Share the road

How to run campaigns related to speed, driveway safety, giving way and cycle courtesy.

Give way (target - pedestrians)

Introduction

Crashes where pedestrians are injured, often occur when pedestrians step out into the carriageway without looking, cross the road heedless of traffic, cross the road against the lights or where they could have walked a short distance to a safer crossing point.

Where there are large groups of pedestrians crossing such as outside schools, there may be issues with children straggling across the road instead of crossing in a bunch which is safer and does not hold up the traffic for so long. There is also added risk of the driver not knowing whether they will start running to catch up with the others or wait for the vehicles to pass.

Children should be taught to cross in different circumstances so they know what to do if there is no official pedestrian crossing point. Examples of locations are:

where parked cars don’t obscure them from passing drivers and don’t obstruct their view of oncoming traffic
straight sections of road where bends don’t prevent approaching vehicles from being seen
places where drivers won’t be distracted by other traffic and not notice pedestrians.

The NZ Police book Helping hands provides some useful tips.

Look for a place to cross where you can see clearly up and down the road.
Pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, school patrols or pedestrian refuges are safe places to cross.
Avoid crossing very close to intersections.
Avoid crossing at driveways.
Make eye contact with the driver when waiting to cross at the pedestrian crossing.
Remember that a driver does not need to stop at a pedestrian crossing unless the pedestrian is on the first white line.
Avoid playing on the footpath when waiting to cross the road.

The book can be found at www.police.govt.nz/service/yes/resources/road/pdfs/helping-hands-publ1062.pdf Older pedestrians may need to be reminded to look before stepping onto a pedestrian crossing and to check that there is a sufficient gap in the traffic to cross safely.

Similarly, teenagers need to be discouraged from running across the road when there isn’t a sufficient gap in the traffic. Crashes where teenage pedestrians are injured are often alcohol-related. Reminding young people to look after their mates might help reduce these crashes.

Community action

Some suggestions for involving the community include:

groups of local performers or students showing pedestrians how to cross safely and giving positive friendly signals to drivers
students performing in a classroom drama showing appropriate road crossing behaviour
a competition asking students to demonstrate ways of crossing safely
a competition to design a radio advertisement or a contracted group of students to write one (if appropriate)
students texting an appropriate message to their mates at a time when problem behaviour may be about to take place
students emailing the artwork to all their contacts.

Community groups to involve in planning

Community groups that might be involved in planning a campaign for pedestrians include:

Age Concern and Grey Power to provide the older pedestrian view point
school students to give the young persons viewpoint
school councillors, youth workers, student association representatives
parents or teachers
walking groups
bar owners.

Messages to communicate

Some of the actions you might give to pedestrians to encourage them to cross the road more safely are:

cross in bunches, there is safety in numbers
cross at crossing facilities
avoid distracting the driver
be fair to the drivers by crossing the road in groups
at traffic lights, don’t cross unless the pedestrian lights are displayed
don’t step off the kerb if the red flashing pedestrian light is displayed, but you can complete your crossing.

Media to use

For child pedestrians:

Posters sent to schools and pre-schools.
A drama for children set up and performed in schools.
Teachers encouraged to use road safety teaching material developed for classes. This might be done through the local Roadsense coordinator.
Presentations to teachers about available teaching material to be conducted at the Roadsense coordinators regular meetings with teachers.
A road safety song.

For teenagers:

Cinema advertising.
Material sent to secondary schools or youth groups.
Radio advertising on radio stations which appeal to the target group.
A rap for radio or performance.
A competition to design a rap or performance.
Café cards.

For older pedestrians:

Newspaper and print advertisements.
Posters or cards distributed to bowling clubs, Probus clubs, service groups.
Workshops for older pedestrians to communicate information.

Emotional slant

Messages to pedestrians about crossing the road safely can be made emotional.

Scary images of being crushed or maimed are emotional. Research from Australia suggests that teenagers are more afraid of being scarred or injured permanently than of dying.
The idea of looking after your friends and keeping them safe has the emotional appeal of friendship and caring.

Enforcement

Enforcement is unlikely to play a large role in campaigns focusing on pedestrians. However, novel community enforcement initiatives could be developed, for example enforcing and rewarding people for waiting at traffic lights.

Events

You could set up your own pedestrian safety events or take part in existing events. Some possible existing events that might reach the target groups are:

mobility scooter training
walking events or races
older persons’ health days
safe with age courses
workshops for older people
school events or sports days
Pacific Island health days
international cultural events
university orientation activities.

Related resources

(The following numbers relate to the numbers in the list of existing resources in the companion document.)

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Last updated: 22 February 2007