§ Mr. Muddasked the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he currently has to induce a more positive public attitude to road safety.
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§ Mr. HoramOur main objective is to reduce the numbers of accidents and casualties by improving behaviour on the road, and creating a more positive public attitude to road safety is one of the ways in which we seek to do this. Most of the £2 million which will be spent by my Department this year on road safety publicity is aimed at improving attitudes and behaviour.
§ Mr. Muddasked the Secretary of State for Transport when his Department last produced a series of short films for television dealing with specific driving situations.
§ Mr. HoramWe have just produced a new film on motorway driving—"Night Call", which runs for 27 minutes. It supplements two other driving films, "Drive Carefully, Darling" and "The Motorway File", which have been successfully shown on television. Since last September we have run commercials in different television regions on drinking and driving, seat belts, Pelican crossings and the need for drivers to look out for motor cycles on the road. We also produce and make available to television companies very short films on road safety subjects for use as "fillers" between programmes.
§ Mr. Muddasked the Secretary of State for Transport if it is still the policy of his Department to give priority to small road schemes showing a high safety value related to cost.
§ Mr. HoramSmall road improvement schemes, when carefully selected after the systematic analysis of accidents, can achieve accident savings far outweighing the cost of the works. In a roads circular, issued in 1975, local authorities were advised of the value of such schemes, and the Department regularly runs courses for local authority staff on the best way of choosing schemes which will give a high return on their expenditure. Similar considerations are applied in the selection of small trunk road schemes.