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Volvo See And Be Seen campaign.jpgVolvo Trucks launches 'See And Be Seen' road safety campaign aimed at cyclists
Volvo Trucks has launched a new traffic safety campaign entitled ‘See and Be Seen’. The firm says the initiative is intended to improve safety awareness among cyclists and other vulnerable road-users.
HGVUK.com reports that the firm already runs a traffic-safety training programme for young children, called Stop Look Wave. See and Be Seen is said to be an extension of this.
Carl Johan Almqvist, Traffic and Product Safety Director at Volvo Trucks, commented:
“Just like with ‘Stop Look Wave’, the ‘See and Be Seen’ programme aims to improve understanding of how unprotected road-users and trucks can interact in the traffic environment. However, this time we are focusing specifically on cyclists, teenagers and adults alike. With the fast pace of today’s traffic, it is vital that as many people as possible are aware of the risks in order to avoid incidents.”
Perhaps aware that such a campaign might lead people to accuse the firm of victim-blaming, Almqvist was keen to draw attention to Volvo’s other efforts. “In order to reduce the risk of traffic accidents, we equip our trucks with increasingly intelligent safety systems and train truck drivers in the art of safe driving. However, since the human factor is of crucial significance in most traffic accidents, it is vital to increase safety awareness among all road-users.”
The central pillar of the initiative is a presentation aimed at schoolchildren from 12 years upwards. It aims to create awareness off the restricted view from inside a cab and then makes recommendations for cyclists.
We were slightly taken aback by the recommendation that a cyclist should use ‘reflexes’ to protect themselves - but judging by the context, Volvo appear to be using the word in the sense of something with a reflective quality.
“First of all, it’s a good idea to use reflexes, strong colours and clothes with high contrast. Naturally, you should always use a helmet – if the helmet has a bright colour, it increases your visibility, but most of all it’s about protecting you, should an accident occur.
“Always use bicycle lights, both front and rear, after dark or when visibility is poor. Avoid riding up the inside of large vehicles, like trucks or buses, where you might not be seen.
“Signal to show other road users what you are about to do. It’s important to be clear and determined about your intentions – if you hesitate or send out mixed signals, other road users may get confused, which can lead to potentially dangerous situations. And finally, make eye contact with drivers so you know they have seen you. Don’t forget to take advantage of the truck’s mirrors.”
Last year, Volvo drew criticism from some cycle campaigners for offering cyclists Life Paint, a transparent paint which illuminates the wearer by reflecting light back to its source.
Many felt the company was attempting to shift the onus for preventing collisions onto cyclists and accused it of victim blaming.
In 2014, Volvo played a part in delaying a European Union law which will allow safer trucks. They and France’s Renault said the introduction of new cab sizes should be delayed to allow more time to develop new vehicles and the legislation will now not come into effect until 2019.
More recently, the firm has unveiled its new pedestrian and cyclist detection system for buses, part of its promise to introduce death-proof cars and vehicles by the year 2020.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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40 comments
"Reflexes" is a bit of Swenglish from the Volvo Trucks representative, what he meant to say was "reflectors".
Reflex is the Swedish word for reflector.
"Oh look I'm going to make roads safe by blaming you rather than re design my deathtrap trucks" What a w4nk3r
Police today warned drivers not to leave valuables in their parked cars. Drivers responded angrily to this victim blaming.
In other news, pedestrians have reacted angrily to notices warning of pickpockets. "We want none of this victim blaming on our high streets" said a spokesperson for the league against victim blaming.
If pickpocketing and stealing from parked cars were legal (like having trucks with lousy visibility on public roads is), then you'd perhaps have a point. But they aren't, so you don't.
Oh yeah, for your analogy to work at all, not only would those activities have to be legal, but the warnings would have to be coming from the people who employed the car-thieves and pickpockets, rather than the police. So your analogy just isn't thought-through at all.
What they said, thanks for saving me the trouble.
Actually, you saying that it's like the advice coming from the theives isn't understanding the analogy. The advice coming from Volvo is equivilent to a hammer (or whatever tool a thieve uses) manufacturer giving the advice. Neither the hammer manufacturer or the truck manufacturer intend for their products to be used in a dangerous or illegal manner.
Every road incident is different - in some cases the cyclist will be partially (or completely) to blame, and others the driver will be partially (or completely) to blame. The idea that some people have that the cyclist can never be to blame in any way in every incident is just stupid. Unless you are privy to the exact circumstances of an incident it's impossible to say who is to blame.
If a victim is definately 100% not at all at fault but people try pinning it on them, then fine, call something out as victim blaming, but I'm getting sick of the number of people who call instances out as victim blaming when they have no idea whether the victim was or wasn't responsible in some way.
Yes vehicles should be made safer to reduce hte chances of incidents happening, but I also believe we all have a responsibility for our own safety (e.g. using lights, clothing with reflective bits and riding in a sensible manner). If we as riders take steps to ensure we are seen and that we don't put ourselves in overly dangerous positions, then incidents are less likely to happen and if they do then blame is much less likely to be deflected onto us.
So I have no problem with Volvo and the like handing out advice to us cyclists so long as they are also advising their customers on how to drive safely.
As for 'employers' vs 'providers of equipment' - its not my analogy in the first place, ergo it's not my job to try and fix a broken analogy to make it work (it can't be fixed because it's a bad analogy to start with!).
And its disengenuous to say they 'dont intend for it to be used in a dangerous manner', that doesn't wash. If you sell equipment that has a fault that will endanger third parties when its used as it generally is according to instructions, and you know full well about it, you have a responsibility.
Volvo don't really believe people are buying its trucks to leave in a field and plant potatoes in them, they know they are being used to drive in urban areas.
As for who is to blame, its not complicated as you claim. We generally _do_ know who is to blame.
The statistics show its far more often the motorist than the cyclist who is directly to blame, but the larger reality is its the mixing of high-momentum vehicles with vulnerable cyclists and peds that creates the danger, not the absence of high viz jackets.
The motorised vehicles always bring the kinetic energy and hence the danger to the party, whichever party makes the 'error', and the authorities who force the different modes to mix in unsafe conditions are the ones ultimately responsible.
These are usually the same authorites who then lecture the potential victims on their duty to 'keep safe' from the same authorities' lack of care.
I'm really just carrying on a more general irratiation at all the (council?) 'be safe be seen' posters I keep seeing around here, not specifically Volvo, to be honest.
I mean those posters are a lie - high viz won't keep you safe, nothing you can do will, because most of it is not under your control. It's under the control of the councils that put up the posters, but they don't want to actually do anything.
Even worse is the huge TFL poster saying 'don't ride too fast' (and something about going to the hospital)- what the hell is that one about? Is 'cycling too fast' actually a cause of significant number of cyclist injuries in London? Really? Or is it just there to reassure motorists that those bloody cyclists are being hectored as they deserve?
No, not a hammer, more like chainsaw. And the user is running with it revving and with limited vision. Some of the users are on the phone, some don't give a sh1t about others and some have been using the chainsaw for long hours. They chop yout arm off with it and then say it was your fault.
Except all the lights, reflectives and bright colours in the world are not help when Volvo are making vwhicles with huge blind spots in crucial areas, and blocking efforts to change regulation to allow (not enforce) the manufacture of HGVs with much better visibility.
Note that low HGV cabs seem perfectly possible when the objective is to allow refuse collecters to get in and out frequently on their rounds, but seem not to be possible when the objective is to reduce danger to vulnerable road users. It isn't just cyclists either. In London the are roughly 3 pedestrian KSIs caused by HGVS for each cyclist KSI.
So I have a strong objection to Volvo who are causing the danger, advising others on how they can mitigate this risk with PPE which does not solve the problem.
Maybe they should be more upfront and release digrams of their lorries with areas where you should try to avoid finding yourself as "death zone". "We are sorry we are not prepared to invest in manufacturing safe lorries just yet, but in the mean time please stay out of the death zone as shown on this diagram"
At least it would be honest.
Except Volvo were one of the companies who successfully campaigned to delay the introduct of the new safer trucks because they had disregarded warnings of the new legislation and released a new model that would need completely redesigning to remain in production after 2017, factoring this in you can see that Volvo, and its parent company Renault, have put profits before safety by not delaying/redesigning their latest model, which in turn makes my comment valid. By the way if you look at the EU Parliament vote on this issue you will see that every UKIP MEP voted against or abstained on the Law, just saying.
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