Striding out for safer streets

Brighton & Hove City Council’s road safety team is joining with East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, and Sussex Police’s Road Policing Unit to raise road safety awareness among pedestrians.

As part of UN Road Safety Week (6-13 May) they will be at Memorial Way on the Old Steine, Brighton on Wednesday, 8 May from 10am to 3pm with a fire service vehicle, highlighting how HGVs have blind spots and how to keep safe whilst exploring the city on foot.

This area is one of the densest areas for crossings in the city. The teams will also be surveying pedestrian crossing behaviour, giving away gifts to people and offering advice. 

UN Road Safety week is highlighting the risks to pedestrians as they are one of the most vulnerable road users.  Brighton & Hove has a compact city centre and seafront area that’s easy to walk around and attracts millions of visitors every year. For that reason the city has a higher percentage of pedestrian casualties than many other areas of the UK.

Last year pedestrians accounted for 53 serious injuries and one fatality and made up 34% of Brighton & Hove’s killed and seriously injured casualties. Of these 91% were over the age of 15. 

Councillor Ian Davey, lead member for Transport at Brighton & Hove City Council, said: “Pedestrians need to look effectively when crossing the roads and ensure they can be seen.  Most of us are pedestrians at some point, whether we choose to drive, cycle or use public transport for some of our journey, so any ways we can help improve road safety will benefit everyone.

“We expect the 20mph limit recently introduced will play a part in reducing road casualties and improved awareness of road users will also help to keep people safe.”

Related information

Find out more about the council's road safety work