most dangerous roads

18 February 2002

the aa have published a survey of the most (and least) dangerous roads in britain. the most dangerous english road (it gets beaten by a bit of the a9 in scotland) is the A537 from macclesfield to buxton. i drove this road for the first time a couple of weeks ago when I’d just bought my new shiny car and was whizzing around twisty peak district roads to try it out. the survey ratings are based on the accidents/vehicle miles ratio for a stretch of road.

i’m not entirely convinced by the “what makes a dangerous road” page linked from the bbc page. it moves the responsibility for road safety onto the people who erect crash barriers, design junctions and choose where to put the traffic lights. nothing makes a road dangerous, it’s the drivers on the roads that endanger themselves and those who share the roads with them.