South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership
News
30 Dec 2021
BLOG: NEW BEGINNINGS
A happy new year to one and all. I hope that you had a pleasant and relaxing Christmas and enjoyed spending time with family and friends.
As the new year dawns, this is traditionally the time when we take a moment to look forward to the promise of a new beginning.
We take stock by remembering last year’s achievements (and failures!) and plan new courses of action to better our lives. That’s what New Year’s resolutions are all about; setting ourselves a challenge to do things better or make improvements to our lives.
As a South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership we are also taking stock of how effectively we work together and considering how we can do things better, as we embark on a review of our safer roads strategy.
It’s likely that the Partnership will adopt a new, more joined up approach to casualty reduction called Safe Systems, to address the big issue of human error and do everything possible to protect people from death and serious injury in the event of a crash.
It means our current 3Es approach to delivery, focusing on education, engineering and enforcement will be encompassed within action across 5 pillars of activity including safe road use, safe vehicles, safe roads, safe speeds and post crash response.
Hopefully this will result in a shared responsibility across all the agencies involved and less silo working. It will require input from existing partners as well as new ones such as those who deal with the fallout following a collision; including the ambulance service, hospitals and bereavement support organisations.
It might mean we deliver in new ways in the future. We have already made various changes to the way we offer road safety education, training and publicity activity over the past couple of years, mainly as a result of the restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic. The learning we have gained in doing this will stand us in good stead to offer the most efficient service going forward.
There is always a new audience for us to engage with as children become young adults and move on to be new drivers and riders, young people enter the world of work and become commuters or business drivers and we all age and eventually become senior drivers and older road users. We’ll still aim to provide a road safety offer from cradle to grave to support all road users and help to keep them safe on our roads.
As technology moves apace, there will no doubt be new products and ways to assist practitioners in conveying key messages and helping to impart knowledge and skills. There’s a mobile phone app for most things these days, so I’m sure we’ll see more innovations and assistance from artificial intelligence in the future.
Given young people’s reliance on their mobile phones, I see that in the not too distant future, we’ll be delivering bespoke road safety advice and training direct through people’s phones to provide the correct message at the right time, based on their geographic location, the form of transport being used and who they are with.
In the meantime, there are further new updates to the Highway Code due in 2022 that will need to be promoted to road users. Hot on the heels of the Highway Code changes in September last year, which included updated rules about motorway driving, we are expecting further rule changes this spring aimed at protecting cyclists and pedestrians. These will need to be communicated to make all drivers aware, including many who haven’t looked at a Highway Code since they passed their test.
More changes for drivers will see new EU legislation being enacted to make intelligent speed assistance technology mandatory on all new vehicles from July 2022. As this technology continues to become available in vehicles, drivers will need to be aware of the new technology and how it works. Used correctly, widespread roll out of such equipment could be a game changer in terms of drivers complying with speed limits. Slower speeds could mean fewer collisions and less severe casualties when crashes do take place.
New issues might emerge that require a road safety response; as our travel habits change and new types of transport become available. At the moment electric scooters are not allowed to be used on the highway in South Yorkshire, but if that changes in the future we will have a new set of messages to impart to help keep those road users safer when out on the roads.
As we review the effectiveness of our established methods of conveying road safety messages to the public we’ll be looking for new and innovative ways to engage with our target audiences. This might include piggy backing on other schemes and initiatives being delivered in a particular geographical area, linking in with other agendas such as active travel, public health or air quality to blitz a particular area and really involve its communities. And whilst our social media platforms and online channels might be useful, I don’t think there will be any substitute for “boots on the ground” to really get to know the area, its people and their needs.
There are many possible new beginnings this year for road safety in South Yorkshire and I look forward to what 2022 holds for us all. I hope that we can all embrace the new opportunities on offer for the benefit of a safer South Yorkshire.
Until next time, stay safe.
Joanne
As the new year dawns, this is traditionally the time when we take a moment to look forward to the promise of a new beginning.
We take stock by remembering last year’s achievements (and failures!) and plan new courses of action to better our lives. That’s what New Year’s resolutions are all about; setting ourselves a challenge to do things better or make improvements to our lives.
As a South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership we are also taking stock of how effectively we work together and considering how we can do things better, as we embark on a review of our safer roads strategy.
It’s likely that the Partnership will adopt a new, more joined up approach to casualty reduction called Safe Systems, to address the big issue of human error and do everything possible to protect people from death and serious injury in the event of a crash.
It means our current 3Es approach to delivery, focusing on education, engineering and enforcement will be encompassed within action across 5 pillars of activity including safe road use, safe vehicles, safe roads, safe speeds and post crash response.
Hopefully this will result in a shared responsibility across all the agencies involved and less silo working. It will require input from existing partners as well as new ones such as those who deal with the fallout following a collision; including the ambulance service, hospitals and bereavement support organisations.
It might mean we deliver in new ways in the future. We have already made various changes to the way we offer road safety education, training and publicity activity over the past couple of years, mainly as a result of the restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic. The learning we have gained in doing this will stand us in good stead to offer the most efficient service going forward.
There is always a new audience for us to engage with as children become young adults and move on to be new drivers and riders, young people enter the world of work and become commuters or business drivers and we all age and eventually become senior drivers and older road users. We’ll still aim to provide a road safety offer from cradle to grave to support all road users and help to keep them safe on our roads.
As technology moves apace, there will no doubt be new products and ways to assist practitioners in conveying key messages and helping to impart knowledge and skills. There’s a mobile phone app for most things these days, so I’m sure we’ll see more innovations and assistance from artificial intelligence in the future.
Given young people’s reliance on their mobile phones, I see that in the not too distant future, we’ll be delivering bespoke road safety advice and training direct through people’s phones to provide the correct message at the right time, based on their geographic location, the form of transport being used and who they are with.
In the meantime, there are further new updates to the Highway Code due in 2022 that will need to be promoted to road users. Hot on the heels of the Highway Code changes in September last year, which included updated rules about motorway driving, we are expecting further rule changes this spring aimed at protecting cyclists and pedestrians. These will need to be communicated to make all drivers aware, including many who haven’t looked at a Highway Code since they passed their test.
More changes for drivers will see new EU legislation being enacted to make intelligent speed assistance technology mandatory on all new vehicles from July 2022. As this technology continues to become available in vehicles, drivers will need to be aware of the new technology and how it works. Used correctly, widespread roll out of such equipment could be a game changer in terms of drivers complying with speed limits. Slower speeds could mean fewer collisions and less severe casualties when crashes do take place.
New issues might emerge that require a road safety response; as our travel habits change and new types of transport become available. At the moment electric scooters are not allowed to be used on the highway in South Yorkshire, but if that changes in the future we will have a new set of messages to impart to help keep those road users safer when out on the roads.
As we review the effectiveness of our established methods of conveying road safety messages to the public we’ll be looking for new and innovative ways to engage with our target audiences. This might include piggy backing on other schemes and initiatives being delivered in a particular geographical area, linking in with other agendas such as active travel, public health or air quality to blitz a particular area and really involve its communities. And whilst our social media platforms and online channels might be useful, I don’t think there will be any substitute for “boots on the ground” to really get to know the area, its people and their needs.
There are many possible new beginnings this year for road safety in South Yorkshire and I look forward to what 2022 holds for us all. I hope that we can all embrace the new opportunities on offer for the benefit of a safer South Yorkshire.
Until next time, stay safe.
Joanne
