Traffic And Road Safety
Highways Direct
Environment House
Lombard Street
West Bromwich
B70 8RU
Tel: 0121 569 4139
Fax: 0121 569 4015
Email: highways@sandwell.gov.uk
Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 8.30am - 5.30pm, Friday 8.30am - 5.00pm

Road Safety Engineering

There are a number of hazardous sites around the Borough, these being places where accidents have occurred in the same place over a number of years. Working with the Police we carefully investigate all aspects of accidents at these sites so that we can bring forward engineering measures to make them safer. We have set ourselves the target of reducing casualties in line with national targets published in March 2000. These targets are very challenging and compared to the 1994/98 average.

These targets are:

• A 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents.
• A 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured in road accidents.
• A 10% reduction in the rate of slight road traffic injury accidents.

Whilst achieving these targets is not the sole responsibility of the Council, it has a significant and important role to play in road accident reduction.

Safer routes to School

As part of our efforts to support this promise, we have a programme to encourage more school children to walk, cycle and take the bus to school rather than arriving by car. Funding for the introduction of road safety measures in Sandwell is sought in a number of ways but the majority is obtained from the joint West Midlands Local Transport Plan settlement. LTP funding is basically split into two main budgets for traffic calming works, these being "Local and Area Safety Schemes" and "Traffic Calming".

The "Walking Bus" is now acknowledged as a very significant contribution to this promise. We work closely with schools, parents and pupils to introduce measures which encourage these while ensuring that child safety is at the heart of whatever we do. We can apply a range of solutions to improve safety including cycle and pedestrian facilities, traffic calming measures and road safety training.

Local and Area Safety Schemes

Local and area safety schemes are identified from an annual review of road traffic accident data. Officers from the Traffic and Road Safety Services continually analyse recorded road injury accidents, generally over a five year period. This is carried out to help identify the areas, junctions or lengths of roads where high concentrations of reported road traffic injuries are occurring.

Further analysis of these sites is undertaken to prioritise schemes which will help prevent the most accidents for the least cost. This ensures that the most cost effective schemes, with the greatest potential benefit to the community, are implemented.

Traffic Calming

Numerous requests are regularly received from concerned parties throughout the Borough for traffic calming to be implemented in their area. Due to the limited funding available for such works a Committee approved assessment methodology is used to help prioritise these requests. The assessment technique employed is based on the number of recorded road injury accidents and the speed of vehicles using the area. Particular emphasis is placed on sites where high numbers of child and elderly pedestrian casualties (the most vulnerable user groups) are being recorded through greater weighting in the assessment.

Funding for the highest ranked 2 or 3 sites is bid for annually through the joint West Midlands Local Transport Plan for detailed design and implementation in the following year.

Monitoring

An important part of accident reduction and road safety work is monitoring the effectiveness of remedial measures in terms of accident reduction and economic benefits to the community. The results gained from this procedure are a valuable indicator of the success (or otherwise) of the measures employed.

Schemes are monitored using injury accidents over a three year pre and post implementation period. Between 1991 and 1998 a total of 65 Local Safety Schemes and 19 Traffic Calming Schemes were implemented in Sandwell and monitoring of these schemes show:

Total Average Injury Accident Reduction = 54%
Total Average First Year Rate of Return = 217%
(equivalent to £2.17 saving to the community for every £1 spent)

Speed

The inappropriate, and not always excessive, speed for conditions is a major contribution factor in a majority of road traffic injury accidents. Sandwell Council tackles the problems associated with speed through three different, but linked, areas of work, namely through Engineering, Enforcement and Education.

Engineering can be in the form of traditional traffic calming measures (such as speed humps, chicanes etc), or traffic management (such as reducing speed limits and road closures).

Speed Enforcement is generally the responsibility of West Midlands Police, however, such measures as Safety Cameras and Speed Activated Electronic Warning signs have also been employed in Sandwell to reduce inappropriate traffic speeds.

Education plays a large role in helping maintain acceptable levels of traffic speeds through continuing campaigns such as 'Speed Kills' as well as Driver Improvement courses as an alternative to speeding fines and penalty points.

For information relating to safety cameras visit: www.wmsafetycameras.co.uk

You can complete our Road Safety Investigation Request form if have a particular concern about road safety in your area.

For current information relating to travel and traffic in the West Midlands visit: www.help2travel.co.uk