Slow Down in Our Town
"Slow down in our town" was the main message on our recent speed workshop for local pupils. A dramatic change in the weather made it an even more interesting afternoon. Check out our video to see the pupils in action and then find out more about it why this kind of activity helps enable active travel. Then if you are an educator take advantage of our free workshop guidance to help you run a similar session in your area.
Why is it Important to Slow Down in Town?
Obviously speed matters wherever you are but choosing the most appropriate speed when you are in town i.e. around pedestrians and cyclists is really important. The governments ambition is for half of all journeys in towns or cities to be walked or cycled by 2030. If we are going to achieve this, people need to feel safe when they are walking and cycling. If cars are going too fast, not only does it make our streets actually more dangerous but it makes people feel they are more dangerous and therefore less likely to want to walk, wheel, cycle or scoot.
Why Teach Children About Speed - They are Not the Drivers!
The importance of driving at appropriate speeds can be taught from a young age although obviously it’s adults who are drivers who are able to make changes to their behaviour. However by helping children to understand the dangers and the importance of slowing down it can have an impact on adults' behaviour too. Children take the messages back to parents, carers, older siblings and other adults around them. They can be very influential.
Children will potentially become drivers themselves one day so preparing them now for an understanding of why speed matters is important for that reason too.
Although the onus for driving safely is obviously on the drivers, it helps if children can also understand that drivers are not able to stop as quickly as they may think as it can affect their behaviour as pedestrians and helps them develop their own road sense.
About Our Speed Workshop
Here at Brightwayz we love developing road safety and active travel workshop ideas and other resources with our local schools. We then share the information with you so you can try it out in your area.
Our "slow down in our town" workshop was enjoyed by pupils at Grange Primary Academy in Kettering. Have you seen our video above? For the activities that we ran through the afternoon there were three different groups of pupils and three different activities. So all three groups had a go at each activity. The activities were playground-based learning about stopping distances, classroom-based creating promotional messages to encourage adults to slow down and finally a road-side session with the chance to try out a speed camera with the help of our local PCSO.
Watch our video above to see the workshop in action. If you are an educator get in touch with us for a free link to download the workshop sheets and guidance. The stickers featured can be purchased online from us.
Finally, take a look at some other great road safety education resources from Brake charity, in particular the Speed Matters video with Maddie Moate featured in the workshop.
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