How To Improve Road Safety

Traveling by road is actually one of the deadliest forms of transport employed by humans. A casual trip to your local grocery on a Sunday afternoon can turn into a disaster with something as simple as a traffic light malfunction, no one needs to be speeding, distracted or intoxicated. These concerns are considered and addressed by dedicated people everyday and with good reason, road fatalities account for a large number of accidental deaths every year.

The roads

Many factors affect road safety, a major one being human actions, of course, however there are many more factors to consider before you decide on developing measures to address the problem of road safety. For instance, faulty vehicles, either through wear and tear or manufacturer design, have also been known to contribute to accidents on the roads. There is also the matter of visibility, poorly lighted streets or areas prone to fogging as well as walls and buildings can also create hazardous situations for motorists.

Authorities have taken some measure to reduce the risks caused by these features, for example, convex mirrors are often placed at blind corners while signs and speed bumps are used in areas where unwanted speeding might temp drivers. A good solutions for problems arising out of location would be the authorities to begin planning of new, well design road systems. This could alleviate traffic drastically while providing well organized fast and slow routes.

The drivers

It is quite possible to posses a valid drivers permit, without being able to handle every driving situation that can arise on the roads. I believe that driving schools should be required to teach drivers the basic of defensive driving before issuing a drivers permit, with probationary periods where new drivers are required to drive in the presence of a licensed person for some time before acquiring their full permission to operate a vehicle.

One suggestion for improving road safety, that I favor highly, is eliminating privately owned small vehicles from the roadways during peak hours and replacing them with more efficient, large public transportation vehicles like buses and trains.

In my opinion, the safest the roads can be made would be to completely eliminate it as a method of transport. It is inefficient and unpredictable while being extremely expensive both to the economy, our natural resources and the environment. The roads are not only unsafe to motorists, their emissions contribute to a significant amount of our yearly pollution in both gaseous emissions and liquid wastes, like oil changes.