Nearly three-quarters of AA members believe that improving main roads would make the biggest contribution to reducing road deaths and injuries. This is an almost complete reversal of opinion compared to 20 years ago, new AA research reveals.

In a speech to the Parliamentary Advisory Committee on Transport Safety (PACTS) on March 21 the AA’s president Edmund King also revealed that more than two-thirds of AA members (68 per cent) see improved training for drivers and road users as the next best way to make roads safer. In 1993, that approach had little support.

Some views haven’t changed in 20 years.

Although a total ban on drink-driving, once top priority, has lost importance, random breath testing attracts consistently strong support (59 per cent), while 20mph speed limits in residential areas, despite a growing roll-out by UK councils, draws the same level of muted enthusiasm (43 per cent) among motorists as a whole as it did in 1993.

AA members ranked ways to reduce road traffic accidents and injuries as to what they thought would be the most effective. 1. Improve main roads (72 per cent); 2. Stronger driver and pedestrian training (68 per cent); 3. Total drink-drive ban (63 per cent); 4. Random breath tests (59 per cent); 5. Improve public transport (59 per cent); 6. More stringent driving test (54 per cent); 7. More severe laws and penalties (48 per cent); 8. Black spot warning signs (47 per cent); 9. More cycle paths and priority (45 per cent); 10. Restrict passengers (45 per cent) 11. 20mph limits in residential areas (43 per cent) 12. Driver retest after age 65 (35 per cent) Edmund King, the AA’s president and Visiting Professor of Transport at Newcastle University, said: “The UK has made tremendous progress in reducing the carnage on our roads in the last 45 years or so. “We have gone from 146 fatalities per million inhabitants in 1965 to 28 fatalities per 1m in 2012. This puts the UK at the top of the European Road Safety League but more can be done to stop five people being killed each day on the roads of the UK.

“In the last 20 years we have seen road deaths reduce by almost 2,000 people per year.

“In 1993, the number one priority for drivers in reducing fatalities was a total drink drive ban. Today the number one priority is improving main roads which is mentioned by 72 per cent of drivers. “The second priority is to improve the training of drivers and pedestrians. “In reality, we need a host of improvements in education, engineering and enforcement to continue to reduce deaths and serious injures on our roads.”

He added: “Governments and opposition parties often assume they know what motorists think in a stereotypical way but when it comes to safety they quite often get it wrong. The driver today is more a Mr Tufty than a Mr Toad. ”