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.