A top National Highways official has said there are ongoing discussions with the Government over how National Highways can achieve zero harm on its network by 2040.
National Highways’ recent Connecting the Country strategic plan to 2050 does not mention the 2040 commitment but states that ‘we will be approaching zero harm on our network’ by 2050.
Elliot Shaw, the company’s chief customer and strategy officer, was asked by Highways whether zero harm by 2040 was still the company’s policy.
Mr Shaw said: ‘We want to continue to improve safety, reduce KSIs on the network. We have a licence commitment and a big push to continue safety.
‘Some of the conversations we need to have, through defining the RIS 3 process, conversations with government will define exactly the level of that trajectory over the next five years.
‘We want to get to zero harm as quickly as possible. I think what’s important is, whatever that ambition is, it does need to be credible and realistic.’
Mr Shaw’s appear to reflect some of the negotiations on safety spending for the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS 3) that could be focussed on getting National Highway back on track to meet the 2040 target.
In 2020, the strategic road network monitor, the Office of Rail and Road published a report commissioned from the Road Safety Foundation (RSF) which concluded that the 2040 harm target was ‘unlikely to be met by current activity’.
The report recommended that ‘urgent work should begin now generating a RIS 3 portfolio with high return safety investment’.
In 2021, National Highways chief executive Nick Harris told Traffex that RIS 3 would ‘feature very clearly safety and journey towards zero harm’. Reflecting the importance of the five-year period, he noted that ‘in 2025 to 2030 we will only be 10 years away from 2040 and our aim of getting to zero’.
However, in a sign that more dedicated spending might be needed to achieve the target, National Highways said earlier this year that while its ‘ambition’ remains to reach zero harm by 2040, it ‘would not wish to predict the 2040 outturn’.
National Highways' Initial Report for RIS 3 sets out a plan to bring 147 carriageway miles on its network up to three stars or above – just 10% of the 1,458 carriageway miles currently rated as one and two stars.
Dr Suzy Charman, executive director of the Road Safety Foundation, told Highways: ‘We have always welcomed the level of ambition behind reaching zero harm on the SRN by 2040. It represents a huge opportunity to prevent death and serious injury on our roads between now and then and would result in very high societal benefits.
‘To reach that goal, National Highways would need to secure significant levels of investment far beyond what has been set aside for road safety interventions in previous investment periods and would need to make a step change in policy and approach.’
