All people who use the roads are at risk of being involved in an accident - we will all benefit from safer roads. Consider three facts about people who use the roads.
- They often have vast experience of traffic conditions and recurring problems on the network. That information can help councils to redesign the roads to be safer.
- Many people behave in risky ways, either deliberately or simply thoughtlessly. The more that road safety professionals understand who does so and why, the more effective education, training and publicity, and enforcement campaigns will be.
- Issues about transport matter to nearly everyone; so local people ought to have some input into decisions about them.
Everyone who works in road safety could usefully review how they work with people and communities. This is a huge area. The Audit Commission report, and these web pages, contains tools and case studies to help officers and members review their practice in areas such as:
- consultation on local improvement schemes - speaking to people informally, providing feedback
- forums and other links with specific groups of road users - catering for vulnerable groups, informing overall priorities
- building links with communities over a longer period - innovative settings for engagement, funding for community-identified priorities
- using the media - being proactive, measuring public opinion
This site contains pages specifically for councillors, council officers, fire and rescue officers, crime and disorder reduction partnerships and health service staff. These are just some of the organisations that can relate effectively to different groups in the community.
The case studies linked to at the right are about improving quality of life and access to transport. The initiatives described are not primarily road safety issues. This is deliberate: sometimes an effective way to promote road safety is to piggy back on other issues of concern.