Transport for Greater Manchester and Manchester City Council have been named winners of a new award presented by Brake, in collaboration with Road Safety GB.
Brake’s inaugural Vision Zero Leaders Awards recognise achievement in three categories: Local Roads Innovation, Community Campaign Achievement, and Youth Leadership.
Brake says the new awards ‘celebrate the hidden champions leading the way to safe and healthy roads and a world with zero road deaths and serious injuries’.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and Manchester City Council won the Local Roads Innovation Award for a CYCLOPS (cycle optimised protected signals) junction in Hulme. This category was presented in partnership with Road Safety GB who helped judge the entries and select the winner.
The innovative junction forms part of Greater Manchester’s Bee Network and places the cycle route on the outside of the pedestrian crossings, fully segregating cyclists and improving safety for all users.
TfGM engineers Richard Butler and Jonathan Salter, who designed the junction, said: “Safety is paramount to every design we develop, so to be recognised by a road safety charity for the part the CYCLOPS plays in keeping people safe while enabling them to travel more actively, truly is the pinnacle for us.”
The Community Campaign Achievement Award went to Amanda Russell who started campaigning for 20mph speed limits in Faversham in 2015.
Amanda’s 20’s Plenty campaign group held public community events to explain the benefits of 20mph and gradually built support, finally achieving a town-wide 20mph trial scheme, the first in Kent.
Amanda Russell said: “I hope our story can spur on more people to campaign for safe speeds.
“The 20mph limit in Faversham will make our streets, and in fact the whole community, feel so much more welcoming, especially for people wanting to get about by foot or by bike.”
Three students from Murray Park Community School, in Mickleover near Derby, won the Youth Leadership Award for their ‘outstanding work’ in raising road safety awareness in their school and local community.
Arjun Binning, Archie Couchman and George Ogan delivered presentations to fellow students at Murray Park and to 250 students at the local junior school, St. Peters CE.
The trio wrote to the Prime Minister, receiving a response, and had plans to visit Westminster to speak with MPs, currently on hold due to lockdown.
Joshua Harris, director of campaigns at Brake, said: “Across the country, there are people working tirelessly to improve road safety who don’t often get the recognition they deserve.
“From students, to community campaigners to local authority road safety teams and engineers there is so much to be proud of and these combined efforts help set us on the path to our vision – a world with zero road deaths and serious injuries.”
For more information about the awards and winners visit www.brake.org.uk/VZLawards.
There is no need for this level of congestion all at one point. You need to separate traffic to avoid conflict, such as stacking layers above each other…might be cheaper than all that paint! (Oh sorry, you don’t print views here do you…)
A Beck, Liverpool
+13
There is so much white paint there that it will be a skid risk to those on 2 wheels. The raised paint will trap water in the middle area. It needs under ground heating to stop black ice building up in Winter.
Wilf Barns, Manchester
+41
Whoever came up with this doesn’t know much about blind people. How is a dog supposed to navigate this?
Andy Cree, Luton
+40
It looks fine from the air, as in the photo, where you can see who is supposed to go where, but on the ground at eye level, it might not be as clear. Vigilance is the order of the day and proceed with caution….mind you, we’re supposed to be doing that anyway, aren’t we?
On any complex junction, the authorities have to strike a balance between information overload and not enough information – they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t it would seem.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
--12
Surely, this must be for pedestrians only, it’s unsafe otherwise.
Mary Flint, Warrington
+34
Yellow boxes have been around for about 50years and how many motorists do we see who don’t follow/ understand them? You see people driving along ring road systems crossing lanes due to errors because they get confused with the abundance of signs, lanes/ one way systems and turn offs, especially when driving into an unfamiliar area. People approaching these will be overwhelmed by the confusing information and colours which means they are more likely to be distracted and make forced errors. Driving, unlike a low speed task as cycling or walking, puts greater demands on hazard assessment and planning…I wander how they are gong to cope with these roundabouts at busy times in an urban environment?
Chris Hadley, Ipswich
+71
Well done and congratulations! It would be good to see some guidance promoted on how to use it, and I hope it is going to kept looking as good in the future as it does now. There are too many roads, cycle lanes, pavements etc. in Manchester that have been left to go to rack and ruin. It’s all very well putting in new projects but what about maintenance.
R M Kaminska, Manchester
--66
Well done Amanda Russell and 20’s Plenty for Faversham. And also not forgetting Kent County Council.
Rod King, Lymm
--77
I’m sure even the Police will be confused with these. Will there be training degrees on offer? …probably wont print this as the public aren’t allowed to disagree are we.
Donald Hibbs, Leeds
+59
Will lead to a lot of confusion and more chances of collisions/ arguments over who has right of way (even if they are wrong).
Philip Wood, Peterborough
+79