1. Stop the Killing of Children

Set up a national, multi-billion pound programme to convert residential communities across Britain into living-street Home Zones and abolish dangerous rat-runs.

32,849 children have been killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads in the last decade and serious accidents involving young children are increasing [1]. On roads near schools more than 1,000 children are injured a month, and a third of child road deaths occur in those areas [2]. Our major cities have the worst safety records for children being killed or seriously injured around schools, however councils are laying off the lollipop people who help children cross the roads safely [3]

We need residential areas designed as ‘home zones’, with dangerous through traffic removed and low speed limits to provide better places for children to grow up. We also need protected routes to schools. Parents need to be confident allowing their children to play outside and walk or cycle to school like they did in the past [4].

The UK needs safer, quieter and more pleasant residential areas as has been demonstrated in the Netherlands [5].


 

[1] http://www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/news/2893.html
[2] http://www.transport-network.co.uk/1200-children-a-month-involved-in-road-accidents-near-schools/9346#.U1Tq3leUXcA
[3] http://www.livingstreets.org.uk/make-a-change/urgent-actions/smarter-crossings/save-our-lollipop-people
[4] http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/go-green-sustrans-cymru-encouraging-2494430
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_street

Update: The latest Department for Transport figures show almost 2’000 children were killed or seriously injured in 2013.

4 thoughts on “1. Stop the Killing of Children”

  1. You are not going to like my comment. But here are the facts in Seattle where I live. In my neighbourdhood they took space from the arterial streets to bicycle lanes. However, cars still need to move. So the traffic has moved into residential streets. (I myself stopped using the arterial street because they are too slow. I drive in the residential streets). Is this what you want? If not, where are you going to move the cars that still need to move? Arterial is not available for cars, you don’t want cars in residential areas. Where do you want to move the cars to?

    1. I think London is very different from Seattle - where there is a problem of excessive traffic on residential roads various measures are used to reduce it to acceptable levels, if that doesn’t work councils are increasingly installing permanent steel road blocks to prevent traffic spoiling residential areas. Luckily we have an awful lot of public transport, so most people don’t need to drive anyway (and the ones which do take a little bit longer to get there).

  2. Education is a big factor for both cyclists and drivers and I speak as a cyclist, HGV Lic holder and retired Traffic Officer. In addition my two sons are also cyclists. The recent deaths in London involving HGV’s are tragic but the one thing I would advise to any cyclist is never go down the side of a HGV as they have blind spots. Put your self in a place that you can see the drivers face in the mirror i.e. from the back of the vehicle not down by the cab doors. There big and need space. The other is for drivers to be aware of cyclists despite how much they want to get to there destination. I would say for both is be patient and look all around you. Safe riding

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