Marlborough Walking and Cycling Strategy Appendix F: Safety and Education A comprehensive review of crashes involving walking and cycling has been undertaken for the ten year period from 1999 to 2008 inclusive and is included in Appendix C.2. Key findings are that over 6% of all crashes in Marlborough involve walkers or cyclists, and that over the last ten years about 54 walkers and 119 cyclists were injured including 48 walkers and cyclists who were seriously injured or killed. It is always easy to suggest more safety education in schools as the answer to all of our road safety issues. In reality, the examples set by parents and other road users are what form the attitudes of our young people. Many parents spend years walking and cycling with their children modelling safe techniques and these children will grow up with good road safety sense. Other children may not have an active adult role- model to learn their skills from and may learn their road safety habits from their peers or through the school system. All primary schools are offered comprehensive road safety programmes by New Zealand Police Youth Education Services (YES) officers. These officers are specially trained to work with children and have a comprehensive road safety programme which covers Year 1 through to Year 8. Schools and parents can be encouraged to make good use of these programmes for training children in all aspects of road safety, including safe cycling and safe pedestrian practices. In addition to the Police YES programme, many Marlborough primary schools are part of the ‘Road Sense’ programme supported by NZTA. ‘Road Sense’ is a comprehensive programme developed to assist teachers to integrate road safety into the day-to-day school curriculum. The Road Sense programme works in conjunction with the Police YES programme to build on and reinforce messages throughout the school learning environment. In Marlborough, road safety promotions address a variety of cycling and walking issues, for example the visibility of cyclists, walkers and joggers. Be Safe – Be Seen billboards are mounted at sites to remind people of the importance of being visible in the winter months. Reflectorised bands, straps and stickers are given out at various times to provide cyclists, walkers and joggers with a visibility aid. Comprehensive radio and newspaper campaigns support community activities in schools, clubs and businesses to raise awareness. These campaigns are supported with proactive enforcement targeted at those who practise unsafe behaviour such as walking, jogging or cycling at night without lights or reflectors. New ideas throughout the country develop into projects that address the many issues for our walking and cycling road users. These projects must meet “best practice” models and are rigorously evaluated for effectiveness. For example, Waimakariri District ran a campaign featuring cyclists, joggers, horse riders and walkers surrounded by a large bubble to indicate to drivers how much space they should be giving these people as they pass them. Marlborough has run a similar campaign based on the successful evaluation of the Waimakariri project. Road safety campaigns for pedestrians and cyclists will often include awareness raising aspects for motorists. An example is Marlborough’s Project Orange Week celebrating the wonderful job done by our school traffic safety teams and their parent supporters throughout the year, helping children to safely cross the roads near their schools. The campaign also looks at what motor vehicle drivers do around school crossing areas and highlights some of the behaviours that endanger children on the crossings and in the school traffic safety teams. This campaign includes a week of participation at school level targeting the school community, radio and newspaper awareness-raising, targeting the wider community and motorists, and concludes with several weeks of enforcement targeting specific motorist behaviours. Any road safety campaign is a result of many people’s co-ordinated ideas and efforts, from Marlborough Roads (Marlborough District Council and Transit), Police, NZTA, ACC, Public Health, to the many sectors of Marlborough’s community including schools, clubs and groups representing different interest groups. xviii