During November’s Road Safety Week, Blackburn with Darwen Council commissioned a survey to find out how young people travel to school, around their local area and about how safe they feel in the borough.
Through an online survey, young people of high school age were asked how they usually travel, for their thoughts on modes of transport and about how safe they feel.
321 local young people completed the survey, with the most popular form of transport travelling by car/getting a lift (49 per cent) and the least popular was to “scoot” (0.3 per cent).
Most young people responding stated that they feel very safe on BwD roads and some of their comments for improvement included:
“I think it would be good for there to be crossings where we live, there is not many places to cross safely”
“I already feel safe while my parents are dropping and picking me up”
“I feel like we should introduce more cycle routes and get people to cycle to school”
A prize draw was offered for young people completing the survey. Three winners received £25 shopping vouchers as a thank you for taking part.
Additionally, the research team from Social Sense visited three schools –
Pleckgate High School, St Wilfrid’s High School and Darwen Aldridge Community Academy – consulting with almost 700 Year 9 students, sharing via the survey that they mostly travel by public transport (37 per cent) by getting a lift (37 per cent) and the least popular again was to scoot. Just over half (52 per cent) stated that they feel very safe travelling around their local area.
The two initial stages of consultation have created useful feedback from the young people involved for the Council’s road safety strategy.
This year we’ll be returning to the three schools to collaborate with students to develop local campaigns around road safety on issues that are important to them.
Blackburn with Darwen Executive Member for Wellbeing, Cllr Damian Talbot said: “Healthy streets are safe streets where everyone feels welcome, even vulnerable road users in our community. Nothing that’s worth while ever comes easy, but together we can collect our views and experience to create streets and roads that serve residents of all ages.”
Blackburn with Darwen’s community safety officer Andrew Duxbury said:
“The engagement and participation with our local schools, through this interaction, has allowed our young people to have a voice and involvement in assisting us to develop our Safer Roads Strategy and Action planning. The young people from our communities have been able to have their say and highlight valuable information which we can use to try and make our roads safer.”