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A protest campaign over poor walking and cycling safety


Effective road safety planning: what should be happening

What the vision should be
Road safety planning and policing: what we have a right to expect
Poor Merseyside road casualties should be considered
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Past strategies
Options that should be considered

Merseyside road safety failures

Merseyside / national road safety failures

Merseyside road safety concerns

So-Mo project on pedestrian casualties

Merseyside road safety improvements

Taking action on poor road safety

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Campaigning for walking and cycling safety in Merseyside
The initial aim for a campaign for walking and cycling safety should be to make Merseyside as good as anywhere in the world for walking and cycling. We should then aim to improve on that.

The usual methods of letters, emails, petitions, and contributing to consultations have not worked - the politicans and officials has failed to respond properly to the needs of people to be able to walk and cycle safely - in particular, they have failed to safeguard children.

We should insist on competent administration: we need to remember the consequences if citizens failed to pay their taxes or if the politicians and officials were not paid their salaries and allowances: these would not be tolerated by those in positions of power. Equally, we should not tolerate poor decision-making by politicians and officials.

As the politicians and officials have failed to act competently, and as Merseyside is still third rate for walking and cycling safety, we now need to move on to a more assertive approach:
  • official complaints
  • exposing the poor decisions, and contrasting them with the best in the world
  • confronting the politicians and officials and asking why they have done so little
  • demonstrating and taking other forms of non-violent direct action
  • encouraging other pedestrian groups to come in to being, both throughout Merseyside and the NW region
  • linking up with other pedestrian groups with an aim of establishing a strong independent national voice for pedestrians.

The role of a walking and cycling safety website and newsletter
  • showing best practice in road safety
  • exposing how poorly Merseyside is performing compared to best practice
  • showing how radical action has been successful in the past (https://wacm.org.uk/17.html)
  • publicising citizen actions including demonstrations
  • acting as a link between concerned citizens
  • congratulating any improvements in road safety

The role of a media campaign for walking and cycling safety
A. To communicate to politicians and officials that:
  • they are performing very poorly and need to improve
  • there are many citizens who (a) are very dissatisfied at the poor performance, and (b) intend to insist that the performance improves
B. To communicate to citizens that:
  • politicians and officials are performing very poorly and need to improve
  • the usual forms of engagement (emails, petitions and so on) have not worked
  • politicians and officials can be induced to improve by assertive action, as has been effective in the past in the campaigns for votes for women, for civil rights, and for gay rights
  • citizens should join the campaigners who are already protesting


Notes: The phrase "politicians and officials" is used here to cover all those making policy decisions in local and national government, including the police.





Last updated: 27 Aug 2018