The Road Safety Trust has announced that four projects have been awarded funding to help improve road safety.
This now takes the total of funded projects to eight projects that have been awarded in total since February 2021, to a value of approximately £300,000.
The Small Grants Plus Programme was opened in September to applications that responded to changing road use and emerging road safety issues as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. This forms part of the Road Safety Trust’s aim to make the UK’s roads the safest in the world.
Grantees of the funding are charities, local authorities, and a community group, and have been awarded between £20k and £50k.
The first four grant awards announced included: The British Horse Society in partnership with Cycling UK, The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), The Road Safety Foundation and Brunel University, in partnership with London Borough of Hillingdon and The Bikeability Trust. The final four projects are below.
Birmingham City Council is piloting culturally tailored messaging to encourage seat belt usage amongst Birmingham’s Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. If successful, partners have committed to roll out a campaign based on the research in 2022.
The St. Michael’s and Lark Lane Community Centre’s Slo-Mo 4K Road Safety Project will run a pilot scheme to reduce road traffic incidents involving school children and to address the current problem of traffic management in the vicinity of schools. Life-size high-definition vinyl cut outs of children will be placed near junctions with drivers unable to identify from a distance as to whether it is a real child or not. Change in road safety behaviour and perceptions of safety will be monitored at numerous points over the course of the project.
Norfolk County Council is providing training to primary school staff to produce and deliver road safety training to improve children’s knowledge and embed it into everyday learning.
Surrey County Council is researching the impact of reducing the speed limit on rural roads. Speed limits in East Surrey have already been reduced from the national speed limit to 40/50mph, however West Surrey still has the national speed limit. The research will look to understand the impact widespread rural speed limit reductions have on safety and perceptions of safety amongst those using the roads.
Sally Lines, Chief Executive of The Road Safety Trust said:“We were really pleased to be able to open for applications in September 2020 following the cancellation of our Main Theme grant round earlier in the year because of Covid-19. The Small Grants Plus Programme allowed us to provide funding to help offer road safety solutions resulting from the pandemic.
“We had 52 applications for this round of funding, and through careful assessment we have chosen eight projects that will help us achieve our vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on UK roads.”
The Road Safety Trust is the largest independent road safety grant-giver in the UK and funds vital research and practical interventions committed to reducing the number of people killed or injured on UK roads.
Since it was established in 2014, the Road Safety Trust has awarded grants worth £3.9m to 57 different projects.
