Shortsighted: why uk media misses the full picture on road safety

When it comes to road harm, the UK’s mainstream media's gaze is uncomfortably narrow. Take the latest example: a wave of coverage on plans for compulsory eye tests for older drivers.

Of course, decent eyesight is a basic prerequisite for getting behind the wheel - but in all the column inches, one question went unasked: what actually works to cut deaths and serious injuries on our roads? That omission matters, because elsewhere in Europe, cities are proving just how much can be achieved with the right approach.

The story that didn’t make the news

Last month, Helsinki quietly achieved something extraordinary: a full calendar year without a single road death.

It wasn’t a lucky streak. The Finnish capital has spent decades turning the dial down on danger: more than half its streets are now limited to 30 km/h, with fresh reductions around schools this year. Those limits are backed by street designs that make the safe thing the easy thing - protected space for walking and cycling, junctions that force turning traffic to slow, and public transport networks that make it easy to leave the car at home. Enforcement isn’t left to chance either, with automated cameras part of a consistent system.

The results speak for themselves: injury-causing crashes have dropped from nearly 1,000 a year in the late 1980s to just 277 over the past 12 months.

A tale of three capitals

It’s tempting to compare Helsinki to Edinburgh - another compact, coastal capital that pioneered city-wide 20 mph limits. But in 2023, Edinburgh recorded eight deaths and 125 serious injuries in road collisions - roughly 2 deaths and 24 serious injuries per 100,000 residents. Glasgow, with a population closer to Helsinki’s, saw 15 deaths and 226 serious injuries (about 2 deaths and 36 serious injuries per 100,000).

Helsinki’s success isn’t a quirk of geography or culture - it’s policy.

Vision Zero: not an abstract target, but a plan

The EU’s road safety framework aims to halve deaths and serious injuries by 2030 and reach zero by 2050. Scotland has signed up to the same goal, with interim targets for 2030. England hasn’t. Without a clear national target date, progress risks being patchy and politically fragile.

If the UK wanted to match Helsinki’s trajectory, it wouldn’t start with eye charts - it would start here:

1. Lower speeds to 20 mph where people live, work and learn, with street layouts engineered for that speed
2. Treat street design as public health - protected crossings, continuous footways and cycleways, traffic-calmed neighbourhoods.
3. Enforce fairly and predictably
4. Invest in alternatives to driving so short trips don’t default to the car.
5. Set and keep national targets to pull every local policy in the same direction.

Why the focus stays fuzzy

Driver eyesight is important. But when your road safety conversation is framed almost entirely through the windscreen, you end up missing the wider view. Road danger isn’t an act of fate; it’s the outcome of decisions we make - and the systems we build. Helsinki made different choices, stuck with them, and hit zero.

The question is whether the UK can sharpen its own vision enough to do the same.

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