Living Streets Guernsey Road Safety

Several companies took part in "Bright Day" - the day when we promote our BE SAFE BE SEEN message by asking islanders to dress up in bright clothes and donate a sum of money. We then spend the proceeds on hi-vis vests which we give out free during Road Safety Week. Guernsey's roads have limited lighting and so it is really important that pedestrians and cyclists wear hi-vis items in order to be visible after dark. Grant Thornton staff were featured in the Guernsey Press.

Guernsey's roads are so dark at night that it is essential that pedestrians not only brighten up by wearing a high visibility vest over their dark coat or jacket, but also follow the Highway Code rules for pedestrians. This means when there isn't a footpath, walking on the right hand side of the road facing the traffic. The only exception is when you come to a blind bend. You should then cross over the road carefully and then cross back again after the bend. The leaflet has been provided by us to help you keep safe on the roads.

We spent 5 days in the OSA Recruitment Pop Up Shop giving out 735 hi-vis vests to members of the public + over a hundred children's vests donated by Specsavers. Groups that benefitted were Elizabeth College, Scouts and Sea scouts. We also sold a great number of our cards and calendars and received a donation of £200 from Lloyds Bank. We hope that everyone will brighten up at night in order to keep safe on our dark roads.

Frossard House, Ravenscroft, Julius Baer and BDO + Raymond Falla House took part in "Bright Day" - the day when we promote our BE SAFE BE SEEN message by asking islanders to dress up in bright clothes and donate a sum of money. We raised over £1,000 which included a large donation from Specsavers in Market Street. We then spent the money on purchasing hi-vis vests for adults and children. Ravenscroft staff dressed up in their brightest clothes for the photo which was in the Guernsey Press.

Several companies took part in "Bright Day" - the day when we promote our BE SAFE BE SEEN message by asking islanders to dress up in bright clothes and donate a sum of money. We then spend the proceeds on hi-vis vests which we give out free during Road Safety Week. Guernsey's roads have limited lighting and so it is really important that pedestrians and cyclists wear hi-vis items in order to be visible after dark. B&Q was one of the companies who took part and we took a photo amongst their Christmas display!

Road Safety Week 2017
This year's Road Safety Week was a huge success. Funds raised through our dress down day on 20th October amounted to £734 - a record. We are really grateful to States of Guernsey staff at Frossard House, employees at Butterfield Bank, BDO, Guernsey Post and the Insurance Corporation for taking part. In addition Specsavers in Market Street donated £500 and also donated 500 hi-vis vests for children and small adults for us to give away in the OSA Recruitment Pop Up Shop in St. Peter Port during Road Safety Week.
Living Streets Guernsey Local Group purchased 639 hi-vis vests which were all given away during Road Safety Week together with the 500 donated by Specsavers. We really hope that pedestrians will wear the vests to ensure that they can be seen after dark on Guernsey's narrow roads.

Living Streets takes over the Pop Up Shop for a week - Road Safety Week 2016

During Road Safety week - 21st November - Living Streets took over the OSA Recruitment Pop Up Shop in Smith Street to give away hundreds of high visibility waistcoats to members of the public to encourage them to brighten up when walking or cycling on Guernsey's roads. We opened the shop from 10am until 4pm and during the five days we talked to many islanders about the dangers of walking after dark. Most of the waistcoats went to pedestrians, cyclists and dog walkers. Specsavers in Market Street donated 500 items - the majority of which went to schools.

The waistcoats were purchased from funds raised during "Bright Day" the dress down day held on 28th October. We raised £497.40 during the day and received another cheque for £100 later from Beechwood who took 130 high visibility items for their pupils.

Living Streets also put some of its money towards the hi-vis items. Throughout the week we also sold some of our merchandise - our 2017 calendars, Christmas cards and Guernsey Country Walks greeting cards. Many islanders gave us donations. Altogether we made £361 on the sale of our merchandise and £102.74 in donations.

We are most grateful to Jackie Tebbutt, Ann Robilliard and Tom Le Pelley for helping to man the shop during the week. Also to Sarah Burchett from Specsavers for their generosity in providing so many hi-vis items, and to Belinda Windsor from OSA Recruitment for their generosity in allowing us to occupy their Pop Up Shop for the third year running.

Bright Day - October 28th 2016

Our dress down day "Bright Day" aims to highlight the dangers of walking and cycling on Guernsey's roads after dark. With very little street lighting it can be very dangerous unless you are wearing light or preferably high visibility clothing. Those who take part in the dress down day get first choice at acquiring hi-vis gear for themselves and their children.

As usual, staff at Frossard House and Bulwer Avenue raised the most funds for us. The Education Department in the Grange also took part and so did Investec. BDO very kindly gave us a generous cheque even though they weren't able to take part. Altogether we raised £497.40. This will be spent on purchasing hi-vis waistcoats for adults and children which will be given out during Road Safety Week (21st November) in the Pop Up Shop in Smith Street.

This year Specsavers has very kindly given us 500 items to add to our stock and Living Streets will be putting £400 towards more items so that we can help as many people as possible.

Road Safety Week 2015 - we encourage islanders to brighten up

Bright Day” is the dress down day we organise each year in order to emphasise the BE SAFE BE SEEN message. This year it was held on 30th October—so just before the clocks go back. Guernsey’s narrow roads and lack of street lighting can be very challenging—particularly on a dark rainy night.

We encourage pedestrians and cyclists to brighten up at night—preferably by wearing a high visibility vest over their coat. All the funds collected during “Bright Day” go towards purchasing hi-vis vests which we then give out free to islanders.

This year’s event was a bit disappointing. 9 companies pledged to take part when we contacted them earlier in the year. However, only 3 of those eventually took part. We are most grateful to the States Departments who, as usual, raised the majority of the money. Also to Guernsey Post and to Clegg Gifford.

We raised £396.

Living Streets takes over the OSA Recruitment Pop Up Shop

We are most grateful to OSA Recruitment for allowing us to occupy their Pop Up shop in Smith Street during Road Safety Week. It is a fantastic way of raising our profile and spreading the BE SAFE BE SEEN message.

We spent £907.75 on the purchase of high visibility vests — investing some of our own funds to make sure we had sufficient to meet the demand from islanders.

We gave first choice of items to employees who took part in “Bright Day” and also to schools. Amherst received 25 vests for pupils who had just passed their cycle proficiency test and Le Murier received 9 vests for pupils who walk for their Duke of Edinburgh practice.

Normally we only offer yellow, orange or pink vests but we decided to extend the colour range adding pale blue, royal blue and green. It is always difficult to gauge demand and the new colours ran out very quickly.

We are most grateful to Sarah Burchett at Specsavers who donated well over 100 small adult vests.

Very many thanks also to Tom, Jackie Tebbutt, Maureen Pitman, Sheila Cataroche, Judith Le Tissier and Ann Robilliard for their help manning the shop during the week.

We are also very grateful to Creaseys for lending us a mannequin for the week and the Red Cross shop for lending us some clothes to dress the mannequin!

As well as our BE SAFE BE SEEN message we had leaflets on “Safe walking in Guernsey” and “iPod Oblivion” plus some of our Walk to Work leaflets. We also encouraged islanders to talk about any pedestrian safety concerns.

During the week we sold a good quantity of our merchandise—our 2016 calendars, Christmas cards and greeting cards. We sold 103 of our greeting cards, 34 calendars and 115 Christmas cards taking a total of £318.

In addition we received £288.51 in donations.

Opening up the Pop Up Shop. Picture by kind permission of the Guernsey Press

Road Safety Week 2014 - 17th to 23rd November

The UK Road Safety Charity BRAKE sets a theme each year. In 2014 they were asking everyone to "look out for each other" on the roads. They were also calling for everyone to put safety first and be considerate to one another, encouraging people on foot and bike to never take chances, and make sure they can be seen.

Living Streets Guernsey LBG decided to run a "Bright Day" on 24th October so that all the funds collected could be used for buying high visibility waistcoats which could be given out free during the week itself.

OSA Recruitment very kindly gave Living Streets the use of their Pop Up Shop in Town for the week and we gave out more than 600 high visibility waistcoats during the week. We also sold a considerable amount of our merchandise - Guernsey Country Walks calendars for 2015, Christmas cards and greeting cards.

We worked closely with the Environment Department's new Active Travel Unit and the Guernsey Police during the week who also promoted the BE SAFE BE SEEN message.

We are most grateful to everyone who came in to the Pop Up Shop to say hello and we are hoping that we will see many more islanders brightening up at night to keep themselves safe on our narrow dark roads.

Students from Le Murier School pop in to kit themselves out in hi-vis gear

We raised £518 during Bright Day thanks to the generosity of the States of Guernsey departments at Frossard House and Bulwer Avenue, and businesses BDO and ICCI. The demand for high visibility items was so great that we had to buy in three more consignments throughout the week to cope with the demand. We would like to thank Living Streets Guernsey members who gave up their time to help us man the Pop Up Shop in Town. We will be doing it all again next year thanks to the generosity of OSA Recruitment who have confirmed that we can have the shop again next year during Road Safety Week - 23rd November.

Living Streets has joined up with the Neighbourhood Policing Team to encourage parents to be more considerate when parking near schools. Living Streets has paid for two new banners with a clear message: NO PARKING; NO WAITING; NO EXCUSES. The banners will be moved around the island to various problem areas. The first location is the Vale School where parents not only park on the footpath but also on yellow lines outside the school. This makes it very dangerous for parents and children trying to walk to school. Illegal parking carries a fine of £70 and the Police are intending to take a zero tolerance approach to those who break the law.

Living Streets is also working with the Head, Gary Hind, to try to encourage more car sharing and to help the school develop "walking buses". In addition we are intending to provide information to parents as to where they can park safely a short walking distance from the schools. A map pinpointing where pupils live will also be used to help with the development of a Schools Travel Plan.

Road Safety Week 2013

UK Road Safety Charity, BRAKE, chose “Tune into Road Safety” as its theme in 2013. It stressed the need for all road users to pay attention to the road and to avoid distractions. Driver distraction is a major cause of death and serious injury in the UK and the same applies in Guernsey.

Living Streets, Guernsey Police and the Environment Department all worked together to highlight road safety messages during the week. Speed checks around schools, a crack down on using a mobile phone while driving and driving and parking on footpaths were some of the activities undertaken by the Police.

Living Streets has always concentrated on its BE SAFE BE SEEN message during Road Safety Week. It highlights the need to wear bright or light (or preferably high visibility) clothes after dark in order to be visible to motorists, particularly on dark rainy nights. We encouraged companies to take part in the dress down day “Bright Day” and £519.72 was raised. All the funds have now been spent on high visibility waistcoats for those companies who took part in the event and also for local schools. 290 items are being distributed to six schools and four companies. We are very grateful to those who took part and, in particular, to Frossard House who raised £354.72.

The Living Streets Road Safety Week display was erected at the Guille-Allès Library. It showed photos of Guernsey road traffic collisions, and gave information on the BE SAFE BE SEEN message with some current statistics and research findings.

It also emphasised the distraction theme by reminding pedestrians of the dangers of walking and talking (or texting) while using mobile phones.

Road Safety Week 2012 - 19th November

Road Safety Week is organised by the UK road safety charity BRAKE. Living Streets always takes the opportunity to highlight the important BE SAFE BE SEEN message - encouraging pedestrians and cyclists to brighten up at night. Two documents - one on "Safe Walking" and the other on "Ipod Oblivion" (not walking and talking or texting with your mobile phone while trying to cross a road) have been circulated on the schools intranet so that teachers can access them.

In addition we encouraged several organisations to take part in a BRIGHT DAY dress down day on Friday 23rd November - to highlight the need for brightening up when walking or cycling on Guernsey's roads. Taking part were Frossard House, Specsavers, OSA Recruitment, Insurance Corporation, Butterfield Bank and Credit Suisse. £830 was raised which Living Streets spent on over 400 high visibility items which were then distributed to eleven schools and thirteen individual members of the public. The schools items will mainly be used during cycle proficiency programmes and to encourage walk to school activities. The Forest Primary School calculated that 50 children walked to school and we provided high visibility waistcoats for those children. Le Murier School identified 30 children who needed waistcoats.

During the week the Traffic Police undertook various initiatives concentrating on pedestrian safety and the Environment Department hired in a speed indicator which they installed at a different location each day where speeding tends to be a problem.

Living Streets put up its Road Safety Week display at La Mare de Carteret Primary School and we had positive feedback from both teachers and parents.

We would like to thank everyone who took part in activities during the week, and especially to all those people who donated funds so that we could buy the high visibility items so that everyone can be a little bit safer on our roads during the dark winter nights.

Road Safety Week 2011
Poster competition winners - December 2011

80 year 7 and 8 La Mare de Carteret High art students took part in this year's poster competition. The theme was pavements are for pedestrians (not vehicles) - so no pavement parking and no pavement "surfing" (driving on the pavement at speed).

The students came up with some colourful and interesting ideas and it was difficult to pick out the winners.

Chair of Living Streets Guernsey, Deputy Tom Le Pelley, awarded cash prizes to six students at their morning assembly. The prize winners were:

1st prize: Kiarna Le Pavoux
2nd prize: Lucy Trebert
3rd prize: Alix Coldwell
Highly commended: Hannah Simon, Finlay Aitken and Soreia Almeida

La Mare de Carteret Head teacher, Ken Wheeler, said that the road safety message was an important one which affected all students and the students enjoyed taking part.

Road Safety Week 2011 (21st to 25th November)

BRAKE, the UK Road Safety Charity designated the theme of this year's event "Too young to die". Guernsey, therefore, gave preference to highlighting the safety of children around schools.

Living Streets' Road Safety Week display was set up at St. Sampson's High school for the whole week. It comprises photographs of some Guernsey Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) and gives information on Be Safe Be Seen (brightening up at night preferably with high visibility items). In addition there is general road safety information and statistics.

The Traffic section of the Guernsey Police concentrated on road safety issues around the island schools. Living Streets worked with the Police during the week to highlight two specific issues - pavement parking and pavement "surfing" (the bad habit of driving along the pavement at full speed in order to avoid a wide vehicle). PC Russell Johnson of the Traffic section carried out some enforcement on pavement "surfing" outside Les Capelles School, together with Chair of Living Streets, Deputy Tom Le Pelley, and Secretary, Pat Wisher. Several motorists were stopped and warned and reminded of the correct way to avoid a wide vehicle - ie. to carefully mount the pavement and stop, and then to carefully continue. If it is absolutely essential to drive along the pavement it should be no more than walking pace. Pavement "surfing" is particularly dangerous around schools where parents and children are walking, and in urban areas where many gateways open onto the pavement.

Living Streets ran a poster competition for students also on the two pavement issues. La Mare de Carteret students took part. They were asked to design a poster aimed at motorists to put over the message of either pavement parking or pavement "surfing". 80 year 7 and 8 students took part. The competition was judged by Chair of Living Streets, Deputy Tom Le Pelley, PC Russell Johnson from the Traffic Police and three graphic design students from the College of FE National Extended Diploma in Art and Design, Level 3 - Joel Lewis, Catherine Batiste and Renton Hayward. There were some very colourful and interesting posters and Living Streets will be awarding a first, second and third prize and 3 highly commended prizes.

Parking on the pavement affects the most vulnerable in our society - the elderly, children, people with disabilities, mothers with buggies and pedestrians of any age. Blocking the pavement means that pedestrians are forced to walk unsafely in the road.

Drivers often park with two wheels on the pavement thinking that they are helping the traffic flow. However very often vehicles can't pass them anyway. Motorists think that if they leave space for one person to pass that is OK. It is not. They fail to consider a parent with a buggy and a child, a person with a doz on a lead, or a person with poor sight or in a wheelchair.

Road Safety Week 2005 - crash extrication exercise by the 3 emergency services

Road Safety Week is held in November each year just after the clocks have gone back. The darker evenings mean that all road users need to take more care and look out for each other. Road Safety Week is an initiative run by the road safety charity BRAKE. www.brake.org.uk

For five years Living Streets chaired the Road Safety Week Committee which consisted of the three emergency services, the Guernsey Bicycle Group, Child Accident Prevention group, the Environment Department, Island Coachways and the Guernsey Motor Traders Association. A whole week of events were staged to highlight various issues and a display at Beau Sejour showed photographs of some of Guernsey's road traffic collisions.

On the first day of the week the three emergency services staged a crash extrication exercise, showing how the services work together to extricate the casualties within one hour.

In 2006 we produced a document entitled "What Price Road Safety?" which we circulated to all deputies. We called for a joined up approach to tackling Guernsey's road traffic collisions.

Be Safe Be Seen when when walking after dark

Too many pedestrians put their lives in danger by wearing black at night. Guernsey's narrow roads, blind bends, lack of footpaths and limited street lighting are a challenge for all road users at the best of times, but they can be lethal on a dark rainy night.

German road safety research has shown that while 75% of all driving is done during daylight hours, more than 50% of all fatal accidents happen during the hours of darkness. 90% of a driver's reaction depends on vision, and vision is severly limited at night. Even on well lit roads depth perception, colour recognition and peripheral vision are compromised after sunset.

Research shows that a driver travelling at 40mph with dipped headlights has as little as 1.5 seconds to react to a hazard on the road (like a pedesrian walking). This rises to just 3 seconds on main beams.

So, please, everyone who walks after dark, at whatever time of the year, wear a high visibility vest so that you can be seen. The reflective stripes on the vest can be seen by drivers using headlights up to three times as far away as non-reflective materials. If you do not have a high visibility vest, wear something light coloured or bright. Carry a torch or a light coloured carrier bag.

Finally, if you live in an area where there are no footpaths, please ensure you walk on the right hand side of the road facing the traffic. The only exception is if you come to a blind bend when it is safer to cross the road before the bend and then back again afterwards.

Pavements for Pedestrians

Pedestrians are the oldest form of road user and yet in many cases they are becoming an endangered species, driven off the roads by the huge volume of traffic in the island.

With so many cars there has become a tendency for motorists to use the last refuge for pedestrians - the footpath. Motorists not only park on the footpath but also drive on the footpath - quite often maintaining their current speed and not realising that a pedestrian could be walking out of a gateway.

Living Streets (working in liaison with the Guernsey Police) has tried over the years to highlight these road safety issues. If a vehicle parks on the footpath, then a parent with a buggy (and perhaps children in tow) has to walk in the road in order to avoid the blockage. The same applies to any pedestrian and to a wheelchair user. There is also a danger if you park on a pavement that you could be creating a blind spot or obstructing sight lines.

Footpaths (pavements) are for pedestrians. You can be fined for parking on one. So please be considerate when you park.

Mounting the pavement when you are driving is sometimes necessary when you are faced with a wide vehicle coming towards you in a narrow road. Driving on the pavement is an offence. The correct way to deal with this situation is to slow down and carefully mount the pavement. Continuing to drive at your current speed is highly dangerous.

Working with students to highlight road safety issues

Each year we run a poster competition, working with College of FE graphic design students. The idea is to highlight a particular road safety issue. Posters are used in the Schools Liaison work undertaken by the Police.

In 2010 the topic was "Ipod Oblivion" - the near trance like state that people apparently enter when using mobile phones, MP3 players and other electronic gadgets while walking or cycling on our roads. Road Safety professionals are getting concerned about this new trend.

Nic Le Poidevin was the winner with his striking poster "Hits don't just happen in music".

In 2009 "Speed Kills" was the topic. The winner, Sam Falla, said he was shocked at the survival rates of pedestrians hit by speeding cars and this is what inspired his poster.

A pedestrian hit by a car travelling at 20mph has a 9 out of 10 chance of surviving. Hit by a car travelling at 40mph there is a 9 out of 10 chance of being killed. Sam's beautifully illustrated poster "Death machine" was used in Schools Liaison work. The judges were a group of students and they thought his poster would really appeal to the target audience of young newly qualified drivers.