Liverpool and Hull to trial new pedestrian crossing designs
Liverpool City Council has been awarded £196,253 by the Road Safety Trust to deliver an innovative project intended to reduce the number of pedestrians who are killed and injured on their roads every year.
The project is being delivered in partnership with Hull City Council, their respective Road Safety Partnerships, leading behavioural science company So-Mo and data analysis company Agilysis.
Liverpool and Hull have some of the highest rates of adult residents injured as pedestrians in the UK – Liverpool at 48 resident pedestrian casualties per 100,000 people and Hull at 36 resident pedestrian casualties per 100,000 each year.
The councils will be trialling two experimental pedestrian crossings. An observational study will test if the new elements effectively ‘nudge’ pedestrians to walk to a crossing located near to them and then encourages them to then use the crossing correctly.
The two-year project is currently in the development phase, with the intention of initiating trials in early 2021.
Councillor Sharon Connor, Cabinet member for Highways, said: “Far too many people lose their lives or are seriously injured as pedestrians in Liverpool. It’s a problem we’ve been tackling and have had some success with over the past decade, but we need to be radical to make the progress we all want.
“I like the fact that these crossings So-Mo have developed are looking at the whole picture - the environment, the location, behaviour - and am encouraged by the level of work that has gone into their designs, as are the Department of Transport and our colleagues in Hull.”
Nicola Wass CEO So-Mo said “We are taking an imaginative, intelligent approach to road safety. These crossings have been informed by behavioural science, which means that they have been designed with a deeper understanding of the people who use them. The point of doing a trial before launching any new crossings is that it allows us to know, with certainty whether these new elements work or not and also we can expect to achieve similar results in other UK cities.”
Councillor Anita Harrison, portfolio holder for Streetscene at Hull City Council, said: “We are pleased to be part of this innovative project which complements the council’s road safety strategy that was launched in March earlier this year.
“We hope that this targeted intervention will help to support some of our most vulnerable road users and improve overall road safety, in order to have an impact on achieving low levels of casualty reduction that are long lasting.
“Ultimately, we want to provide a transport network that is easy, convenient and safe for people to travel around the city, and by working closely with the Road Safety Trust and Liverpool City Council, Hull will play a crucial part in a wider approach in helping to reduce pedestrian casualties on the roads.”
The Road Safety Trust, a charity dedicated to making the UK’s roads the safest in the world, has awarded £837,900 funding to a total of six organisations across the UK. The grants are aimed at improving road safety under the theme ‘innovative traffic calming and provision of vulnerable road users’.
Sally Lines, Chief Executive of Road Safety Trust said:
“The standard of applications was really high in 2019 with over 20 applications received under the theme ‘Innovative traffic calming and provision for vulnerable road users’.
“We are pleased to be able to provide Liverpool City Council with funding to help achieve our vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on UK roads. We want to make the roads safer for all users in particular vulnerable road users which includes pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.”
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 £3.7m to 49 different projects.
So-Mo are providing a fuller narrative on the project over on the project blog site.
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For more information, contact:
Sarah Colombini, 07731 462451, sarah.colombini@campaigncollective.org
Mike Doran, Liverpool City Council, 07801 453918, Mike.Doran@liverpool.gov.uk
Kiran Guhman, Hull City Council, 07809 102014, kiran.ghuman@hullcc.gov.uk
Nicola Wass, So-Mo, 07958 766809, nicola@so-mo.co.uk
About Road Safety Trust
Road Safety Trust is dedicated to making the UK’s roads the safest in the world.
Through independent grant-giving, we are working towards our vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on UK roads. We want to make the roads safer for all users.
We fund vital research and practical interventions committed to reducing the number of people killed or injured on our roads.
About Liverpool City Council
Liverpool (population 902,000). In 2012 Liverpool City Council commissioned So-Mo to deliver the insight work that led to the crossings being created. This project is just one element of an ambitious strategy to transform Liverpool into a city where everyone feels able to walk and cycle in relative safety. Alongside the crossings Liverpool City Council is currently undertaking a £45m redesign of the city centre, introducing 11km of new permanent cycle lanes and is about to look at expanding its 20mph scheme to ensure the improvements to the city’s air quality in lockdown continue for years to come.
About Hull City Council
Hull (population 320,825) has a similar road network and social demographic to Liverpool. Road safety is a priority for Hull. In March 2020 Hull City Council updated their road safety strategy to recognises the needs of the most vulnerable road users. This project aligns with their city-wide approach to reduce pedestrian casualties on their roads. Hull is very happy to be part of such an innovative approach to problem solving
About So-Mo
So-Mo are a behavioural insights company specialising in Road Safety. So-Mo have led on the behavioural insight research, designed of the crossings and led on trial design.
About Agilysis
Agilysis are a leading road safety data analysis and research consultancy. Agilysis are providing data analysis to support site identification, profiling of pedestrians and collision analysis. They have informed the trial design and will also evaluate the impact of the new crossings once trials have concluded.
About Merseyside Road Safety Partnership (MRSP)
Merseyside Road Safety Partnership was created in 2007 to combat the rising number of deaths and serious injuries in Merseyside. Taking a multi-agency approach the partnership aims to ensure the safety of all road users travelling in and around Merseyside. MRSP provided the funding for the original insight work and it hopes to be able to apply learning from this project across wider Merseyside.
About Safer Roads Humber
Safer Roads Humber is the regional road safety partnership for the Humber area. It comprises of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Highways England, Hull City Council, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, Humberside Police, North East Lincolnshire Council and North Lincolnshire Council. They aim to reduce the number of people killed or injured on the regions roads and maintain this casualty reduction through partnership working.
One of their key priority areas is to reduce the number of pedestrians injured on our road and this project will provide vital insight into why pedestrians are being injured near crossings. They are delighted to be part of this research project.
Supporting data
Nationally, 77% of all pedestrians who were killed or seriously injured were adults
Nationally, about 19% of adults who were killed or seriously injured in a road collision were pedestrian (rather than drivers or passengers).
In Liverpool, 37% of all adults killed or seriously injured were pedestrians (compared to the 19% above)
In Hull, 21% of all adults killed or seriously injured were pedestrians (so not as high as Liverpool but still above the national average)
Both Liverpool and Hull have seen downward trends in the numbers of adult in-vehicle casualties in recent years, but have seen little change in the numbers of adult pedestrians injured
In Hull, between 80 and 120 adults are injured as pedestrians each year. In Liverpool, the figure is between 160 and 600 adult pedestrian casualties (although we must remember that Liverpool has a much higher population – 902,000 compared to 320,825)
In Hull, 61% of the adult pedestrians who were crossing the road at the time of their collision were NOT at a crossing whilst in Liverpool, it was 76% (this includes those near a crossing and those crossing where one wasn’t available within 50m)
For Liverpool, 33% of all adult pedestrian casualties were injured on, or within 50 metres of a crossing, with the equivalent figure for Hull at 39%.
Liverpool has the 3rd highest number of adult pedestrian KSIs, after Birmingham and Westminster
Hull has been selected as a good partner city for Liverpool, because it has a similar road network and similar socio-demographics of residents
All analysis has been done on 2014-2018 figures, aside from the ones mentioning ‘recent years’, which go back to 2009.
