What?
This Summer, Surrey RoadSafe is running one of its largest ever road safety campaigns. The campaign is aimed at road safety for two wheelers. This includes cyclists and motorcyclists who are some of the most vulnerable road users. The campaign is called “Habits for Life”. The messaging includes video and animations on social media (Facebook and X), to promote actionable safety advice for motorists, cyclists and motor cyclists. As part of the campaign we’ve launched Surrey Rider Home – The Gateway to being a better rider. The campaign will also involve targeted operational activity to address specific offences on Surrey’s roads such as ‘close pass’.
When?
The campaign will run throughout June and July, the time of year where we see a significant rise in the number of cyclists and motorcyclists on the roads. At this time of year more people commute to work by bicycle and the warmer weather encourages people to cycle for leisure for all the health benefits it brings.
Why?
Cyclists
There were 382 pedal cyclist casualties on the roads of Surrey in 2022 (2 fatalities, 137 serious injuries and 243 slight injuries). ‘Failed to look properly’ was the most common contributory factor in cyclist collisions, both for the cyclists themselves and for the other road users involved in the collisions.
‘Careless, reckless or in a hurry’ and ‘failed to judge other persons path or speed’ also featured highly for both cyclists and other road users having collisions with them. ‘Passing too close’ was a top contributory factor for other road users.
‘Cyclist entering road from pavement’ was a contributory factor. The peak age for cyclist casualties is age 15-19. Most casualties are males who make up 83% of all cyclist casualties in Surrey. 90% of casualties occurred in urban areas.
Powered Two Wheelers
In the last 3 years (2022-24) there have been a total of 1394 motorcycle rider/pillion casualties. 20 of these were fatalities, 450 serious (470 total KSI) and 925 slight.
Careless/reckless/in a hurry and failed to judge other person’s path or speed were consistently the top two contributory factors, both for motorcycles (including the 50-125cc and over 500cc categories individually) and other vehicles involved in collisions with them.
Motorcycle riders were more likely to have the contributory factor failed to look properly, along with others associated with speed (loss of control and exceeding the speed limit). Additionally, learner or inexperienced rider featured heavily amongst riders of smaller motorcycles 50-125cc.
Who?
The campaign is aimed at ALL road users and includes a mixture of messaging aimed at different road users to influence safer road user behaviour and encourage #HabitsForLife