Road Safety Week

This week is Road Safety Week and ‘Drive Less, Live More’ is the theme. Here are some facts that charity Brake, organisers of Road Safety Week are sharing to support Drive Less, Live More…

• Two thirds (63%) of trips are made by car, including four in 10 (40%) trips of less than two miles.
• Average walking trips per person have decreased by 27% since 1995.
• A quarter of adults in England are obese and the cost to the NHS of people being overweight is estimated at £4.2 billion a year.
• Incorporating activity like walking and cycling into everyday life is effective for losing weight.
• In 2013 there were 1,770 people killed and 22,377 people seriously injured on UK roads. The vast majority of casualties are attributable to driver error.
• Nearly half of households in England could be struggling with the costs of car ownership.
• On average a family can save £642 a year by swapping a car-based school run for walking or cycling.
• 22% of UK greenhouse gas emissions come from road transport.
• Air pollution is estimated to cause 24,000 deaths a year in the UK, half attributable to road transport.
• The number of cars is set to increase by 43% by 2035 and traffic delays by 50%

You can take part and promote Road Safety Week by:

• Tweeting about Road Safety Week, using #RoadSafetyWeek and #drivelesslivemore.
• Asking your MP to sign Early Day Motion 683 supporting the Week.
• Using the posters, banners, guides and factsheet in their action pack to publicise your activities.
• Share their interactive resource on driving less – www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk/drivelessinteractive.
• Go to www.brake.org.uk/pledge to make Brake’s Pledge and find out how to support Brake.
• Fundraise or donate to support Brake’s campaigns for safer streets and support work for bereaved and injured road crash victims.

Find out more from www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk