Improving safety

The Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route will significantly reduce the number of casualties from road accidents in the region each year:

Urban routes have a predicted reduction of: 1 fatal; 8 serious; and 83 slight accident casualties.
Rural routes (excluding the AWPR) have a predicted reduction of: 1 fatal; 5 serious; and 36 slight accident casualties.
There are therefore total predicted reductions on the existing road network of: 2 fatal; 13 serious; and 119 slight accident casualties.
The AWPR, which forms additional infrastructure, has a predicted total of: 1 fatal; 4 serious; and 47 slight accident casualties.
The overall position is therefore that with the AWPR in place there is a net predicted reduction of: 1 fatal; 9 serious; and 72 slight accident casualties in the year of opening.

The reason for this is three-fold:

the AWPR will be a custom-built strategic trunk road using best practice in road design;
It will reduce the overall level of traffic using urban roads; and
it will reduce the level of traffic using some of Aberdeenshire's unsuitable rural roads as 'unofficial bypasses'

Driver stress is also expected to be reduced as a result of reduced congestion levels, brought about by the AWPR.

Source:
Accident casualty forecasts are calculated using the Aberdeen Sub Area Model 3B (ASAM3B) and are based on the amount of vehicle kilometres travelled on different categories of road. This is a recognised method of predicting the average number of road traffic accidents. Figures provide a comparison of the predicted number of accident casualties in the 2012 opening year with and without the AWPR in place.

Accident forecasts listed above have been extracted from the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route Interim STAG Report (July 2008) and the AWPR Strategic Modelling Appraisal Report (June 2008).

Details of driver stress measures can be found in the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route Environmental Statement.