More than 100,000 pre school children registered for Children’s Traffic Club (CTC) London during the last academic year, making 2015/16 the initiative’s most successful year to date, with all of the project’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) exceeded.
The total figure of 104,506 also eclipses the target set by Transport for London (TfL) earlier this year and represents 85% of Greater London’s population of three-year-olds.
More than half of the new registrations were for children from the most deprived areas and/or Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) groups. TfL says this is important because children from these groups are more at risk of becoming a casualty on London’s roads than children from more affluent areas.
The figures are revealed in the CTC London annual report for the financial year 2015-16 (1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016). The annual report also details registration per borough over the last three years.
While the Children’s Traffic Club has been used in London since 2003, September 2015 saw the launch of CTC London, a bespoke resource for London, featuring characters that reflect London’s diverse populations and locations.
Funded by TfL, CTC London is provided free of charge to pre-school children and their parents and carers. The Club also promotes sustainable modes of transport such as walking, scooting and cycling.
Every child who joins the Club receives a welcome pack containing a printed story book featuring a range of road safety and active travel themed stories; sticker sheets and a travel diary to complete travel related activities; and a ‘Magic Code’ for access to more online stories, games and song.
CTC London also includes a free app containing fun road safety and transport games to further help young Londoners to stay safe.
Simone Oyekanmi, TfL’s schools and young people project officer, said: “The annual report shows early years settings that have and have not registered for CTC London, their location within each London borough and their deprivation and BAME indices.
“We hope this will allow road safety officers to be more targeted in their approach and identify/prioritise those early years settings most in need of CTC London.
“We strongly encourage road safety officers to work directly with early years settings in their area to encourage registration and participation.
"We remain committed to our target of reducing road casualties across the Capital by 50% by 2020, with the continued help and support of our valued stakeholders. These partnerships are vital to ensure we engage London children so they can learn the vital road safety and active travel messages early on and become safer road users of the future.”
The latest figures mean that more than 630,000 pre-school children in London have experienced CTC since its introduction in 2003.
Great news that such a well researched and tried and tested road safety resource is progressing well in this new ground breaking format. Well done to the TfL team for having the foresight to take this forward. I am sure the developers would welcome the opportunity to discuss with other areas and countries the development of bespoke Traffic Club resources.
Bill, Glasgow
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