles and devices, to understand the full breadth and depth of end-customer needs so to develop road-safety boosting solutions.
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Question the status quo and learn from othersTo shift the dial towards zero harm, the sector must continue to question accepted assumptions and learn from other industries. Focusing on near misses is one area that has helped reduce accidents in other sectors. A greater focus on near misses on our roads, backed up by the appropriate proactive interventions, is likely to make a difference. With novel data sources and technologies, doing this efficiently in practice for our roads has never been more possible.
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Stay laser-focused on the moneyRoad asset owners and operators have never faced such difficult financial circumstances. Macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions have contributed to considerable pressure on budgets, and we can only achieve zero harm if we can deliver interventions within the available budgets and regulatory plans. Lean and efficient delivery continues to be as important as ever, and this includes operational expenditure with a focus on better asset management, to ensure the system is operating optimally to enhance safety.
Having confidence in what can be achieved
Based on government data fatalities on our roads per billion miles travelled have fallen from 89.7 in 1958 to 5 in 2022, a 94 per cent decrease.
Of course, this scale of improvement does not mean there is not more to do, nor that moving to zero harm on our roads is not a challenge. Indeed, naysayers will say it cannot be done. But this data should give us confidence that with continued diligence, ingenuity and time, substantial further progress towards zero harm will be achievable.
We are up for it. Are you?
