The Department for Transport has announced a boost of £47.5 million to improve safety on 27 of England’s most dangerous roads.
The investment comes as part of a third round of the Safer Roads Fund, designated for improving road safety and aimed at 50 high-risk roads across the country.
The fund will bring about 27 new schemes that benefit road users by designing better junctions and improving signs and road markings. These upgrades will reduce the risk of collisions, as well as congestion, journey times and emissions.
The third round of the scheme is estimated to prevent around 760 serious and fatal injuries over the next two decades. The Road Safety Foundation analysis also suggests it will bring a benefit of £420 million to society.
Mark Harper, Transport Secretary, 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. We’re injecting £47.5 million so that local councils around the country have the support they need to keep everyone safe while reducing congestion and emissions and supporting local economies.”
The investment figure was calculated using independent data provided by the Road Safety Foundation. The data was analysed based on the risk to road safety, taking into account fatalities and serious injuries, along with traffic levels and congestion.
The government has said it will continue to deliver improvements across all roads in the UK, working with local authorities and safety groups as part of the fund’s work. So far, the programme has provided £100 million to upgrade the 50 most dangerous ‘A road’ sections in England, many of which are rural, through safer junction designs, pedestrian crossings, and new signage.
Bringing about engineering interventions as part of the improvements, it is hoped that those upgrades will prevent approximately 1,450 serious and fatal injuries over the next 20 years.
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