Car-sharing could improve road safety more than cutting speed limit
10/03/2009

The national speed limit on most of Britain's roads is to be cut from 60mph to 50mph in an attempt to reduce the number of fatalities - and cut CO2 emissions. The reduction, which is to be imposed as early as next year, will affect two-thirds of our road network and is likely to upset many motorists.

Roads Minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, has acknowledged that some in the driving lobby will consider this move a restriction on people's freedom. "But when you compare that to the fact we are killing 3,000 people a year on our roads, it would be irresponsible not to do something about it," he added.

Liftshare fully supports this move in its aim to protect the safety of road users. Yet whilst the Department for Transport has found that reducing the speed limit could save 200-250 lives a year, research carried out by Privilege Insurance shows that car-sharing could be even more beneficial to road safety.

Privilege's findings (2006) revealed that half as many drivers were involved in an accident when driving with a passenger compared to when driving alone; meanwhile 20% of lone motorists had been pulled over by the police due to the poor quality of their driving, compared to less than half that number who had been pulled over when driving with someone else in the car.

"Reducing speed is certainly one way to cut the number of deaths on the road," said Liftshare's founder, Ali Clabburn. "But it is important to bear in mind that there may be some more socially acceptable ways to reduce the potential for accidents, such as by having more than one person in each car.

"Car-sharing is a simple, sociable and uncontroversial way to make our roads safer."

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