Soundbites and images from the second session of the 2024 National Road Safety Conference: Active travel & road safety.
- Active travel & road safety (13:30 to 14:30)
- Click here to view the agenda
This page does not automatically refresh, click here to see the latest updates.
13.30
Simon Bradshaw, Cycling Road Safety Manager, Cycling Scotland
Simon Bradshaw has a remit to work with partners across Scotland to support delivery of Scotland’s Road Safety Framework and help get more people cycling, more safely and easily, and in a better environment.
Click here to read the full bio
Presentation: Highway Code Research
In 2023/24, Cycling Scotland received funding to test public understanding of hazard awareness relating to vulnerable road users, especially people walking, wheeling and cycling.
The evaluation was based on two distinct activities: a 10-minute population sample survey targeted at people with regular driving experience, to test awareness and understanding of the Highway Code; and an analysis of road-user behaviour at four identified junction sites in Glasgow and Edinburgh through video data collection.
The public survey highlighted some interesting data:
- 3 in 4 drivers said they knew the Highway Code well but only half were aware of the changes introduced in 2022, which is concerning.
- 40% of drivers said they hadn’t looked at it since they had passed their test
- In questions related to rules in the Code, drivers scored an average of 63% – the pass mark for the theory test is 86%.
- Younger drivers achieved a lower score than older drivers.
The junction survey highlighted the following points:
- For people cycling, its pretty good news with average compliance across the 3 sites of 85%. In most cases of non-compliance, the person cycling either slowed or stopped to give way to the vehicle.
- The news for people walking is not so good, with overall compliance at the 2 sites that provided data at only 43%.
- Overall, the results for people cycling suggest that where drivers and cyclists are sharing the same road space, they are generally afforded the same priority as other vehicles when drivers are negotiating junctions.
- In contrast, people walking are not afforded the same levels of priority and this is the case whether they are waiting to cross or already crossing side roads.
The evidence shows greater efforts are needed to raise awareness and understanding of the Highway Codes changes if we are to reduce the risks posed by motorised vehicles to people walking and cycling.
13.45
Alexander Pazuchanics, Head of Policy & Partnerships, Vianova
Alexander Pazuchanics, CMU Public Management Master, is an Ex-Seattle Mobility Solutions Manager and a former Assistant Director for Policy, Planning, and Permitting at the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.
Click here to read the full bio
Prestation: Enhancing Road Safety Through Active Travel Initiatives
A Shift to Values Based Transport
- Value requires metrics
- Metrics require data
- Data requires discovery
Safety represents a barrier to multimodalism.
The insight life cycle:
- What can I know? – data collected by Governments etc
- What do I know? – turning data into insights is hard work!
- Where do I build? – good data can guide the decision of what gets built where
- What difference did I make? – monitoring, evaluation etc
Active travel data enhances multimodal safety efforts!
Approaches:
- A statistical approach
- Spatial approach to data
- A behavioural approach to data
14.00
Darren Divall, TfWM’s Road Safety Manager, and Shane Foley, VivaCity’s Strategic Partner Lead
Darren Divall’s role at TfWM is to enable, support and facilitate road safety improvements across the West Midlands Combined Authority region.
Shane Foley has extensive experience in both operational management and sales management roles, across large multinational mobility providers and start-up tech-based organisations. He is passionate about sustainable, green travel and working towards making our communities safer, cleaner and generally better places to live.
Click here to read the full bios
Presentation: Transport for West Midlands: boosting road safety using ground breaking near miss data and technology
This presentation covers a large-scale, collaborative UK-first road safety project between Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and transportation technology supplier VivaCity.
The presentation discusses TfWM’s use of state-of-the-art AI-powered computer vision technology featuring ‘near-miss’ detection to help the authority better understand and analyse proactively incident hotspots, and reduce KSIs in the West Midlands.
- Most major cities and governments in the developed world have set goals for achieving Vision Zero. So no fatalities caused by vehicle accidents on the roads. Some as soon as by 2030, others by 2040.
- But to achieve that aim, we’ve got some challenges to overcome
- KSIs are relatively flat and diverging from the required trend to achieve Vision Zero
For an effective road safety programme, all road users must be held accountable
New data and insight through technology is allowing us to be pre-KSI predictive, and proactively address evidence of high-risk exposure and poor behaviours before collisions or serious injuries occur.
14.15
Josh Grantham, Infrastructure Campaigner, Camcycle & Margaret Winchcomb, Deputy Executive Director, PACTS
Josh Grantham is an active travel specialist with a diverse background spanning civil engineering, sustainability, urban design, and transport planning.
He earned an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from Cambridge University, with his thesis focusing on the development of future urban spaces, specifically exploring the interplay between density, cycle infrastructure, and car usage.
Margaret Winchcomb is a Chartered Civil Engineer with a passion for transport, focused on people. Since joining PACTS in 2021, Margaret has led the charity’s research and policy work.
She is established as an expert on the safety of e-scooters and has published three reports, one of which won a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2022.
Click here to read the full bios
Presentation: The power of community: the Cambridge effect
Greater Cambridge region:
- 45% cycle at least once a week
- 66% of all residents cycle
Rates are higher in the city.
Around a third of commuting journeys are by bike, close to gender parity.
Camcycle’s vision:
More, better and safer cycling!
- When more people cycle, our region is better for everyone!
- When cycling is safer, more people cycle
- When cycling is better, it is safer for all ages and abilities
Working across all aspects of safe systems
- Post-crash response
- Safe vehicles
- Safe speed
- Safe road users
- Safe roads and roadsides
Actions:
- Creating quiet routes
- Forging new routes
- Understanding the lived experience
- Showing the possible
This has led to… a safer Cambridge!
0.5% of Britain’s population – cycling 4% of the total miles cycled!
- It also prevented 432 serious long-term health conditions
- Saved the NHS £5.5 million
- Prevented 37 early deaths
- Saved 19,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions
- Saved 34,000 kg of NOx and 5,300kg of particulates
- £130 million of economic benefit
Comment on this story