Skip to main content

Britain's white line road markings a safety hazard

White lines on nearly a third of Britain’s single-carriageway A-roads are so worn out they do not meet recognised standards, according to the LifeLines Report from the Road Safety Marking Association (RSMA).
February 21, 2012 Read time: 1 min
White lines on nearly a third of Britain’s single-carriageway A-roads are so worn out they do not meet recognised standards, according to the LifeLines Report from the Road Safety Marking Association (RSMA). The assessment of more than 2,400km of the network also reveals that Britain’s most dangerous roads have the most worn-out centre-line markings of all, leaving drivers “clueless when trying to read the road.” Two-thirds of all UK road deaths and serious injuries are on rural A-roads, and of over 1,600km of such roads surveyed, on average 14% of road markings are completely worn out, and 15% fall into the “amber” zone and should immediately be scheduled for replacement. Only 29% of lines reach the acceptable level of visibility.
George Lee, national director of the RSMA, said: “I believe that this year’s LifeLines Report presents evidence of sufficient public concern to merit an inquiry by Parliament’s Transport Select Committee, and that’s something we will seek.”

Related Content

  • Implementing road safety initiatives
    July 13, 2012
    Blair Turner examines infrastructure options for achieving Safe System outcomes and their implementation in Australia Like a number of other developed countries around the world, Australia has recently adopted a 'Safe System' approach to addressing road safety. This approach, which stems from Sweden's Vision Zero and Sustainable Safety in the Netherlands, recognises that humans as road users are fallible and will make mistakes. There are also limits to the kinetic energy exchange that humans can tolerate (
  • Eradicating work zone danger
    June 26, 2013
    New safety systems for highway work zones are helping to reduce deaths and injuries in the United States, while much work is being done in Europe to improve work zone safety. Guy Woodford reports. With more road building underway than at any one time in Texas history, the US Lone Star state’s Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is introducing its first highway safety system with queue-warning technology and temporary rumble strips to cut work zone collisions. Debuting along a central Texas stretch of the
  • Latin America road safety plan proposed
    June 14, 2019
    A new report suggests key strategies to cut road deaths and injuries in Latin America. The report was commissioned by Bloomberg Philanthropies and shows that more than 25,000 Latin American lives could be saved and over 170,000 serious injuries prevented by 2030 if United Nations (UN) vehicle safety regulations were applied by four key countries in the region—Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Brazil. The report was prepared by the UK-based Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). The aim of the study was to estimat
  • UK drivers urged not to eat at wheel after alarming survey
    February 21, 2014
    UK drivers are being urged to take a break and enjoy their food away from their vehicles, as road safety charity Brake and Direct Line reveal more than six in ten (62%) have eaten at the wheel in the past year. Further alarming figures revealed that three in ten (29%) unwrapped food themselves at the wheel - a telling symptom, says Brake and Direct Line, of busy lifestyles putting lives at risk. Studies have suggested eating a meal at the wheel increases your risk of a devastating crash as much as talking