Road safety plan will reflect changing transport lifestyles

More and more people are changing their transport lifestyles by using public transport, cycling and walking, according to a new road safety plan for Co Meath. The plan was outlined in a presentation to councillors at last week’s monthly meeting of Meath Co Council.

However, it also points out “alarming trends in driver behaviour – between 2013 and 2017 25 per cent of drivers killed were speeding and 36 per cent of drivers killed for the same period had a positive toxicology report for alcohol.

Failure to wear seat belts, using mobile phone and falling asleep were also heavy contributors to fatalities and serious injuries.

The plan – entitled Road Safety Plan 2022-2024 Promoting Safer Roads – and prepared by the council’s road safety officer, Michael Finnegan in conjunction with Caroline Corrigan from the Transportation Department and other departments in the council – is expected to be adopted at the April meeting of the council.

The document deals with the Government’s Road Safety Plan 2021-2030; Safe Systems Approach; Profile and Population of Co Meath; Road, cycle and footway network; Travel patterns (national); The impact of Covid-19; Commuter Patterns (Meath); fatalities long-term trends; Collision and Casualty trends 2015-2021; Casualties by gender and age; Casualty trends by residence, month, day of the week and times; Casualty trend by driving behaviour and impairment.

In 2021 the national road safety strategy – Our Journey towards Vision Zero – was launched with the aim of cutting death and injuries by half by 2030 through 50 high impact actions and 136 support actions. Seven “safe system” priority interventions will be made – to continue to improve the protective quality of roads and associated infrastructure; to reduce speeds to a level commensurate with the roads being used; enhance safety features and roadworthiness of vehicles; to improve road user standards and behaviour; to improve the treatment and rehabilitation of collision casualties; to promote and protect road users engaging in public or active transport; to improve safety management of work-related journeys.

The report describes a profile of the county as falling within the Dublin commuter belt with many people travelling to the city from and through Meath. Eastern and Southern parts of the county have seen significant residential development while the remainder remains largely rural and the population has soared from 162,626 in 2006 to 220,296 in 2022.

The council is responsible for the maintenance of over 3,610km of roads and strong investment has resulted in an improved network of national, regional and local roads while there has been allocation of funding for active travel facilities for cyclists and pedestrians. Data collected at national level (likely to be repeated locally) shows that more than half of all journeys were for 15 minutes or less in duration while just 5.1 per cent of journeys were undertaken for 60 minutes or more. Statistics show that older people are travelling less and this may be a fallout from Covid.

The residual impact of Covid showed a drop in car journeys but in thinly-populated areas the number of car journeys increased. There is an estimated increase in the number of electric vehicles – in 2020 24,416 EVs were registered, up by 59.5 per cent on 2019.

Apart from 2016 when there were 12 deaths on Meath roads, the trend has been steady with seven fatalities per year for a number of years between 2015 and 2020. Serious injury collisions amounted to 34 in 2015 but this went up to 52 in 2020.

“Looking at the age profile of casualties for both genders there is a clear trend towards younger age groups for both genders with 58 per cent of female casualties falling into the 21-30-year age bracket and 30 per cent for males. This high figure for males extends by the same percentage into the 31-40-year age band”, the report says.