Road Safety

Public safety is our number one priority. We have more complaints about speeding traffic and road safety fears than almost anything else. The Road Safety and Sustainable Travel team are there to co-ordinate the three 'E's:

• Engineering - traffic calming schemes
• Education - promoting and training children the values of road safety and  sustainable travel to the whole community
• Enforcement - the use of safety cameras and parking issues (working in partnership with the Police and other local councils.

The Road Safety Team is campaigning in the community, educating in schools and working with industry and the business community to make our roads safer. We have training schemes for drivers, and write Travel Plans for schools and businesses.

They co-ordinate the extensive Safer Routes to school programme which has involved over 200 schools since its launch five years ago, investing £millions in pedestrian crossings, traffic calming, better routes and facilities for cyclists and pedestrians, and comprehensive education programmes. The Walking Bus scheme now involves 100 schools providing volunteer organised walking groups to enable kids to walk to school together in safety and security.  The team is also co-ordinating awareness raising campaigns like our Red Route Motorcyclists campaign which is focusing bikers' minds on the risks and the responsibilities of riding for pleasure and leisure.

Don't Be a Loser is a campaign which aims fairly and squarely at the young male driver. Young men make up less than 10% of drivers but are responsible for almost 40% of accidents. It's all about targeting expertise and resources where they can make the most difference in reducing death and serious injury on Staffordshire's roads.

We are a key member of the Staffordshire Casualty Reduction Partnership - helping in the fight to cut injury and death on the roads. It's a difficult job - caught between local communities who all want a safety camera, and the roads lobby who hate them. But it's vital that our experts tackle these issues - despite the flack. The speed camera operation is now managed directly by our Road Safety team - ensuring that it is an integrated and natural part of the full range of activities. Funding for the scheme comes from the Local Transport Plan and fines are returned to the Government.

The Safety team work closely with the front line Area Highways Teams delivering a host of junction improvements, traffic calming schemes, installing the latest high-tech pedestrian crossings.

Last Modified: 03/04/2007 13:49:08
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