Road safety week – 18th to 24th November

Every 20 minutes, someone is killed or seriously injured on a British road and each of these tragedies is preventable.  Everyone has the right to safe and healthy journeys.

Road Safety Week is coordinated annually by the charity Brake. It involves millions of people around the UK taking action for safer roads.

This year’s Road Safety Week (18-24 November) asks everyone to Step up for Safe Streets and learn about, shout about and celebrate the amazing design-led solutions that will allow us all to get around in safe and healthy ways, every day.

• Find out more on their website at www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk

Healthy journeys
Healthy journeys are important to help keep us healthy, fit and happy. We need to make sure that choosing to walk or cycle doesn’t put us at increased risk and that the air we breathe on our journeys is clean. We know the solutions here too – we need policy-makers to step up and prioritise safe spaces for travel on foot and by bike and ensure that the vehicles that remain on our roads use ultra-low emission technology.

Safe journeys
Safe journeys happen when we design our road transport network so that human error doesn’t result in death or serious injury. This approach of safety by design is known as safe systems and the great news is that the solutions are known and available to us now! From safety technology in vehicles, to speed limits that reflect the safety of the roads, we can all step up to learn about, shout about and celebrate these proven solutions.

Step up
We can all step up and play a part in the celebration of safe system solutions and the creation of a safe and healthy future:

• Individuals can step up by pledging to use roads safely, minimise vehicle use and shout out for safe system solutions.
• Schools can help young people step up and learn how to create a safe and healthy future and shout out for change.
• Partner organisations can step up their policies and procedures to ensure they choose safe systems solutions.
• Emergency service partners can step up to highlight their vital role in helping keep us safe.
• Policy-makers can step up by developing and mandating safe systems solutions.

Every death or serious injury on our roads is a tragedy and each one is preventable. Step up for Safe Streets and do your bit for a safe and healthy future.