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How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

ourworldindata.org

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Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#61

Post by JdeBP »

closewith wrote: post #54
hdgvhicv wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are causing a delay you are responsible for pulling over. Most slow vehicles do - bikes, horses, tractors. Just the idiot townies who filled their sat nav rather than the diversion signs. You get people doing 15mph down a road like this https://maps.app.goo.gl/76GxECaTe9ESePGY9?g_st=ic They should be banned.

> You get people doing 15mph down a road like this What speed do you think is appropriate on that road?

Given that it's the A836, it's worth constrasting this with the fact that in 2025 many of the people committing traffic offences on the coastal part of that road just to the north were locals, not "townies" unfamiliar with the area.

* https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/vast-majority-of-s...

And then, of course, there's the part of the A836 further south known as the Balblair Straight.

* https://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/death-of-pensioner-ang...

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#62

Post by rich_sasha »

UK is extremely risk-averse. In the case of road safety, it shows: a lot of time and cash goes into minimising deaths.

This is not only road users: roadworks have restrictive speed limits, which are not taken down when there is no workforce out, to minimise risk to workers setting and unsetting limits, traffic cones etc. Things that in other countries would close a lane often close the whole road, again because of risks to road users and maintenance people.

This is of course great, but also very expensive - and I cannot shake the feeling that the UK loses so much money on this risk aversion that is actually causes more hazard due to underinvestment elsewhere. NHS is crumbling, the very safe roads take forever to navigate, introducing inefficiencies and starving the central budget of cash. GDP per capita has barely grown since 2008. Even a small annual boost would unlock a lot of cash for investment, in particular into NHS and saving lives.

It's like putting all your pension investments into bonds, because they are safer. But you swap market risk for the risk of not having enough cash when you retire.

But maybe it's easy to have this perspective because I have a desk job and commute by public transport.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#63

Post by masfuerte »

throwaway290 wrote: post #21
marliechiller wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are you stepping on them?

because sometimes you unplug it and leave it around. unless you live like a king sometimes there is 2 sockets and you have 5 devices to plug at different times. european and other ones will be on the side so stepping on it is no problem but uk ones will be the pointy end up

Live like a king!

Are these prices beyond your means?

https://www.argos.co.uk/search/extension-lead/

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#64

Post by louthy »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #2

From the footer: > Our World in Data is a project of Global Change Data Lab, a nonprofit based in the UK (Reg. Charity No. 1186433). I'm a Brit too, but this article felt a bit too self-congratulatory given I've read other recent reports about other places (cites, regions, and entire countries) with overall safer roads; kinda like how we love to tell everyone how chuffed we are with how safe our AC plugs are.

> kinda like how we love to tell everyone how chuffed we are with how safe our AC plugs are.

I never see Brits saying this. Only people from other nations.

The plugs are the safest though!

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#65

Post by louthy »

rich_sasha wrote: post #62

UK is extremely risk-averse. In the case of road safety, it shows: a lot of time and cash goes into minimising deaths. This is not only road users: roadworks have restrictive speed limits, which are not taken down when there is no workforce out, to minimise risk to workers setting and unsetting limits, traffic cones etc. Things that in other countries would close a lane often close the whole road, again because of ri…

Seems a rather tenuous link to the state of the NHS. The UK has a lower tax regime than most equivalent nations. If we wanted a better NHS we could just collect similar tax rates to that of Germany or other western nations.

One of the issues is we’re trapped with a media ecosystem that won’t even allow progressive parties to say “we’ll take a bit more in tax and in return you’ll get a functioning health service”, instead they feel they have to promise to run the economy like the Tories (which is mind numbing).

It’s not just the recent Labour election I’m referring to. The first time Blair got in it was the same.

We get the services we deserve.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#66

Post by closewith »

JdeBP wrote: post #61
closewith wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You get people doing 15mph down a road like this What speed do you think is appropriate on that road?

Given that it's the A836, it's worth constrasting this with the fact that in 2025 many of the people committing traffic offences on the coastal part of that road just to the north were locals, not "townies" unfamiliar with the area. * https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/vast-majority-of-s... And then, of course, there's the part of the A836 further south known as the Balblair Straight. * https://news.stv.tv/hig…

Yeah. I do think 15mi/h or 24km/h is appropriate speed for that road if you want it to be usable by vulnerable road users.

I just wondered what hdgvhicv considered appropriate.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#67

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

louthy wrote: post #64
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #2

From the footer: > Our World in Data is a project of Global Change Data Lab, a nonprofit based in the UK (Reg. Charity No. 1186433). I'm a Brit too, but this article felt a bit too self-congratulatory given I've read other recent reports about other places (cites, regions, and entire countries) with overall safer roads; kinda like how we love to tell everyone how chuffed we are with how safe our AC plugs are.

> kinda like how we love to tell everyone how chuffed we are with how safe our AC plugs are. I never see Brits saying this. Only people from other nations. The plugs are the safest though!

Oblig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEfP1OKKz_Q

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#68

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

throwaway290 wrote: post #21
marliechiller wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are you stepping on them?

because sometimes you unplug it and leave it around. unless you live like a king sometimes there is 2 sockets and you have 5 devices to plug at different times. european and other ones will be on the side so stepping on it is no problem but uk ones will be the pointy end up

> european and other ones will be on the side

There's almost a dozen different plug/socket types used in Europe though: https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/Overview.html

I will say, you definitely can tread on a German "Schuhko" plug (if it has a flat face) just like a UK one.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#69

Post by petesergeant »

reorder9695 wrote: post #58
electroglyph wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're pullin my leg. is that a proper road or a bicycle path?

Proper road, very common type of road in the countryside. You're lucky there it doesn't have grass up the middle. You'd realistically be doing about 20mph on it, although speeding up when you can see far ahead and it's straight, slowing down coming up to a bend where you cant see what's coming.

> You'd realistically be doing about 20mph on it

This is not my experience riding as a passenger with locals

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#70

Post by zelos »

louthy wrote: post #65
rich_sasha wrote: post #62

UK is extremely risk-averse. In the case of road safety, it shows: a lot of time and cash goes into minimising deaths. This is not only road users: roadworks have restrictive speed limits, which are not taken down when there is no workforce out, to minimise risk to workers setting and unsetting limits, traffic cones etc. Things that in other countries would close a lane often close the whole road, again because of ri…

Seems a rather tenuous link to the state of the NHS. The UK has a lower tax regime than most equivalent nations. If we wanted a better NHS we could just collect similar tax rates to that of Germany or other western nations. One of the issues is we’re trapped with a media ecosystem that won’t even allow progressive parties to say “we’ll take a bit more in tax and in return you’ll get a functioning health service”, ins…

That's pretty much been Lib Dem policy since 1992, but they finally gave up on it in 2023: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66910334
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