Brake announces dates and themes for Road Safety Week 2015

The theme for Brake’s 19th annual Road Safety Week (23-29 Nov 2015) is ‘drive less live more’.

Brake is encouraging road safety professionals to visit the event website for ideas and to register for a free pack of electronic resources which will be emailed out from September.

Road Safety Week is coordinated by Brake and supported by headline sponsor Specsavers and the DfT. Brake describes the event as “a great time to for road safety professionals to join forces with local partners to run high-profile community engagement and awareness campaigns”.

Brake says that last year “hundreds of local authority road safety professionals” participated, often in partnership with emergency services and other partners.

The theme, ‘drive less live more’, will be used to encourage people to consider how they use roads, and if they can “ditch some vehicle mileage” and instead walk, cycle or use public transport as much as possible.

The campaign website says: “Remember skipping happily to school, without a care in the world? Remember cycling to the park with friends, laughing and chatting, without noisy traffic speeding past? Remember walking down your street, bumping into your neighbour, and stopping for a good catch-up?

“We’re not sure we do either: maybe it used to be like this, or maybe these are just scenes from an old TV programme.

“These days, the reality for many of us is that we step out our front door, go a few metres to the car, and drive, even if we’re only going round the corner. Those of us who walk or cycle usually have to brave busy, noisy streets, full of pollution, fast traffic and risky drivers. Is this the way we want it?

At Brake, we think road safety isn’t just about driving safely and legally. It’s about making our streets safe and pleasant for everyone to use freely, and it’s about us all doing what we can to protect ourselves, people around us and the environment.

“A big part of that is driving less, as little as possible, or not at all if you can: it can make a huge difference to your health, your wallet, your community, and the planet.”