West Berkshire’s senior road safety officer is urging colleagues across the country to ‘re-invent and be brave’ in the face of ‘a very different world going forward’.
Cheryl Evans is encouraging her fellow road safety officers to avoid ‘doom and gloom because they can’t do what they normally do’ – and instead embrace the opportunities to embed road safety into the high-profile active travel agenda.
Cheryl Evans said: “I’m sure everyone in road safety is busy with the COVID-19 situation, and doing their best to support schools as they attempt to get back to some sort of normality.
“To maintain our road safety presence in the new environment where face-to-face sessions are not possible, we are working within the Berkshire Safer Roads partnership to move some of our road safety programmes on-line, with many more to follow.”
The resources currently available for download from the Safer Roads website are:
- Route Guard – which focuses on independent travel for KS2 and KS3
- Drivestart – a young drivers programme
- Safer Steps – a pedestrian programme for KS2
- Urban Limits – a cycling programme for adults
- Road Rangers – an early years pedestrian programme
West Berkshire’s schools have also recently been given access to the Modeshift Stars #StaySafeGetActive campaign to enable them to create five-minute walking bubbles around their school.
Cheryl Evans adds: “#StaySafeGetActive is a good starting point for our schools but we’re also using the Active Streets Assessment Tool (ASAT).
“ASAT really supports our school communities by providing key facts on local, national and even European cycling and walking routes.
“ASAT also gives the user key information about road congestion, in line with the national guidelines for active travel and the new infrastructure design guidelines.”
Cheryl Evans concludes: “The world is changing, we have a new norm and we need to adjust.
“I think it’s exciting – I get to do other stuff I might never have had time to do before.”
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