28 October 2019

The Government has today published its response the the Transport Select Committee's report 'Local roads funding and maintenance: filling the gap', which was published in July 2019.

The Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) is pleased to note that the importance of road markings is reflected within the Government response as part of the planned DfT ‘Local Road Health-check’, which is supported by the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG).

Stu McInroy, chief executive of the RSMA, said:

“We welcome the national examination of road markings to help improve road safety. Such a study is long overdue and will, I believe, provide hard evidence of the decline in road markings and the associated increase in road safety risk to the public.”

The need for more understanding of the road risk due to neglected road markings was also highlighted in the original Transport Committee report. Matthew Lugg from the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transport commented:

“Markings are really important to the user for navigating the network and for road safety.’’

Stu McInroy added:

“Road markings are widely overlooked as a road safety improvement. The iRAP road safety toolkit provides incontrovertible evidence that improved road safety markings in terms of delineation, cross-hatching and rumble strips are low cost and can reduce casualties by as much as 25%.

“We believe that the DfT survey results should be the basis for a major maintenance and improvement programme and when that happens Local Authorities should prioritise value for money over cost. The use of a National Highways Sector Scheme 7 contractor gives a client confidence that appropriate materials are professionally applied by qualified operators and that the contractor's tender has considered the minimisation of disruption and mitigation of other risk factors.”

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