Road Safety Week is an annual road safety campaign, led by the charity Brake. This year’s theme is ‘Let’s talk about speed’. To support the week, we want to highlight the dangers of speeding in London and encourage drivers to slow down. We also want to highlight the many initiatives TfL deliver to support the Mayor’s Vision Zero objective to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries on London’s roads by 2041.
Why reducing road danger is important
We have made progress in recent years, however in 2022, over 3800 people were seriously injured on London’s roads. 80% of those casualties were walking, cycling or motorcycling. 😢
All too often collisions result in deaths or serious injuries which have devastating effects on families and change lives forever. When it comes to road safety, speed matters. In a crash, 1mph can mean the difference between life and death. However, we know that people still regularly drive over the speed limit, often stating they felt it was ok as they were only going ‘a little bit’ over the limit. You are 5 times less likely to die if you are hit by a car travelling at 20mph compared to 30mph.
What TfL are doing to support Road Safety Week
We have an abundance of activity to support Vision Zero objectives and Road Safety Week objectives.
🏍️ New Speed Campaign
We’ve launched a powerful new road safety campaign to tackle speeding as a dangerous behaviour. It also supports our Vision Zero goal of eliminating death and serious injury from London’s transport network by 2041.
The campaign aims to motivate road users to change their behaviour and slow down. It does this by showing that speeding, even a little bit over the limit (particularly in lower speed limit roads) can have devastating consequences, particularly on pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. 🚶🏍️ 🚲
Speed remains the most common casual factor in a collision resulting in death or serious injury. Each year in London over 1000 people are injured or killed by drivers exceeding the speed limit. Our campaign intends to remind and re-engage drivers on the dangers of speeding.
📚 Education Programmes
P2W & Cycle skills
We offer a range of training courses which educate and inform on how to be safer on the roads.
We offer two free motorcycling training courses for those who live, work or study in London. The first is the Beyond CBT course and the second is the 1-2-1 designed to improve rider attitudes.
For cyclists, we provide a free online course which helps to improve your basic skills to feel more confident on the roads. You can also learn with an instructor; training is provided by boroughs across London. You can book onto these free courses here. 🚲
🚸 Travel for Life
For the past 16 years, we’ve been offering schools across London a series of free educational programmes, aimed at young people aged 3 to 17. 📚
The goal is to teach young people about travelling safely, active travel and using our network responsibly. To find out more about the various programmes, explore the Travel for Life page.
👉 P2W Charter
In collaboration with the meal and grocery delivery industry, we have created a Road Safety Charter. The charter helps us to deliver our Vision Zero ambition and to make London’s streets safer for all.
Signed by five companies: Deliveroo, Getir, JustEat, Stuart and UberEats, the Charter consists of ten road safety principles. These principles aim to keep motorcycle couriers and other Londoners safe on the road. They include helping couriers understand how to ride safely within the law, and supporting them to ensure their vehicles are legally compliant.
✋ Vision Zero
In September 2023, we held our third Vision Zero Summit, five years on from London’s first Vision Zero Action Plan was published. The event recognised all the great work, programmes and initiatives delivered over the past five years, which have contributed to:
⚠️ Reducing the number of people killed in collisions by 52%
🚌 People killed in collisions involving London buses reducing by 65%
🚸 Reducing the number of children killed or seriously by 63%
Some of this work has included lowered speed limits, the introduction of the Direct Vision Standard and bus safety standards.
Brake
We’re collaborating with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, and charities Brake and RoadPeace, on a pilot service to improve support for victims of serious road traffic collisions.
The service will enhance the level of support available and make it easier for victims to get the support they need. Through the Metropolitan Police Service or City of London Police, victims will be offered a referral into the service. With their consent, their details will be passed on to Brake and RoadPeace.
Campaigns Manager, Lucy Straker at Brake spoke to us about the importance of Road Safety Week and the Victim Support Partnership Pilot 👇
Please can you tell us about Brake and the importance of Road Safety Week?
“Brake is a national road safety charity, founded in 1995. It exists to stop deaths, serious injuries and pollution on roads. It also cares for families bereaved and injured in road crashes.
Brake campaigns for safe and healthy roads through various projects that help communities, schools and employers to promote safe and pollution-free streets locally.
Brake delivers Road Safety Week, the UK’s biggest road safety campaign. Every year, thousands of schools, organisations and communities get involved and share important road safety messages.
This year we’re calling on everyone to join a national conversation about speed, to raise awareness of the dangers of excessive and inappropriate speed. We also want to challenge why many people still think it’s acceptable to drive faster than the speed limit.”
How can people get involved with Road Safety Week?
“Brake is running the #Brake5 Challenge to raise funds to support Brake’s National Road Victim Service. Every year this service supports more than 1000 families affected by road death and catastrophic injury.
Hundreds of people are taking part in active challenges based around the number 5. The challenges aim to raise awareness of the face that 5 people are killed on UK roads every day.”
👉 Find out more information and register for Road Safety Week 2023 here.
👉 You can register for the #Brake5 Challenge here.
How important is the Victim Support Partnership scheme going to be to support those affected by road collisions?
“Brake operates the National Road Victim Service. This is a free, specialist, case-managed service for anyone bereaved or seriously injured in a road crash throughout the UK. The Victim Support Partnership allows Brake’s National Road Victim Service to deliver this support with local caseworkers across London.
It is important to conduct initiatives such as the Victim Support Partnership so we can learn and adapt it to be a national service. Funding is a critical part of that. No matter where you are in the UK, you should be able to access this level of support when you need it, for as long as you need it.”
What’s Brake’s main vision when it comes to creating safer roads?
“Brake advocates for a Vision Zero approach to road safety management. This approach is based on the belief that no death or serious injury is acceptable on roads and follows the principles of the Safe System. This is where the five pillars of the road environment work together to minimise risk.”
If you, or anyone you know has been impacted by a serious road collision, support is available.
👉 Brake
👉 RoadPeace
This article highlights the important work being done to promote road safety in London and the efforts to reduce injuries and fatalities. The initiatives, campaigns, and education programs being implemented show a commitment to creating safer roads for everyone. Great job on raising awareness and encouraging drivers to slow down!