Slough Experiment Cuts Serious Accidents
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INTRODUCING a report on the Slough experiment to the Road Safety Congress in London last week, speakers gave illustrated details
,. of two year's propaganda and engineer ing work. .
Mr. D. C. Haselgrove, assistant secretary, Road Safety Division of the Ministry of Transport, who spoke as chairman of the management committee of the experiment, said it was the first attempt in this country to apply all methods to help road safety. Deaths and serious casualties had been reduced by 10 per cent. compared with those in the previous two years in the Slough area.
The experiment had concentrated on engineering, enforcement and education.
Approximately £2 per head of the Slough population had been spent over the two years, of which 2s. 6d. was on propaganda and £1 17s. 6d. on engineering works. Over £130,000 had been spent. Although there was much. more study to do before final conclusions could be made, "we are confident we have had considerable success," he said.
. Mr. N. T. Berry, town clerk of Slough, described the work undertaken. Among the multitude of publicity methods used, 1.000 concerns and 20,000 homes received copies of the new Highway Code; free tests of road worthiness of vehicles were given; two eliminating rounds of the Lorry Driver of the Year Competition were held in Slough, and refresher courses for drivers were staged; radar speed checks were introduced (no prosecutions were made, but reductions in speed were marked); safe routes to school were planned and maps sent to individual schoolchildren.
Mr. Berry concluded: "Statistics have shown that the townspeople have become very much aware of the implications of the experiment and, indeed many have felt that the success of the scheme might have a profound effect on Government thinking and on the proportion of the national resources to be set aside for road safety."
Mr. E. Gardner Thorp, borough engineer of Slough, mentioning the linked signal system, said the objection of drivers that it did not permit highci speeds at night ran counter to the intention to discover whether reduced speed would reduce accidents. The master controller could vary the speed within certain limits to send waves of traffic through Slough.
The experiment was initiated by the Ministry of Transport and 'undertaken as a joint operation by the Slough Borough Council, the Ministry, the Road Research Laboratory, the Central Office of Information Social Survey Unit, the Buckinghamshire County Police and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
Studies on the experiment may continue for several years.