National Conference: Topical Topics

Five presentations covering topics including School Streets, older drivers, motorcycling and grants for road safety.

School Streets in Lewisham – lessons learnt
Liz Brooker MBE, Road Safety Manager, Lewisham Council

A School Street is a: “pedestrian and cycle zone” which is defined in Schedule 1 to the Traffic Signs Regulation and General Directions 2016:

“an area –

(a)which has been laid out to improve amenity for pedestrians and cyclists; and

(b)to which the entry of vehicles, except pedal cycles, is prohibited or restricted”

Why school streets?

• To support parents and children choosing to walk and cycle to school
• To create a safer, calmer and cleaner environment
• To support other Local Authority targets around sustainable travel and improving health and well-being.
• Support making the roads safe and secure, with the aim of achieving ‘Vison Zero’
• Reduce the volume of traffic in Lewisham (in terms of vehicle kilometres driven)
• Reduce harmful air pollutants from road transport particularly near the school gates

How do we want to enforce/manage a School Street?

• Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera
• School managed barriers / bollards
• No Entry plugs

Liaise and agree designs

• Liaise with schools
• Agree times
• Review signs
• Check lamp posts
• Contact residents
• Draft TTO
• Set up exemptions

Lessons learnt

• Terminology so very important – we used the word closure rather than restriction, gives a false sense of safety
• Short term support may lead to longer term complaints/concerns
• FAQs review and keep updated – so much easier to take the paragraphs from here to respond to the numerous emails you have and keep a consistency
• Political support – so important that you are all on board and again goes back to consistency
• Parents that want to drive are like water! (if there is a crack they will find it)
• Initial concerns often do not materialise to a reality
• Keep aware of ‘other’ things happening in the area – major road closures or collisions etc that mean the School Street is the only route

Supporting older drivers through ADI training
Ian Edwards, New View Consultants

Background

• A number of local authorities and other organisations provide older driver assessment/training, but are hampered by recruitment issues
• ADIs provide an untailored safe driving assessment
• ADI training is focused on younger drivers

The course

Road Safety GB applied to DfT for funding to develop and deliver an ADI training course covering ‘Seeing – Thinking – Doing’. The course also covered:

• Self-regulation
• Preparing for driver retirement
• Profession boundaries

Course structure

• 9 hours in total
• 2 x 2 facilitated online sessions
• 2 stand-alone online models covering:
• Diabetes
• Self-evaluation
• A simple online hazard perception module was also developed to support the course

Evaluation

A questionnaire was used to assess if the ADI awareness of the issues covered had increased. 10 discussion points rated for importance.

Next steps

• Need to improve knowledge retention
• ADI course now being rolled out as Road Safety GB course
• List of ADIs who have completed available to RSOs through Road Safety GB
• Older Road User course now available for Road Safety Practitioners
• Full evaluation report available on the Knowledge Centre

A safe journey to a brighter destination
Karen Cole, Director of Safety, MCIA

DfT has itself acknowledged the ‘enormous opportunities’ that powered light vehicles present in its Decarbonising Transport, A Better Greener Britain document – so to suggest otherwise or exclude PTWs when setting safety policy shows a clear disconnect.

‘The Journey’ document makes a compelling argument for motorcycling, now and in the future including:

• Significant benefits to mental health and wellbeing
• Economic benefits including tourism/sport
• Leisure motorcycling has environmental advantages over other transport modes
• Emissions contribution only 0.4% of overall UK transport emissions
• An essential tool which can be used to reach net zero quicker

Despite benefits there are barriers to entry when compared with other leisure activities. One such barrier is safety concerns. Rider casualties have dropped considerably since the early 2000’s, but the situation has plateaued. More must be done to improve rider safety, something The Journey does not shy away from.

The current situation re: Licensing

• Current system encourages Direct Access to high power machines, rather than progressive access.
• Repeating identical tests doesn’t raise standards
• No incentive to progress from CBT to full licence (Perpetual Learners, Delivery riders on provisional licences)

Need a complete review of licensing regulations

Make access more simple ……..But Safer!

What is the industry doing to improve rider safety?

Elite Rider Hub

• Project encourages more riders to consider post test training opportunities
• Coordinated by MCIA
• 25 organisations (plus MCIA Member companies) involved
• One stop shop for post test training

In the majority of PTW collisions there are contributory factors attributed to other road users. Rider behaviour and training is not the only answer

What can others do to help?

• PTWs must be integrated into the Safe System approach both nationally and locally
• August 2021 Safe Roads for All, a call to government was published by ‘leading UK road safety and mobility experts and organisations’. Not a single mention of motorcycles.
• 30/10/22 the Vision Zero strategy for Liverpool was published. Mentions motorcycles once (as one of the modes that pose the most danger)
• The future seems to rely heavily on technology for road safety gains. AV’s must detect and respond appropriately to all road users before testing on live roads.

Research by CMC (Arken University, Germany) found:

• Late detection of PTWs
• Different lane positioning leads to reduced conspicuity
• Likelihood that drivers relying on ADAS may lead to more car versus -motorcycle accidents

Testing AV’s on motorways will start soon despite this research

The right vehicle for the right journey

• Need to think differently about how to reduce reliance on cars and improve road safety.
• Active travel is not suitable for every person, and every journey

Examining older drivers’ risk
Sam Chapman, Co-founder, The Floow

Older drivers – this demographic is growing

15% of licence holders – 28% of casualties

Different risks to other drivers

• If involved in a crash (>70s) 4x more likely to be serious/fatal
• Incidents rarely include speed excess, loss of control, alcohol
• Incidents more commonly include right of way violation, intersection risks (see right)

How can telematics insights help better understand older driver risks?

• Looking at driving behaviour measurement for older drivers to see what factors correlate to measured cognitive decline.
• Behaviour change over time can be monitored. Measuring change and possible risk change. This could help to support a triage approach (for driving and clinical reviews).
• Extreme behaviours can be tracked in frequency and compared to the driving environment to cluster drivers by types.

More analysis is required for older drivers

Investigative work shows strong potential to directly measure aspects of older driver risk using telematics (risk potential and behaviour adaptation measurement).

Clustering of driving behaviours should allow:

• Change monitoring to support frequency of reviews (driving AND clinical)
• Risk estimation
• Driver adaptation monitoring

Results will be strengthened with more drivers and analysis

Grants for road safety initiatives
Sonya Hurt, CEO, Road Safety Trust

RST approach:

• Unique funding stream
• Umbrella approach for the profession
• Creates opportunities for positive change in the UK
• Bringing specialisms together
• Turning Research into Reality

How RST grant funding works
Currently two rounds of funding available each year

• Small grants (March each year)
• Main Theme Programme (September each year)
• 2023 – ‘Open Rounds’
• Scope to expand

Who can bid?

• UK based organisations
• Public Sector
• Charities
• Community Interest Companies
• Universities

Your bid

• Clear Aims and Measurable Objectives
• Road Safety Led
• Partnership Approach
• Evidence potential for shared learning, tools and interventions
• How will you make the difference

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