IS ROAD SAFETY POSSIBLE ?
LAST week's debate in the House of Lords, on Lard Newton's successful motion that a Select Com- mittee be appointed to enquire into means of reducing the number of accidents on the roads, provided yet another- occasion for discussing a problem which so far has defeated all the efforts of administrators and legislators. As the Bishop of Winchester pointed out, a minor epidemic of typhoid in Croydon aroused violent indignation ; but the death of 6,000 people on the roads every year is accepted with a callousness and indifference which can only be explained by the monotony with which, despite all efforts, the accident rate continues to increase. If an evil persists long enough, if it comes to seem incurable, people become inured to it, or accept it as a kind of unavoidable punishment from heaven. It is probable that nothing would make people more ashamed of the terrible waste of life on the roads than the discipery of measures which seemed likely to prevent it. But unless a cure is at hand it is more convenient, and indeed advisable, to regard any evil as a fault in nature rather than in ourselves. For this reason it is to be hoped that the Select Committee will be able to reach some agreed conclusion on the remedy to be suggested ; for the fatalism with which men and women accept the thousands of deaths that occur every year is in large part due to the multiplicity and contradictoriness of the proposals made for preventing them.
What are the various proposals into which the Committee may enquire, and which are most likely to achieve the desired end ? They may perhaps be divided into three groups, each of which found its advocates in the debate last week. In the first may be placed those proposals intended to prevent accidents by increasing the restrictions and regulations controlling motoring, and also increasing the penalties for breaking them. They include a- severer application of the speed limit, in some cases even proposing an absolute limit of 3o miles an hour, and severer penalties on the faulty driver, varying from confiscating the vehicle to suspending the licence of any -driver involved in an accident. Such measures had several advocates in the Lords, some of whom reduced their arguments to absurdity by their animosity against the driver and against motoring in general. Thus Lord Ponsonby thought that widening roads only increased accidents and " roundabouts " only allowed motorists to drive round and round murdering inoffensive villagers ; and Viscount Cecil believed that, owing to young people's love of speed, no one under 25 should be allowed to drive. It is difficult to doubt that such proposals are inspired, not without justification, by a dislike of motor-cars and motoring as' such, as a kind of vice' which' should be suppressed as much as possible ; but it is doubtful whether they will eliminate its dangers.
Their real justification, of course, is to be found in the attitude which some motorists show towards the regulations that already exist. To those who are not motorists there is something repellent in the delight and pride with which some drivers evade regulations, speed-limits and restrictions, whenever they can with impunity. But it is clear that the evasion of existing regulations cannot be prevented by imposing more and even severer regulations. It is almost certain that the only effect of such a course would be to bring the regulations into contempt ; and it is the fate of such legislation not to be obeyed. Further, it is likely that the multiplication of penalties and restrictions would create very real obstacles to the development of motoring and the motor-car industry ; and though on aesthetic or sentimental grounds one may dislike the motor-car and often its driver, it is impossible to doubt that it is an immense benefit to mankind. And it is certain, whatever we feel, that motoring will increase ; the attempt to cure its dangers merely by restriction can only result in even greater confusion than exists at present, in an immense labyrinth of regulations and penalties that are accepted with hostility and avoided whenever possible. There is, however, a strong case for insisting that the present regulations should be more exactly observed ; and in the second group of proposals may be placed those which attempt to achieve this end. Among them, as the most typical, may be placed the Ministry of Transport's measures to obtain increased courtesy on the roads, stricter observation of rules and regulations, an attitude of mind which will accept restrictions willingly and not unwillingly, and to provide an increased number of mobile police to detect infractions of the law. It is possible also that more thorough enquiry into accidents is necessary.
Yet it is not claimed for such measures that they constitute a cure ; they are, and can be, no more than a palliative. In the third class of proposals are those which aim at securing a large and absolute decrease in the number of accidents, and especially at making provision not only for the present but the future. It is not enough, for instance, that the accident rate per t,000 cars should be reduced ; if the numbers of cars on the roads increase as rapidly as they will and should, this may be com- patible with an immense increase in the number of deaths. And it may be that the main and persistent factor in accidents is what is called " the human element," the faulty or careless driver ; there may be a kind of original sin in motorists which impels them to cause accidents ; it does not follow that the best method of guarding against it is by penalties and restrictions. Indeed, the facts seem to show that the best method of sterilising this element is by providing conditions in which it has least opportunity for causing damage. We already know that most accidents occur; not on the new trunk roads, but on subsidiary roads ; and the evidence of the new German Autobahnen goes to show that on the most modern roads the number of accidents. may be reduced by as much as 83 per cent. As for pedes- trians, it is evident that they are best protected by pro- viding motor roads on which pedestrians are not allowed at all. It is to this third group of proposals, as a means of reconciling the interests of motorists, of the motor industry, and of the ordinary citizens, of making provision for the future as well as the present, that most attention needs to be given. Safety- is to be secured not by penalising the motorist for mistakes in conditions where MistakeS are sometimes almost unavoidable, but by providing the roads which actually encourage safe driving.
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