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news
Car wheel at speed copyright Simon MacMichael.jpgBrake urges drivers to cut speed as Road Safety Week begins
Brake is urging motorists to cut their speed and is urging all road users to look out for each other in a bid to cut the number of deaths of cyclists and pedestrians on Britain’s roads. The appeal accompanies the start today of national Road Safety Week, which Brake co-ordinates, and which will see police targeting motorists whose driving puts others in danger.
The road safety charity, alongside partners Specsavers and the insurance company RSA, has also highlighted statistics showing that nearly 1 million drivers received fixed penalty notices (FPNs) either for speeding or careless driving during 2013, with such fines only introduced for the latter offence in August of that year.
According to Brake, 950,505 FPNs were issued for speeding and 17,483 for careless driving. It says that such behaviour by motorists does not only result in vulnerable road users being killed or seriously injured, but also deters many from travelling by foot or bike.
The results of a survey of 5,000 schoolchildren released by Brake today show that two in three believe the roads in the areas they live in are too dangerous for walking or cycling while two in five say they have been hit or nearly hit by a vehicle while travelling by bicycle or on foot.
Brake’s deputy chief executive, Julie Townsend, said: “When drivers use roads without care for others the consequences can be tragic and horrific – people killed and badly injured, lives ruined forever, because of a moment of impatience or selfishness.
“At Brake we witness the suffering that results, daily, through our work supporting people affected by road death and injury. And there are wider consequences if we don’t look out for each other on roads – people may be afraid to walk and cycle or let their kids walk and cycle, and unable to get out and enjoy their community and live active lifestyles.
“That’s why we’re asking all road users to look out for and protect each other, particularly the most vulnerable. We’re especially calling on drivers to stick to 20 or below in towns and villages, look carefully at junctions, and be considerate.
“Ultimately, we’re all just human beings trying to get around, with equal right to use the roads, not competing tribes.”
Road Safety Week, which runs until Sunday 23 November, has come under criticism recently for placing too much emphasis on what vulnerable road users can do to protect themselves rather than focusing on attempting to tackle poor driving, with statistics revealing that 95 per cent of road traffic collisions are due to driver error.
Vulnerable road users – cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists and horse-riders – accounted for half of the road fatalities in Great Britain, with 405 people on foot and 113 on bikes losing their lives in 2013 alone. In addition, 3,185 cyclists and 5,160 pedestrians were seriously injured.
Brake is urging people to support its campaign by using the hashtags #RoadSafetyWeek and #LookOutForEachOther on social media, asking their MP to support Early Day Motion 462 which backs Road Safety Week, and campaigning for a 20mph speed limit around schools and places where people live and shop.
“Walking, running, cycling and horseriding clubs can play a crucial role in getting this message out – hence we’re calling on active travel groups around the UK to log onto the Road Safety Week website and find out what they can do,” added Ms Townsend.
Both the police and the government support Road Safety Week. Chief Constable Suzette Davenport, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ national lead for roads policing, said: “Our officers and staff do a vital job in enforcing important safety laws and protecting the public on the roads.
“Road Safety Week is a great opportunity for forces and partners to engage with their local communities to deliver important road safety messages and undertake enforcement activities in support of Brake’s week.”
Transport minister Robert Goodwill, whose responsibilities include both road safety and cycling, commented: “Cycling and walking are healthy ways to get around and are good for the environment too and I want more people to be able to make this choice for their journeys.
“At the same time we want to ensure cyclists and pedestrians are safe. That is why in the Cycling Delivery Plan I announced our proposals for the next phase of work on cycle and pedestrian safety.
“This includes cycle-proofing our roads and wider transport infrastructure, a review of regulations, the need to highlight best practice to local authorities, an update to the national design standards and a review of the driving test,” he added.
Currently in draft form, the Cycling Delivery Plan was criticised by campaigners when it was launched last month due to what were seen as unambitious targets for cycling, plus the absence of a firm commitment to spend £10 a head each year, with the government saying only that it would ”explore” how such a level of investment could be achieved.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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19 comments
Thanks Dr Robert
Your response makes perfect sense. From December 4th all the roads in our area will be 20mph. What has been most revealing about the progress to this point have been the complaints to the local newspaper about the new speed limit being 'unenforceable' unless the Police start fining everyone.
Like trying to get hi vis made mandatory for cyclists (and then possibly expanding this to pedestrians, horses, cats and migratory birds - so that motorists can avoid mowing them down) - 20mph limits are seen as something enforced by the authorities rather than personal responsibility and community spirit.
Like the rest of the UK, our local community has been so twisted by the 'me' culture that the speeders in our area are residents and are also the ones complaining that the roads aren't safe for their kids to cycle on. The sense of irony is so massive they just don't register it at all.
As for hi vis? Well, bearing in mind the preponderance of car on car accidents - the day the law is passed forcing all cars to be painted in flourescent yellow will be the day I don hi vis in my bike.
Having read that RDRF website it's quite clear you and your kind are the Tea Party Movement of the cycling world. Does anbody in the real world take you morons seriously?
It's normally improper to reply to abusive language ("morons"), but as I was brought up to be courteous:
The Tea Party movement is ultra-right wing reactionaries. We represent people and organisations committed to reducing road anger at source, for the safety of all road users, as part of sustainable transport policy.
Apart from road safety and transport professionals, all the organisations representing cyclists and pedestrians, RoadPeace the national road crash victims charity and others support the Road Danger Reduction - as opposed to "road safety" agenda.
They take us and this agenda very seriously indeed.
See more on www.rdrf.org.uk
Whoops, darrenleroy take a look here: http://rdrf.org.uk/2014/11/12/road-safety-week-whats-wrong-with-it/
and of course see what happens in RSW
Brake are just giving us the Nice Way Code Mk II, it is an approach that which has failed for the last century. It is time that changed the approach and stopped repeating failure, there are other ways of doing things and we should learn from them.
Apparently our very good road safety record has declined in recent years. I would never give UKIP an inch of my time nor any other scaremongering right-wingers but I did read that the decrease in road safety has in part to do with less thorough road tests/applications migrants do in their own countries.
I'm with the Doc on this one!
"This includes cycle-proofing our roads..." - is that like waterproofing, fireproofing etc : preventing those things from getting to the thing that is 'proofed'? You might say the roads have been cycle-proofed quite effectively in some places then...
Also if drivers think we have done "what we can to best help ourselves and mitigate potential damage caused in accidents" there is some evidence that they then take more risks around us. Weren't there some recent studies suggesting that drivers pass closer if you look like an experienced and armoured road cyclist rather than wearing a blond female-looking wig?
The drivers kill the cyclists and pedestrians, not the other way around. Any fair approach to road safety will mainly focus on taming drivers.
Basically that's it. Evidence on adverse effects of idiot-proofing motorists is here: http://rdrf.org.uk/death-on-the-streets-cars-and-the-mythology-of-road-s...
Just to clarify - you can also help by engineering roads and motor vehicles to reduce danger to cyclists - but that requires a cultural shift which the "Evens Stevens" approach of Brake works against.
And if not, behaviour of motorists in terms of watching out and behaving better towards cyclists can be witnessed by anybody cycling in France, Switzerland, Mallorca etc. etc.
But you don't do it by the messaging you have in "Road Safety Week"
RDRF is not trying to "fix human evolution". Creating a culture which pushes drivers to watch out based on their responsibilities to others is possible as well as necessary - but it won't happen by an "Evens Stevens" approach which puts cyclists/pedestrians potential to hurt others as equal to that of drivers. And that's what this campaign does.
If an approach neutralises the difference between the potential lethality of cyclists/pedestrians on the one hand, and motorists on the other, it becomes part of the problem. it isn't just "not in the top ten solutions", it becomes part of the problem.
The reason I have "Dr" in front of my name is because of the Ph.D (and other research) gained from studying, among other "road safety" initiatives over the last century, initiatives like Brake's "Road Safety Week". This shows that campaigns like this do not - despite the intentions of some of their supporters - work.
That is why we criticise them. Otherwise we wouldn't.
Drivers don't drive around paying particular attention to their driving or the environment around them. If they did, they would be driving like people do on their first driving lessons because there's just too many things to consciously think about. That's just how the brain works - your subconscious/system 1 takes over the driving duties. That's how human brains work and you can't change that. If you're driving in an area where there are fewer cyclists the driver's subconscious/system 1 simply doesn't factor cyclists in as well as it does for drivers in areas with greater numbers of cyclists.
As a cyclist, it's in our own best interests to stand out and do what we can to best help ourselves and mitigate potential damage caused in accidents - even if what we're doing is "not in the top ten" things that cause the accidents. And criticising schemes like these that are attempting to help because they are not fixing human evolution is down right stupid - even more so if you've got the words "Dr." in front of your name.
I'm sorry, but I cannot bring myself to accept that. The idea that all those cars out there are actually being driven by people who are not really paying attention cos there's just too much to do so they let their subconscious do it for them... If I did, I'd be absolutely terrified to go out in public.
If "thats how human brains work and you can't change that" then we really REALLY need to work on self-drive cars as a matter of extreme urgency, because we sure didn't evolve to be able to drive a steel box around at 20-80 mph.
I was always under the impression that driving was a skill, and that (most) people don't drive like they do on their first driving lesson because they've learned a new skill. They might be a bit rubbish at it, or forget bits, or ignore bits, but it's just a new skillset.
Since drivers are not Jedi knights I seriously hope they don't drive unconsciously. And if they all did drive around as if it was their first driving lesson that might be a thoroughly good thing.
"Both the police and the government support Road Safety Week."
And do they actually support reducing danger on the road for all road users?
This enterprise, in our opinion, is part of the problem of danger on the roads.
We have published an extensive critique of Brake's "road Safety Week" here http://rdrf.org.uk/2014/11/12/road-safety-week-whats-wrong-with-it/ .
After getting one of the highest number of views of any of our posts, Brake have replied and we have debated this with them at length.
Dr Robert Davis, Chair Road Danger Reduction Forum
Hi, what was the outcome of the debate? Did they agree to change their focus?
Take a look here darrenleroy and judge for yourself.
My problem is that the Brake person who contributes is pushing the obligations of motorists as the focus, but when it comes to how the actual campaign pans out...