Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the average accident rate is higher on dual carriageways than on three lane roads.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department does not hold any information on the number of lanes in either the road accident data supplied by police forces or road traffic estimates. Therefore it is not possible to provide a comparison between dual carriageway roads and single carriage roads with three lanes.
However, the Department does record the number of carriageways at the scene of accidents as well as the length of ‘A’ roads by number of carriageways. As a guide, in 2015 for Great Britain there were 380 reported personal-injury accidents per billion vehicle miles on single carriageway ‘A’ roads and 140 accidents per billion vehicle miles on dual carriageway ‘A’ roads.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department will (a) approve and (b) fund the upgrade of the A303/A30 between Southfields and Honiton.
Answered by John Hayes
The Road Investment Strategy, covering the period 2015 to 2020, commits funding for small-scale improvements to the A303/A30 between Southfields and Honiton to improve safety and journey quality, alongside a £2bn commitment to upgrade the A303 as a strategic corridor to the South-West. The Department and Highways England are gathering evidence to inform plans for investment in the Strategic Road Network post-2020, and decisions about further investment in this route will be made as part of this process.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will re-evaluate the dualling of the entire A303/A30 corridor.
Answered by John Hayes
The Government is committed to upgrading all single carriageway sections of the A303 and A358 between the M3 and M5 to dual carriageway standard. In respect of the A303/A30 between Southfields and Honiton, Highways England will assess the options for improvements, including dualling, as part of its South West Peninsula route strategy, for which evidence gathering is underway. All interested parties are encouraged to submit evidence on the performance of this route through the tool at: www.highways.gov.uk/route-strategies.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether dual carriageways are more expensive to build than three lane roads.
Answered by John Hayes
Although a two lane dual carriageway might be expected to cost more to build than a three lane single carriageway, simply because it is wider, the costs involved in building new carriageways are influenced by a wide range of considerations specific to the particular location, such as topography, cost of acquiring land etc.