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"You're Either Quick or Dead", Warns Ramblers' Association [11 April 2003]

LIVES ARE being put at risk on hundreds of footpaths across the country due to the dangers involved when crossing roads where no provision has been made for a safe crossing point, a damning report published today by the Ramblers' Association (RA) shows.

The findings of You’re Either Quick or Dead, a report compiled by RA members from personal experience, show that peoples’ safety is being unnecessarily jeopardised by a lack of investment and strategic planning by local authorities. 

The report lists over 1000 road crossings around the country where increased traffic volumes and speeds have made it impossible to cross roads that sever the footpath network without risking serious injury or death. In many cases these crossings have already been the site of a number of serious accidents involving pedestrians.  Solely in economic terms, preventing these accidents would save £2.4 billion annually.

The report identifies numerous roads where a large volume of fast moving traffic divides communities and makes going for a walk a life-threatening activity. While the Highways Agency is working to identify and remedy dangerous crossings on its network, many local authorities have failed to respond to the dangers faced by walkers, cyclists and horse riders by increased car usage[1], and the RA is urging them to tackle the problems before more people are injured or killed[2].

One survey[3] found that 84% of local authorities expect traffic levels to be worse in 10 years, but that 83% of local authorities found it difficult to implement transport improvements and 62% stated that transport funds get diverted to other budgets. 

Jacquetta Fewster, Head of Footpath Campaigns, said: “Walkers are being forced to dodge fast moving vehicles on busy roads, the dangers of which are obvious. Many people are rightly too scared to cross these roads, and the net effect is that people are being cut off from the countryside. With over 40,000 pedestrian road accidents in 2001 alone, it is up to local authorities and the Highways Agency to make crossing a road safer for pedestrians.”

[1] Road Traffic in the UK grew by 73% between 1980 and 2002 (DfT Transport Trends 2002); Road Traffic is forecast to increase by up to 48% by 2026 (DETR). In 2001, there were 40,577 pedestrian road accident casualties, 826 pedestrians were killed (DfT, Road Accidents in Great Britain: 2001, The Casualty Report).

[2] Rural roads, especially A Roads, are the most dangerous.  60 % of all fatal accidents occur on rural roads (National Travel Survey, 2000); In 2000, 189 people were killed on the motorways in Britain compared to 1,806 fatalities on rural, non built-up roads (Transport Minister Sally Keeble); Pedestrians and cyclists are more than twice as likely to be killed on UK roads than in Sweden or the Netherlands (Commission for Integrated Transport, 2001).

[3] Survey commissioned by CfIT, carried out by WS Atkins, Autumn 2002.

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