In case anyone in Scottish government is subscribed to this newsletter and needs any more convincing, remember that the benefit isn’t just to non default humans, it’s also to the economy:
A five-year study in Skåne County uncovered the same trends – and found that the injuries cost money in healthcare and lost productivity. The estimated cost of all these pedestrian falls during just a single winter season was 36 million Kronor (around £3.2 million). (This is likely to be a conservative estimate: many injured pedestrians will visit hospitals that are not contributing to the national traffic accident register; some will visit doctors; and some will simply stay at home. As a result, both the healthcare and productivity costs are likely to be higher.)
But even with this conservative estimate, the cost of pedestrian accidents in icy conditions was about twice the cost of winter road maintenance. In Solna, near Stockholm, it was three times the cost, and some studies reveal it’s even higher. Whatever the exact disparity, it is clear that preventing injuries by prioritising pedestrians in the snow-clearing schedule makes economic sense. (Invisible Women, p.31)