Image: TfL
TfL has launched its Vision Zero Inequalities Dashboard tool, creating a new map of London that shows the stark levels of road traffic injury inequality in the capital.
The new tool is labelled the first of its kind in Europe and shows how deprivation is linked to higher road casualty levels, ‘reinforcing the need to target investment and improvements to protect those most vulnerable’.
The dashboard enables users to filter the data on the relationship between deprivation levels and road casualties by year, borough, casualty severity and mode of travel, while the mapping function makes it easier to explore areas of higher casualty or casualty location rates.
TfL says the risk of death and serious injury on London’s roads is an urgent public health issue and these tools will allow users to identify areas and issues that most urgently need to be addressed.
Lilli Matson, TfL’s chief safety, health and environment officer, said: “Protecting everyone on the road is a priority for us and we will continue to research how road risk varies for certain groups of Londoners and engage with boroughs, police and other stakeholders to reduce these inequalities.
“Without safe streets we know that people won’t choose the most healthy and sustainable modes of transport and there is still much more to do to eradicate road deaths and serious injuries. We are determined to make London a greener, more sustainable and safer city for everyone.”
Casualty data available runs from 2017 up to the end of 2022 and will be updated annually. Remaining data covering this time period on age and gender will be added later this year.
London collision data is collected by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the City of London Police (CoLP) or reported to the police by members of the public.
TfL says it will use the data from this dashboard to inform its own investment priorities and provide this data to boroughs to develop their Local Implementation Plans (LIPs).
TfL has met and shared the findings of this dashboard with the boroughs with the top five highest casualty rates and top five highest casualty location rates.
The dashboard complements the Inequalities in road danger in London (2017-2021) report, published earlier this year, which focused on two areas, the collision location and the demographic characteristics of the people who are injured.
This report found that in London the more deprived the area, the higher the risk that someone travelling in that area will be seriously injured or killed in a road traffic collision in that area, with the 30% most deprived postcodes having more than double the number of casualties per kilometre of road network compared with the least deprived 30%.
The report found that the same is also true for people living in London’s more deprived areas who are travelling in London as a whole.
The more deprived the area someone lives in, the higher the risk they will be injured or killed in a road traffic collision wherever they are travelling in London, with people from the 30% most deprived home postcodes having nearly double the risk of people from the least deprived 30%.
It is not much of a surprise to find there is a correlation between deprivation and poor road safety. My guess is that there is probably a correlation between low income and lower intelligence, with the other side of the same coin showing a link between a better income and higher intelligence. People of higher intelligence will probably be more aware of the risks posed by not taking effective care of their road safety, with the opposite being true. I wonder how much money was spent of this study and the creation of a map. Given that the study shows that road risk of deprived people rises when they are in an affluent area, it would seem as though the people are to blame and not their environment. Next, Mr Khan will be funding a study to see whether bears defecate in the woods.
David Daw, Bury St Edmunds
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I think this sort of sifting and scrutinising road casualty data is ultimately meaningless and just illustrates that accidents can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime regardless of the individual road users’ social backgrounds and circumstances. As Pat says, without knowing the details of the individual incidents, one can’t conclude anything useful from linking the backgrounds of those involved.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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Mapping road casualties and deprivation looks to be a useful tool but does it investigate the WHY? I would be interested to know if the tool attempts to identify the root causes of the collision injuries. One example – are some of those residents from deprived areas who are involved in collisions elsewhere in London, driving older cheaper cars with less occupant protection and so more prone to injury in the event of a crash?
Pat, Wales
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