In response to concerns that Sheffield is the second most dangerous city for children using roads, a new plan has been proposed to make Sheffield roads safer.
Sheffield City Council have launched a new Road Safety Action Plan that will focus on continuing to reduce the numbers of road accidents in Sheffield.
Cllr Ben Miskell, Chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee, said: “Safer roads are a human right, and we want Sheffield to be a place where everyone is free to move in a safe and healthy way, every day.”
The Road Safety Action Plan was first introduced to the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee on Wednesday 13 March.
The plan includes suggestions of projects and ideas that the Council will adopt in order to reduce the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on Sheffield’s roads by half before 2030.
One of the main focuses of the plan is the safety of children going to and from school. The plan includes an expansion of the School Streets programme, as well as part-time 20mph zones during morning and afternoon school run times. It even proposed to close some roads to give students and their parents a safe place to walk to and from school.
Parking outside of schools has also been identified as an issue, with the Council proposing to work with parking enforcement teams and South Yorkshire Police to tackle the issue.
The Safety Action Plan recognises the inevitability of human error, so, instead, prioritises creating safer road environments by redesigning roads for better visibility, changing speed limits, and creating infrastructure that protects road users.
Cllr Miskell said: “Statistics for the number of people killed or seriously injured on Sheffield’s roads shows that road safety in Sheffield needs to improve. We mustn’t forget that behind each statistic is a family or loved one, torn apart by pain and grief. These numbers are about people, people who have set off on a journey and, in some cases, never come home.”
This comes after it was announced last year that Sheffield has a worse record on child road causalities than nearly all metropolitan areas.
Public Health England and the Department for Transport data shows 113 under-16s were killed or seriously injured in road collisions in Sheffield from 2016-18.
Sheffield is has the second highest number of children killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents, after Leeds, with a rate of 3.06 incidents per 10,000 children, in 2020-22.
Cllr Miskell said: “We, as a community, have the power to change this and as a council we must show leadership and that is why we are adopting Vision Zero, which is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.
“To achieve our vision in Sheffield, we will continue to work with our partners and develop and invest in our education, engineering, and enforcement programmes to ensure we are making our city as safe as possible.”
