How to run a road safety project. You can find this image in your Youth for Brake action pack.
Get together
Set up your committee. Assign roles so everyone knows what they needs to do. Take turns so everyone can experience a different role.
What’s the problem?
Identify the issues you want to focus on. Think about road dangers in your local area, and where improvements could be made.
Find out more
Carry out your own research to learn more about road safety and the dangers people face.
Next steps
Agree with your committee what you will do to make a difference.
What do you want to achieve?
Decide your aims and objectives. Set SMART goals.
Take action
Get out there and campaign! Arrange your next meeting to discuss progress you have made.
1. Set up your committee
Agree how many people you will need, and when and where you will meet. Assign roles so that it is clear what everyone needs to do — you’ll need someone to chair meetings, someone responsible for taking notes and someone to book meeting spaces. Take turns so everyone can experience what it’s like to be part of a committee.
You can’t spell committee without commit. It’s great to get together and share ideas, but if some members are not fully committed or if the committee lacks clear goals, you will struggle to achieve results. It’s also important to remember that everyone has an opinion, so consider exploring different ways to make sure all members have their voice heard.
2. Identify the issue you want to focus on
For example, you could campaign for slower speed limits, cleaner air, or for safer places for people to walk and cycle. Think about the problems in your local area, or improvements you think could be made.
3. Find out more
Learn more about road safety and the dangers people face by carrying out your own research. You could go out and ask people what they’re concerned about in your community, or look up the facts online.
Start by looking at the factsheets on our Find out more pages.
4. Next steps
Agree with your committee what you will do to make a difference. Discuss which methods will be most relevant for your chosen campaign topic.
You could hold a demonstration, write to your MP, make campaign videos or run a survey in your local community.
Check out our Shout out about it, Get creative and Make things happen pages for more ideas.
5. What do you want to achieve?
Decide your aims and objectives. It’s a good idea to have overarching aims that describe what you want the project to achieve, such as running a campaign to make cycling in your community safer, plus a few related goals that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based. These will help you find out if your project was a success.
See How did it go? for more tips.
6. Take action
Agree who on your committee will be responsible for what and agree timescales for each step to be completed, then get out there and campaign! Arrange your next meeting and discuss progress you have made so far.
7. How did it go?
Evaluate how your project went. You could survey people who took part to see how much they learned, or record whether real changes have been made.
See How did it go? for tips on how to monitor progress and evaluate the success of your project.