Children in Hackney have taken part in the borough’s first Junior Community Road Watch.
Organised by local road safety officers and the local safer transport police team, the aim of the initiative was for the children to ‘gain an understanding of traffic speeds in their community’.
The year six children used speedometers to measure the speed of vehicles on 20mph roads.
Within 25 minutes, four vehicles doing speeds between 27-34 mph were detected by the police and the drivers will be sent a warning letter.
Su Guy, road safety officer, Hackney Council, said: “All roads in Hackney are 20mph, which is enforceable.
“We wanted the children to observe the traffic and be able to gauge the difference between a vehicle travelling within the limit and one going much faster. They observed the traffic on a very busy road in Hackney and used speedometers to measure the speed.
“Eventually many of the children were able to recognise those vehicles that were travelling at faster speeds, some even managed to predict the speed correctly.”
Want to know more about speed and road safety?
Online library of research and reports etc – visit the Road Safety Knowledge Centre
Key facts and summaries of research reports – visit the Road Safety Observatory
Comment on this story