Traffic Transport and Road Safety Associates Ltd. (TTRSA)

The Northern Ireland Environment Minister Edwin Poots has announced that road deaths in 2010 reduced to the lowest number since records began in 1931. 55 people were killed in 2010, a dramatic drop from 115 in 2009, and from 171 deaths in 2000.

As snow and ice grip both the UK and Ireland, the effectiveness of snow clearance is limited by, and routes are blocked by, parked and abandoned vehicles.  In the northern parts of the USA and across Canada where these conditions are more common, most local authorities have permanently signed winter parking restrictions on key routes within urban areas, the general rule being parking is as marked except in snow emergencies.

Last week's budget announcement, and subsequent press release from the Department of Transport, clarified the situation regarding transport funding in Ireland for the forthcoming years.  Key elements of the announcements include:

Unit midnight road safety camera enforcement in Ireland consists of eight mobile cameras, 400 hand held speed radar units and approximately 100 Garda Traffic Corps cars which have been fitted with Automatic Numberplate Recognition (ANPR) equipment since 2009, linked to, for example, insurance industry databases.  Now for the future ...

12 months ago Oxford Circus in London was redesigned with an 'X-shaped' pedestrian crossing, also known internationally as a 'pedestrian scramble'. Westminster Council has reported that the crossing, which provides 70% more space for pedestrians to cross has now been used by more than 90 million people, an average of more than 250,000 people per day.