Disadvantage and Road User Safety

It is well established that more people are injured on the road in disadvantaged areas than in other areas. For example, in order to meet its target of halving the number of children killed or injured in road accidents, the Government is prioritising a focus on reducing accidents in disadvantaged areas and among children from different social and ethnic groups. What is less clear is why such risks are more pronounced for disadvantaged groups. The Department for Transport has commissioned CRSP, in partnership with Aecom, to undertake a major study to investigate this and so inform strategies to improve road user safety. The research started in March 2008 and will continue into 2010.

CRSP is responsible for conducting research with residents in 5 case study areas. These include:

• Bradford
• Wolverhampton
• Wigan
• Sunderland
• London (Newham)

The research with local residents uses a semi-ethnographic approach which grounds the research within the local context, focusing on issues which are meaningful and tangible to local people, and are rooted in their own lifestyles. This enables us to address the question of why risks of accident and injury are higher in disadvantaged areas. It also allows us to obtain a detailed insight into the experiences, behaviour and attitudes of local people.

The research with local residents focuses on exploring the following topics:

• attitudes and behaviour, including: lifestyles and culture; and travel needs (both temporal and spatial);
• transport modes and resources, including: access to cars and
• the street context, including temporal and spatial dimensions of: risk areas; and activities on and use of streets.

Within each case study area group discussions and individual interviews are held with local residents. These include discussions and interviews with:

• adults - including parents;
• young people aged 16-21;
• secondary school children; and
• primary school children.

Within the groups a range of techniques are employed to engage the interests of participants and to simulate discussion. These include:

• Mapping - residents are asked to identify places of importance and traffic or road safety 'hot spots'.
• Drawing - this enables us to get an insight into children's activities, behaviour and perceptions of risk.
• Ranking - to explore behaviour or issues that are considered to cause road safety problems.
• Vignettes/scenarios - these are used with children to explore attitudes, values and behaviour sensitively.

The research also includes observations of the key sites identified by local people where congestion, accidents ad traffic incidents occur. These observations enable us to build up a picture of the behaviour of road users within the vicinity.

Sponsor
Department for Transport

Project team
Liz Sutton, Grahame Whitfield, Noel Smith, Yvette Hartfree and Nicola Selby.

Start date: March 2008

Projected Completion date: 2010

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