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How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

The death rate per mile driven has declined 22-fold since 1950.

Just four years later, following concerns about the number of pedestrians killed on busy urban roads, a limit of 30 miles per hour was reintroduced in built-up areas. Third, there are usually physical barriers in the middle, separating vehicles traveling in different directions and reducing the risk of head-on collisions, which are much more common on narrow rural roads. It was illegal to be "under the influence of drink or drugs to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the vehicle", but without a legal limit or standardized testing, police often struggled to prove that someone was impaired due to alcohol, especially in court.

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