Scottish Government

Development Department Research ProgrammeResearch Findings No.141

Road Safety and Social Inclusion

Tony Graham
ODS Ltd

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Main Findings and Conclusions

• There is a significant amount of activity within Scotland's most disadvantaged communities to promote community safety and within this overall heading, measures aimed at improving road safety, and many examples of good practice with strong local community involvement.
• While there are a substantial number of road safety initiatives being developed within Scotland's most disadvantaged communities, there is still within many authorities the need for a more formal strategy which targets these areas for positive action.
• Road safety education and promotion tend to be based on national programmes which are then translated locally. There is significant potential for developing more community based approaches, especially with the Social Inclusion and Community Safety Partnerships, with road safety staff working with and supporting community organisations to develop local road safety strategies and initiatives.
• Stronger linkages need to be made with community safety and community regeneration, to integrate road safety with wider area regeneration strategies. Road safety units should develop links with the police and local authority representatives on the SIPs to increase awareness of this resource and expertise.
• Road safety is a major concern of, and for people living in deprived areas. Road Safety Officers can provide support to assist the development of appropriate measures in conjunction with other partners. At national level, the Scottish Road Safety Campaign may wish to develop links with the new Communities Scotland executive agency to explore ways in which road safety can be more firmly integrated into the community regeneration process.
• Working with socially excluded groups poses many challenges for road safety professionals as well as roads engineers and planners. New participative approaches and the skills required to implement these are needed. The SRSC could play a role in encouraging the development of training programmes to support these.
• Working with young people in deprived areas is more challenging and resource intensive than in less stressed areas. Local agencies promoting road safety and wider community regeneration need to recognise this and allocate resources, including staffing, accordingly.

Introduction

Road casualty data ¹ has pointed to rates of death and serious injury among children and young people in Scotland that have been significantly higher than in the rest of Great Britain. Death among pedestrian road users is higher than the European average. However, the picture is further complicated by other factors.

Within Scotland there are significant variations in the incidence of injury and death which are related to a range of socio-economic factors.

"The demographic, social and economic factors that are most important in explaining child accident involvement include age, sex and physical capability of the child. In addition their parents' or adult carers' marital status, their ethnic origin...are also significant factors" ²

The research evidence is that the poorer the person is, or if one is a member of a socially excluded group i.e. one which does not have the same access to employment, education, good housing, transport and amenities, the more likely one is to be involved in some form of road accident.

The Scottish Executive and the Scottish Road Safety Campaign wished to develop a better understanding of what work was being undertaken "on the ground" in disadvantaged communities to promote road safety. They also wished to identify examples of good practice which could be used to inform the production of guidance for a range of stakeholders _ local community groups, road safety specialists, planners and roads engineers, agencies working in community development and neighbourhood regeneration.

In March 2001 ODS Ltd was commissioned to undertake a study to identify current practice in promoting road safety within disadvantaged communities. From this it was planned to develop good practice guidance.

Findings

The study focused on examining road safety and wider community safety within the thirty-four neighbourhoods designated as Social Inclusion Partnerships within Scotland. A survey of Road Safety Units, Community Safety Partnerships and the Social Inclusion Partnerships generated information on 30+ projects or initiatives which had some form of road safety dimension. These were classified using a simple framework

Technical/physical: these were projects where road safety was being promoted through the introduction of physical or technical measures. This would include remodelling of housing estates, road realignment, increasing barriers between pedestrian and motorist, improved signage and lighting.

Promotional: local events or campaigns in which a particular road safety message was being promoted. This also included situations where local communities had demonstrated effective campaigning methods to improve road safety within their neighbourhood.

Educational: projects in which there was a structured educational input. This group was further sub-divided into two groups _ schools related and driver education related projects.

Behavioural: projects aimed at changing or modifying behaviour within the "client group" to make them safer road users. This might be through a range of activities, such as encouraging the wearing of seatbelts or safety helmets. Other projects focus on changing some forms of behaviour such as drug dependency, alcohol abuse, delinquency and criminal activity

Local authority or police road safety units were involved in some, but not all of the SIPs with local projects. Where there was a local involvement, this tended to be to promote national programmes such as Safer Routes to School. In many local authority areas however there was little evidence of there yet being a more positive action-focused approach to the more disadvantaged or socially excluded communities.

The survey also found variable approaches to partnership working, with Road Safety Units often not being fully involved with other organisations promoting community safety strategies.

There were however many examples of very good practice with local communities being closely involved and playing a central role in the development of local road safety strategies and initiatives.

Promoting road safety in socially excluded communities

The study concluded that to begin to redress the inequalities in involvement in road related incidents a number of measures have to be taken.

• More positive action focused on priority neighbourhoods and groups. Resources and programmes should be targeted on specific communities and neighbourhoods, including schools and community organisations operating within these.
• There is potential for Road Safety Units to promote themselves as partners and contributors to Social Inclusion Partnerships _ already the police and local authorities are key partners _ and Road Safety Units should use their contacts in SIPs to increase their role and profile.
• Develop linkages with other agencies with a common agenda _ for example integrating road safety into multi-agency community regeneration programmes. The Home Zone programme is one example of an area of activity with considerable potential to link road safety expertise to physical and neighbourhood remodelling and regeneration
• Increase community involvement in the development of local road safety initiatives and strategies, building on the work which is being undertaken in community regeneration and community safety.
• There is a need for more training and development support to both Road Safety Units and other professionals working in social inclusion to increase awareness of each other's potential roles and contribution.

Good Practice Guide - A Safe Place to Live

The main output of the study has been the production of a good practice guide _ A Safe Place to Live. The guide contains advice for community organisations, road safety professionals and other bodies on ways to develop local strategies and related projects.

Based on the experience of ten case studies drawn from across the country, the guide contains sections on:

• Working with community groups to develop a local road safety strategy
• Carrying out a road and community safety audit
• Involving users in the development of road safety projects
• Evaluating the impact of new projects

The case studies documented in A Safe Place to Live cover a wider range of projects including

• Tackling the problem of school gate parking
• Improving road layouts as part of housing regeneration projects
• Linking road safety to sports activity
• Developing driving and personal safety for women drivers
• Establishing a community safety resource centre

About the study

The study involved a survey of thirty four social inclusion partnerships _ these are the communities where the poorest 10% of the Scottish population live. Road Safety Officers, Community Safety co-ordinators and Social Inclusion Partnership co-ordinators operating in each of the partnership areas were interviewed to identify local projects and establish where there was a local strategy.

This survey highlighted 30+ projects _ some ongoing, some having been one-off events which had recently taken place. From these, 10 case study projects which met a number of good practice criteria
were selected. These were investigated with more detailed interviews with project staff, users and partners.

The case studies were used to underpin a Good Practice Guide which accompanies the study report.

The study fieldwork was carried out between March and June 2001.

The study was overseen by a Project Steering Group with representatives of the Scottish Executive, Scottish Road Safety Campaign, a local authority Road Safety Unit and Community Safety Unit and a community safety project from one of the Social Inclusion Partnerships.

2002

Footnotes

1 Road Accidents and Children Living in Disadvantaged Areas - Scottish Executive CRU 2000
2 Op Cit. p.4