Because it's a British story this does spend more time on mentioning the particular British political push back from drivers than it might. But one example the

Because it's a British story this does spend more time on mentioning the particular British political push back from drivers than it might. But one example they don't mention I think needs to be mentioned here. Some years ago, British highway authorities tested two interesting ideas. One of these ideas is: Lets put cameras on gantries so that we can see cars in difficulty or stopped in a running lane. Then use the per-lane signage to close that lane, protecting the vehicle and its occupants. The other was: Let's turn the existing "hard" (ie paved) shoulder of multi lane roads into another lane, thus increasing the maximum throughput of the road. The first idea of course reduces deaths and serious injuries. If your car drops dead in a middle lane of a free flowing road, the people immediately behind you will hopefully realise and evade, but now after a few seconds or at worst minutes the lane will be cleared, meaning fewer opportunities to get rear-ended. Hooray. But the second idea increases deaths and serious injuries. Instead of a safe(ish) refuge (the shoulder) now it's all running lanes, if your car fails you can head for the slowest lane and if you make it now anybody who doesn't realise you're stopped might hit you at 60mph rather than 80mph. Previously the shoulder wasn't a running lane so while it was hardly a safe place to be, since it was right next to vehicles travelling at high speed with no barrier, you weren't one moment's inattention from a violent collision at any moment. Under Vision Zero clearly only the first idea can be implemented. But the second idea is very popular with the usual "one more lane! Just add one more lane, that'll fix it" drivers and it's much cheaper than actual road widening. So the British government resolved to do both and claim that if you add them together they're a safety improvement. You know, like if I charge $5 extra, but also give you a $1 discount I'm actually saving you money... Then of course the first idea is sometimes kind awkward and hard to get right - and the "one more lane" people can't tell the difference anyway. So, eh, you can slow walk that and if a bunch of people die you can probably say the really important thing is you added more lanes - yeah, people are dead but those people probably wouldn't have voted for you anyway.