Cycling project meets objectives

A multi strand cycling project developed by road safety teams in the Yorkshire and Humber region has met its objectives, according to evaluation carried out in accordance with the E-Valu-It toolkit.

At the outset of the project an in-depth report was produced to give the teams in Yorkshire and Humber detailed information about where, when and with whom cyclists were crashing. The report received the MAST project of the year award earlier this year for its content and approach.

The campaign that has been developed focuses on adult cyclists and has two main messages.

The first encourages cyclists to increase their conspicuity and ride in an appropriate way. They are also encouraged to up-skill by taking further training or by viewing a number of on-line resources – the “Urban Cycling Guide” which is aimed at urban cyclists, and the “Cycle Yorkshire – Ride the Routes” mobile app for rural cyclists.

The second message sets out to raise drivers’ awareness of the risks faced by riders when cycling in traffic, predominantly in urban areas.

The project team used the RoSPA Eval-u-it toolkit framework to identify some very clearly defined objectives which, in turn, enabled them to evaluate its effectiveness.

The objectives, all of which were achieved, included: getting as many drivers as possible to hear the radio campaign; distributing 20,000 copies of the Urban Cycling Guide DVD; achieving a minimum of 1,000 online views of the Urban Cycling Guide; and getting 1,000 riders to download the “Cycle Yorkshire – Ride the Routes” app.

The evaluation shows that the radio commercial was heard by at least 610,000 listeners, more than 2,500 people viewed the Urban Cycling Guide, and there have been more than 4,000 downloads of the Cycle Yorkshire app.

The full project evaluation report will be uploaded to the Road Safety Knowledge Centre in the coming weeks but in the meantime for more information or to request a copy contact Ruth Gore at Safer Roads Humber.