CIHT recognises road safety scheme

24 June 2015

Story from Road Safety GB

An initiative to improve driver behaviour on the A9 trunk road, a 246-mile route which connects central Scotland and the Highlands, won the CIHT (Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation) John Smart Road Safety Award. The John Smart Road Safety Award is in recognition of the CIHT’s former director of technical affairs, who passed away suddenly in 2012. John Smart had a strong personal and professional commitment to improving road safety throughout his career.

The winner, the A9 Interim Plan developed by the A9 Safety Group, covers four key areas:

• communication - establishing a dedicated website
• engineering - improvements to signing, lining and visibility
• education – a campaign targeting overtaking and speed limits
• and enforcement - introduction of an average speed camera system

The strategy also increased the speed limit for HGVs exceeding 7.5t. As a result, speeding offences have been reduced by a factor of eight, overall speeding is down from one in three drivers to one in 20, and examples of excessive speeding (10mph+) are down by 97%.

The CIHT judges were “impressed with the scale of the measures, which combine a package of education and communications strategies, and enforcement to address a significant road safety problem on an extensive route”.

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