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Are RSOs ‘ducking the issue’ of children and independent travel?

A leading social researcher has suggested that road safety professionals could be doing more to encourage independent travel by children, rather than ‘ducking the issue’.

Kris Beuret, from Social Research Associates, made the claim based on a paper titled ‘Children and Travel’ which looked at the decline in unaccompanied journeys to school, the ‘lack of strategic age related intervention work’ and the trade-off between lower speeds and an increase in slight child casualties.

The research, carried out on behalf of the Independent Transport Commission, found that while children want to go out more on their own, parents are often nervous and discourage this.

In a presentation on her findings, Kris said there is a ‘lot of frustration’ among parents and identified a lack of advice and guidance to help them deal with this issue.

She also suggested that road safety professionals should be developing ‘new approaches to training’ which encourage independence and facilitate children’s desire to play outdoors.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

I think many RSOs are doing work in this area and are not ducking the issue.  The Road Safety Team in Bexley provide pedestrian skills training to Year 3 pupils to prepare them for independent travel.  We also provide Bikeability Training to over 1000 Year 5 and 6 pupils each year.  We run travel plan workshops for our schools and encourage them to promote walking and cycling.  We also provide pre-transition resources and educational input for Year 6 Pupils to help prepare them of independent travel to secondary schools.

We have also been involved in an Independent Travel Training scheme in the borough since it started several years ago.  We helped plan the scheme, which is delivered by our local community transport provider, and devised the road safety training element of the scheme.  More info on this training scheme can be found at: http://www.bexleyct.co.uk/traveltraining.php

Are other road safety teams in London offering similar interventions?