What’s your best idea for making roads safer?

Are you targeting vehicle weight, speed, infrastructure, or other factors to reduce casualties on our roads?

Road safety is everyone’s business. After a steady decline in road fatalities over the past 45 years, the rate has skyrocketed in the past decade. Now, we want to ask you, what can we do to make our roads safer for everyone?

Over the past few decades, automakers have developed a plethora of safety technologies. Despite this, fatal accidents continue to increase, and no one seems to have found a foolproof solution. Previously we covered the complexity of road safety.

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At the time, inadequate safety infrastructure and concerns about pedestrians seemed to play a big role. Today, other factors are becoming just as important. According to The Economist, weight is one of the main reasons why roads are dangerous. It claims that, on average, the heaviest vehicles on the road cause 37 deaths for every 10,000 crashes. Medium-weight vehicles cause only 5.7 deaths per 10,000 crashes, and light vehicles cause only 2.6 deaths.

One solution, then, is for automakers to reduce the weight of their vehicles. Electric vehicles are a classic example. Due to the heavy battery packs they have to lug around, electric cars are heavier than most internal combustion engine vehicles – often ridiculously heavy if we’re talking about trucks. Like it or not, the world is going electric, and it seems like a good idea to keep the weight of new cars to a reasonable level, perhaps achieved through clever design and the use of lightweight materials like aluminum. A lighter car is also easier to maneuver, it can brake faster and steer more accurately in an emergency, all of which can help reduce accidents.

It’s a bold proposition, but hear me out. If we want people to be more focused, attentive drivers, perhaps we should make driving itself more fun. A car that handles well can make the driving experience more rewarding, encouraging drivers to pay more attention to the road and appreciate the art of driving. Think of almost any hobby, like pottery, painting, or playing a musical instrument. Even people who don’t have aspirations of becoming professionals work hard to improve because they enjoy what they do.

Another measure that could help reduce the number of road fatalities is stricter driver licensing and ongoing driver training. We believe that introducing stricter driving tests, regular inspections and mandatory refresher courses to keep drivers sharp, knowledgeable and safe will go a long way towards creating safer streets.

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Furthermore, we should not underestimate the importance of infrastructure and maintenance. Better lighting, clearer signs, new road markings, and repairing potholes and rough surfaces can all help prevent accidents.

Maybe your answer is stricter laws or more advanced car technology, but if so, you’d better be more specific – because these ideas are both broad and vague. So, what do you say? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue in the comments section below.