Green Central: click here to read Times Online's environment blog

Redesigning roads to leave drivers and pedestrians uncertain about who has priority will save lives, according to a report by Britain’s most senior transport officials. The move would automatically cut traffic speed without the need for cameras, they say.

Barriers and signs such as railings, kerbs, traffic lights and white lines cause crashes because people assume they will keep them safe and therefore fail to focus on what other road users are doing. Giving drivers less information by removing signs will encourage them to slow down to negotiate a safer course along high streets and across junctions.

The report by the County Surveyors’ Society, which represents local authority directors responsible for most roads in England and Wales, recommends a revolution in road design. It calls for widespread adoption of the concept of “shared space”, pioneered in the Netherlands and better known in Britain as “naked streets”.

It says: “Paradoxically, creating barriers and divisions may worsen safety because drivers and riders feel more confident and speed up, despite the limitations on the speed at which the human mind can take in the amount of information now displayed on our roads. The human response to increased in-car and on-road safety may be to increase risky behaviour.

“We are social animals and there is some evidence that the removal of control and the creation of uncertainty can help slow traffic and elicit more considerate behaviour.”

In the Dutch town of Drachten the removal of traffic lights at one big junction resulted in crashes falling from 36 in the four years before the scheme was introduced to two in the next two years. The average time for each vehicle to cross the junction fell from 50 seconds to 30 seconds despite a rise in the volume of traffic.

In Kensington High Street, West London, fewer pedestrians are being injured after almost 600 metres of railings were removed to allow people to cross where they liked. In the two years since they were removed, pedestrian casualties declined three times faster than the capital’s average. Traffic engineers believe that drivers are keeping a sharper eye out for pedestrians because they may cross at any point.

The report, Travel is Good, was compiled by an influential group that included Robert Devereux, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport, Gwyneth Dunwoody, chairman of the Commons Transport Select Committee, and Sir Martin Doughty, chairman of Natural England. It considers how to deal with problems likely to be encountered in transport over the next 40 years.

Ben Hamilton Baillie, a transport consultant who contributed to the report, said it marked acceptance at the highest levels of shared space principles that five years ago were considered outlandish. Roads in Bath, Ashford in Kent, and Ancoats in Manchester are being converted to shared space. Work will begin next year on removing kerbs and giving pedestrians greater priority on Exhibition Road in West London

The report also urges the Government to “stay the course” in implementing road pricing but adds that there should be investment first in alternative travel choices and transparency in how the revenue is spent.

It says studies are needed to assess the potential knock-on effect when drivers divert to other roads from routes with high per-mile charges.

The report accepts that climate change is a reality and says that Mediterranean weather could increase travel to and within Britain, resulting in added congestion. It cautions that flooding and falling trees will be a growing threat to the transport infrastructure. It also points to the increased likelihood of sudden structural failures resulting from subsidence and landslips because of soil saturation and the scouring action of rain and rivers.

The report does not regard biofuels as a viable solution on the scale required to replace fossil fuels. It points out that biofuels would be competing for limited land with much needed food crops. It calls on the Government to put in place legislation and financial incentives to encourage conversion to hydrogen as the road transport fuel of the future.

Times Recommends

• UN may halt 400-year-old 'freedom of the seas'
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone
• Gas deal on hold, but Ukraine may pay in the end