How much is too much? Lowering the legal drink-drive limit

The current legal limit on drivers’ blood alcohol content was set at 80mg/100ml nearly 40 years ago and there are now only 3 other Member States of the European Union, all of them small countries, with limits higher than 50mg/100ml. Deaths from drink driving in Great Britain stopped falling 10 years ago, and show signs of rising. The reasons for the setting of the current limit in 1967 and changes since then are discussed, and a fresh look is taken at the likely annual reduction in deaths on the road in Great Britain if the limit here were lowered to 50mg/100ml. Lowering the limit is seen not as a measure to be taken in isolation, but as part of a substantial initiative to resume and sustain a clear downward trend in death and injury resulting from the avoidable excess risk of driving after drinking

Some reasons for lowering the legal drink-drive limit in Britain

The current legal limit on drivers? blood alcohol content was set at 80mg/100ml nearly 40years ago and there are now only two other Member States of the European Union, both ofthem small countries, with limits higher than 50mg/100ml. Deaths from drink driving inGreat Britain stopped falling 10 years ago, and show signs of rising. The reasons for thesetting of the current limit in 1967 and changes since then are discussed, and a fresh look istaken at the likely annual reduction in deaths on the road in Great Britain if the limit herewere lowered to 50mg/100ml. Lowering the limit is seen not as a measure to be taken inisolation, but as part of a substantial initiative to resume and sustain a clear downwardtrend in death and injury resulting from the avoidable excess risk of driving after drinking

Travel survey data required to inform transport safety policy and practice

The risk of accidental death per hour spent using the roads in Hong Kong is about I I times the average risk per hour in the rest of everyday life. Other kinds of travel also have risks. Changes in travel patterns affect the numbers of people killed and injured in transport accidents. This means that all policies that affect travel patterns also affect the numbers killed and injured in transport accidents, and conversely, changing travel patterns may itself be a way of reducing these numbers. Investigation of these interactions between travel patterns and amount of death and injury in transport accidents can benefit greatly from various kinds of data that are already commonly collected in travel surveys. But the range of such investigations could be extended in useful ways if some additional items of data could be collected in travel surveys. There is also scope for the methods used in travel surveys to be extended in new ways to improve understanding of the occurrence of transport accidents and people's involvement in them by supplementing with surveys akin to travel surveys the data that are recorded when accidents occur

Professional self-regulation in a changing architecture of governance: comparing health policy in the UK and Germany

This chapter compares transformations in professional self-regulation in the UK and Germany through the lens of governance. We introduce an expanded concept of governance that includes national configurations of state–profession relationships and places selfregulation in the context of other forms of governance. The analysis shows that a general trend towards network governance plays out differently. In the UK, a plural structure of network governance and stakeholder arrangements is emerging in the context of stateled change. In Germany, partnership governance between sickness funds and medical associations shape the transformations and act as a barrier towards the entry of new players

How many deaths are we prepared to accept?

Salzburg, Austria, June 200

Scoping study of the feasibility of developing a software tool to assist designers of pedestrian crossing places

This report is the outcome of a scoping study of how guidance can be provided for practising highway engineers in designing informal pedestrian crossing facilities. The main component of this report is an analysis by an IT consultant of a range of mechanisms for delivery of this. The study was informed by the opinions of a group of practitioners who have a direct interest in the provision of pedestrian facilities. These results are placed in context and their consequences are explored in the first part of the report

Compulsory voting is not the answer, but fixing an archaic system is

What lies behind voter disengagement? While some blame a crumbling political and electoral infrastructure, others lay the fault at the feet of voters themselves, and posit compulsory voting as the answer. The idea has an enduring appeal for many people, who look enviously at high turnouts in Australia, but is it suitable in the British context? Bradley Allsop argues that it isn’t, and suggests that policymakers look to tackle some of the deeper issues that blight the system

Withering the citizen, managing the consumer: complaints in healthcare settings

This paper considers concepts of citizenship and consumerism in light of complaints about healthcare, which have risen since the early1990s, due to a greater willingness by the healthcare user to complain, and also the reforms in complaint systems. The narrow legal model for dealing with complaints has been replaced by a managerial model based on corporate sector practice that views complaint handling as a way of retaining customers and organisational learning. The managerial model has proved difficult to embed into the English NHS and has been superposed with a centralised regulatory system that aims to manage performance while also being responsible for reviewing, complaints and being responsive to complainants. It is argued that this may have positive consequences in terms of improving healthcare quality but more negatively, the promotion of consumerism within complaints processes has led to a loss of the right to due process and public accountability

Coordination Matters : Interpersonal Synchrony Influences Collaborative Problem-Solving

The authors thank Martha von Werthern and Caitlin Taylor for their assistance with data collection, Cathy Macpherson for her assistance with the preparation of the manuscript, and Mike Richardson, Alex Paxton, and Rick Dale for providing MATLAB code to assist with data analysis. The research was funded by the British Academy (SG131613).Peer reviewedPublisher PD