Below are nine easy steps to forming a road safety group or committee that you can read on line or print off. There is one additional download available through this page, as follows:

Template community road safety questionnaire to download and alter according to your needs (word doc)

Step one - Get together
Form a committee of local people who want to improve road safety. Appoint a “chair”.

Tips:

• Recruit people with relevant skills, resources and interests (eg. a tradesperson and teacher).
• Recruit people with some spare time.
• Keep your committee fairly small ? any bigger than eight and you may have trouble coordinating meetings.

Step two - Give yourself a name
Create a name for your group (eg. the name of your area or street followed by ‘Road Safety Campaign’). Produce a logo and letterhead, with the name, address and telephone numbers of your main contact.

Tips:

• A local artist or designer may be able to help produce a logo for free.
• A black and white logo may be best as it can be photocopied.
• A local business may be able to photocopy your letterhead for free.
• If your chairperson does not have a computer, ask a local business if they have a second-hand one they don’t need.

Step three - Involve relevant officials
It is important to involve officials who are already working for road safety in your area.

Contact your:

• road safety officer - responsible for helping educate people about how to use roads safely. Your road safety officer is employed by the council (in Scotland s/he may be employed by the police). You can contact your local road safety officer by calling your local council or, alternatively, click here for a full list of road safety officers across the country.
• safety engineer - responsible for reviewing and implementing safety measures on roads, eg. road signs and junction design. Your safety engineer is employed by the council.
• police force’s traffic officers - responsible for enforcing traffic laws
• councillor with responsibility for road safety - often the chair of your council’s ‘highways committee.
• ward councillor - community councillor in Scotland and Wales. S/he is your political representative on local affairs.

Tips:

• It is important to know the facts. Ask your local officials for information about the extent of deaths and injuries in your community, including their causes.
• Carry out surveys (eg. volume and speed of traffic on your roads).
• You don’t need a radar gun to monitor speeds of traffic. You can do it using two fixed points and a stop watch. Make sure you stand somewhere safe.

Step four - Identify road safety concerns
Identify the road safety concerns that your group’s committee thinks are important to your community. Make a list of them.

Tips:

• Try to be open-minded. Your concerns may change as you talk to more people.
• It’s also important to keep your group focused on the issues that are most critical for safety. Don’t get side-tracked by something that’s not life-saving.

Step five - Let everyone have a say
Write a questionnaire based on your concerns. Distribute this questionnaire to local people, either by dropping it through their door (with a request to return it to the chair’s address by a deadline) or by asking the questions verbally through a door-to-door survey or at a local event such as a school fair.

Tips:

• Send a draft version of your questionnaire to your local road safety officials for comments before carrying it out. They may suggest useful amendments or additional questions.

Step six - Think again
Analyse the responses to your questionnaire and reconsider your community’s road safety concerns based on these responses. Write a short report on the main concerns, which also suggests possible solutions. Show a draft of your report to your local officials and take their comments on board.

Step seven - Organise a public meeting
Organise a public meeting for local people and present your report to them. Invite your local officials to speak at this meeting, and leave plenty of time for discussion too.

Your chair should then summarise the main concerns and suggest revised solutions. These solutions may include educational initiatives to persuade local people to take more care on roads. Solutions may also include a request that officials implement a road safety measure, such as a road sign. Everyone could then vote on whether they agree that these are the concerns and appropriate solutions.

Tips:

• Find a free venue for your meeting (eg. a school hall).
• Give enough notice (at least two weeks) and hold it at a reasonable time (eg. 7pm on a week day).
• Advertise the meeting through shop windows, leaflet drops or in a Parish magazine.
• Make sure the meeting is non-confrontational and no-one ‘hogs’ the debate.

Step eight - Implement your initiatives
It may be possible for your group to undertake some road safety initiatives straight-away, particularly initiatives which educate local people about how to take more care on roads. (See section on educating local people). Initiatives that must be implemented by the relevant officials (eg. by your safety engineer) will require their consideration and approval.

Step nine - Review your efforts
Review through further research, the success (or failure!) of road safety initiatives. For example, have speeds gone down following the introduction of more speed limit signs, or not? This information can help prove the value of your group’s work. This information may also help your group decide whether anything else needs to be done. Achieving safe roads can take time.