This paper presents a local government viewpoint on meeting targets for reduced road accidents by 2000, and considers the progress actually made by the author's County of Hertfordshire. For each county, separate reduction targets were given for the County Highway Authority and the Department of Transport (DoT) Regional Office. For example, Hertfordshire County Council aims at a reduction of 745 annual casualties by 2000 from a 1981-1985 base total of 5,760; it is hoped that the remaining target reduction of 1,000 will be achieved by central government. The county's Road Safety Plan has set out plans for achieving the county target through the 4 E's: Engineering, Education, Encouragement, and Enforcement. The county's experience is that: (1) engineering can meet accident reduction targets, but tends to be very time-consuming and costly; (2) its education, publicity and training programmes are aimed at the whole community, and many of them are innovatory while some are part of national projects; (3) not enough staff and funds have been directed into safety work nationally; (4) public attitudes need to be changed to discourage anti-social behaviour, especially among younger people; (5) the major problem is speeding. The author concludes that the Local Authorities Association (LAA) Road Safety Code of Good Practice needs updating.
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