Revolutionise Britain's roads to protect road users, charities urge

Safer Streets for All: The Upcoming Government Road Safety Strategy reveals that poor public awareness of 2022 updates to the Highway Code is creating conflict between users of all modes of transport. A YouGov poll commissioned by The Bikeability Trust and Living Streets reveals that people who never cycle are 50% less likely than cyclists to correctly answer a Highway Code question.

Plus, in a call for evidence ahead of the Government’s road safety strategy reforms, being debated in the capital today by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW), one cyclist said he was “pulled over and cautioned by the police for riding two abreast” – something permitted by the Code.

Cycle training must be enshrined in the national curriculum alongside swimming

Our polling demonstrated popular public support for cycle training, with respondents selecting this measure in their Top 3 measures for active travel to school across primary and secondary. More than 78% of respondents agreed cycle training was one most important measures needed to enable primary and secondary school pupils to travel to and from school by cycling and/or walking.

The Bikeability Trust and Living Streets recommend that the Government fund universal access to Bikeability cycle training for all school-age children in England, align all adult cycle training with the National Standard for Cycle Training, expand and fund the Cycle Savvy Driving programme, and develop national training standards for commercial cargo bike use.

The report shows that training and safety standards for all road users need urgent reform:

• Motorists lack awareness of safe behaviour around cyclists and pedestrians, with drivers not understanding safe passing distances or being taught how to safely overtake
• Increased levels of Bikeability Level 2 cycle training are associated with lower levels of people being killed or seriously injured (KSI), but training isn’t on the curriculum
• Commercial e-cargo bike use has outpaced the establishment of safety standards, with many gig economy riders operating without training or knowledge of UK traffic laws

There’s a public appetite for School Streets & Government-funded Routes to School

The report’s YouGov polling showed that nationwide, 81% of people agree there is too much motor traffic around schools; the majority of people of all ages object to increased levels of motor traffic around schools; and people want safe routes that link residential areas to school gates, with minimal conflict with vehicles.

Main road crossings, quiet 20mph streets and segregated cycle lanes were the most important measures to achieve this.

In a call for evidence, Kidical Mass demonstrated that Low Traffic Neighbourhoods “have been shown to cut casualties by at least 50% with no harm at boundaries, while protected space [high-quality cycle lanes fully separated from traffic] is also critical to facilitate safe cycling for children and has been shown to reduce the chance of injury by 40-65%”.

Vulnerable road users face disproportionate road danger risks

Since the last Road Safety Strategy in 2011, rates of serious injury, and therefore overall numbers of people killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads, have stayed higher than the worst-case forecast from 2011.

Evidence submitted to the Safer Streets for All report focused on the disproportionate risks faced by vulnerable road users, with risks more pronounced for women than men. New YouGov polling shows that women are 30% more likely than men to say they feel less safe walking or cycling in their local area than 12 months ago.

And the increasing prevalence of SUVs is highlighted as a growing threat to road safety, especially for pedestrians and cyclists, with evidence that children are eight times more likely to be killed in a collision with an SUV than with a traditional small car.

The report’s recommendations include:

• Aligning new cars to EU standards on smart-tech such as Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA), Emergency Lane Keeping Systems (ELKS) and Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)
• Legislating to curb the rising size and weight of private cars on UK roads – SUVs and pickup trucks now account for 66% of all new vehicle registrations in the UK
• Swedish-style progressive fines based on income percentage, where fines for traffic violations are based on a percentage of a person’s income
• Embedding Bikeability and the Highway Code into primary and secondary education.

The Government must introduce a nationwide ban on pavement parking this term

Pavement parking has been banned in London since 1974 – and in Scotland since 2023. Now the rest of the nation should follow, the report says.

Pavement parking undermines pedestrian freedom, forces people to take risks by moving into the road and obstructs access for wheelchair users and parents with buggies.

And the report’s YouGov polling shows that parents with children under four are twice as likely to reconsider walking due to pavement parking, with one respondent saying, “There are many pavements in my neighbourhood that I can’t walk down hand in hand with one of my children, let alone two, because of the cars parked on the pavement.”

The Government must scale up investment to support safer roads nationwide

The report’s YouGov polling shows that 22% of Londoners say the roads near them are safer now than 12 months ago – nearly three times higher than the national average of 8% and directly proportional to the average spend per head on active travel, at £10 nationally and £24 in the capital.

Emphasising the need for updated national standards on road design, pavement accessibility and to address disparities across different regions and for different population groups, the report recommends that 10% of all transport spend nationwide should be on walking and cycling, with minimum £35 per head per year on physical infrastructure for active travel.

Video: Safer Streets for All: The Upcoming Government Road Safety Strategy report launch