Support a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create Safer Streets for All

Together Living Streets and The Bikeability Trust have produced the ‘Safer Streets for All’ report outlining key recommendations that the Strategy should take forward. Hastings Urban Bikes fully supports all the recommendations in this report.

They need the UK Government’s upcoming Road Safety Strategy to ensure everyone can feel safe and supported, whether they’re walking to school, cycling to work, or wheeling to the local shops.

Summary of the report

Highway Code

• Increase Highway Code compliance through police, insurers, and government-led campaigns.
• Make the hierarchy of road users self-enforcing via presumed liability laws.
• Align The Highway Code with street design (e.g. side road zebras, continuous footways).
• Regular public awareness and behaviour change campaigns to improve Highway Code understanding.
• Introduce graduated licensing for new and young drivers.
  

Road User Training

• Mandate cycle awareness training for all Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs).
• Expand and fund the Cycle Savvy Driving programme nationwide.
• Ensure police receive ongoing Highway Code training and assessment.
• Long-term, fully funded Bikeability training for all school-age children.
• Bikeability to be part of the National Curriculum with a statutory target (e.g. Level 2 before leaving primary school).
• All adult cycle training to meet National Standard and be quality assured like Bikeability.
• Introduce national training standards for commercial cargo bike and pedicab riders.
• Basic training and strengthened HSE guidance for gig economy delivery riders.

School Travel

• Create a dedicated Routes to School Fund within the Active Travel Fund.
• School Streets Capacity Fund for scheme planning, implementation, and enforcement.
• Routes to School Fund for safe walking and cycling infrastructure (e.g. 20mph zones, modal filters, safe crossings).
• Authorise nationwide use of Side Road Zebra crossings. Vision Zero and Safe System Approach

Vision Zero and Safe System Approach

• Adopt Vision Zero targets and build road safety strategy around a Safe Systems approach.
• Design self-explaining roads for self-enforcing safe behaviour and speed compliance.
• Use digital tools (e.g. Collisionmap) to proactively identify and fix crash hotspots.
• Set a national 20mph default speed limit in built-up areas.
• Enable civil enforcement of speed limits with fine revenues used to cover enforcement costs.

Safe Vehicles

• Mandate Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA), Emergency Lane Keeping Systems (ELKS), and Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) on all
  new vehicles.
• Regulate to curb the size and weight of private vehicles, especially SUVs and pickups.
• Encourage councils to introduce higher parking charges for large vehicles (e.g. like Paris, Bath, Islington).

Road Danger Review

• Embed road safety education (Bikeability, Highway Code) into primary and secondary school curricula.
• Introduce progressive fines based on income, similar to Sweden.
• Implement comprehensive training and support for new drivers.
• Introduce graduated licensing for new and young drivers.
• Combat distracted, drink, and drug driving through education and tech solutions.
• Introduce stricter penalties for dangerous driving (e.g. longer bans, tougher jail sentences, lifetime bans for killers).
• Make cycle awareness training a requirement for ADIs.
• Ensure all police forces implement updated STATS19 data collection specifications.

Pavement Parking

• Implement a national ban on pavement parking, similar to existing laws in London and Scotland.

Integration of National Policy and Funding into Local Practice

• Allocate 10% of all transport funding to walking and cycling, with at least £35 per person/year for active travel infrastructure.
• Maintain a strong national mandate for safe street design through partnerships with CIHT and LGA.