Motorists can expect more speed cameras and more traffic police if recommendations in a report yesterday from MPs are accepted.
The House of Commons Transport Committee also called for more extensive efforts to cut down on those who drink drive and those who use mobile phones without a hands-free device while driving.
It said it was a "disgrace" that current Department of Transport guidelines required preventable deaths to have taken place before a speed camera was considered in a specific location.
The committee said there should be speed cameras at some sites whether that site had had a history of accidents or not.
The MPs also said they found "disappointing and bewildering" that the head of road policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers said he did not wish to see any more speed cameras. South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes has said there is an "undue emphasis" on speed cameras.
The committee urged the Government to look at using time-distance cameras, that record average speeds, to enforce 20mph limits on residential roads.
And they said that alcolocks, the system in which a car is immobilised if the driver was above a certain alcohol limit, should be introduced as soon as possible.
But road traffic police were vital and new technology should never be allowed to replace people.
The committee’s chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody said road travel was still a high-risk activity and it was clear that cameras were "effective, good value for money and well accepted by the public".
Mrs Dunwoody said the committee "deplored the long term marginalisation of roads police officers".
She added: "Evidence of excessive speed is evidence of danger and there is no need to wait for somebody to die in order to take action intended to slow vehicles."
Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, said: "It is essential that the Government re-introduces traffic policing as a central function, not only for detecting crime but also road safety purposes."
Andrew Howard, head of road safety for the AA Motoring Trust, said: "Roads policing, which looks not only to enforce traffic law but also to deny the use of the roads to criminals, should be aiming for more conspicuous police activity and better deterrence of bad driving."
Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "There should be no substitute for visible road policing to help to combat the problem of rogue drivers."
