Streets Ahead on Safety: Young People's Participation in Decision-Making to Address the European Road Injury "Epidemic"

This article describes the Birmingham (England) City Council's "Streets Ahead on Safety" project which was undertaken to improve road safety and quality of life. Birmingham is an area of multiple deprivation where 87,000 people from largely Asian, immigrant backgrounds live; a third of the residents are under 16 years old and 58% self-define their religion as Muslim. The area has a poor traffic accident record leading to high levels of killed or seriously injured children. This project encouraged a highway authority, engineers and road safety officers to provide local young people with opportunities to participate in decision-making in the belief that the active engagement of young service users would lead to more effective and sustainable solutions to accident prevention. The project included 405 youth (aged 9–11 years) who conducted environmental audits, interactive road safety awareness and citizenship training, and engaged as decision-makers. The authors outline some of the barriers confronted by young people in learning to be active participants. They describe the positive outcomes as increased knowledge of road and community safety issues, and the establishment of young people as stakeholders in the development of their own safety and active engagement with service providers in the development of engineering proposals.

• Authors:
  • Kimberlee, Richard
• Publication Date: 2008-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 322-328
• Serial:
  • Health and Social Care in the Community
  • Volume: 16
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Blackwell Publishers
  • EISSN: 1365-2524
  • Serial URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652524

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Adolescents; Children; Cooperation; Crash injuries; Fatalities; Highway safety; Public participation; Quality of life; Safety education; Safety programs; Socioeconomic factors; Stakeholders
• Geographic Terms: Birmingham (England)
• Subject Areas: Economics; Education and Training; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I10: Economics and Administration; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor; I84: Personal Injuries;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01104426
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 17 2008 9:24AM