Car needs to make way

Despite innovative safety features, new laws and education campaigns, the need for speed ensures the road toll will not budge. Now comes word from an unlikely source that the car can no longer have right of way on the road.

Jean Todt, the former rally car driver, president of Formula 1’s governing body FIA and general manager of Ferrari, who is now the UN special envoy for road safety, has called time on the car: ‘‘If you like speed, you go on a circuit, you don’t go on the roads.’’

Todt was attending an International Transport Forum in Germany where experts consider it possible for Australia to save 500 lives a year, and point to countries including Norway (a 48% reduction in annual deaths between 2010 and 2019), Greece (down 45%) and Switzerland (down 43%) as proof. ‘‘Australia has all the ingredients to be more ambitious about the number of victims on roads,’’ Todt adds.

But many of the strategies shown to be effective are likely to annoy car-loving Australians: reducing speed limits in built-up areas; redesigning cities to protect and prioritise pedestrians and cyclists; and discouraging driving in favour of travel modes that are safer for both people and the environment.

Linking Australia’s static road toll with the reign of cars is a significant call from Todt, a man who has made a career from fast cars and still clearly loves them. We ignore him at our continuing peril.