Today's the last working day of Road Safety Week, though there may still be events and fundraising in your local area over the weekend if you want to get involved with the campaign!
Staying safe on the road and helping others stay safe is an essential part of using UK roads and we hope you’ve found our articles this week helpful. For more content on staying safe or looking after your vehicle you might find our guides helpful.
To end the road safety blogs we wanted to give you five general tips for road safety whether you’re travelling in a car, by foot, on a bicycle or via any other mode of transport.
5 tips to keep yourself safe on roads
1. Make sure you feel confident with the mode of transport you’ve chosen, whether that’s wearing sensible trainers, knowing your car’s in its best running condition or the indicator signals when on a bike.
2. Be visible. If travelling outside of a motor vehicle, wear bright or high-vis clothing so that you're visible, and no matter how you’re travelling, use appropriate lights once it gets dark.
3. Only cross a road when it's safe to do so, at a designated crossing or when there's no traffic that you could be a hazard for / could be a danger to you.
4. Obey the speed limit and make sure you're travelling at a safe speed for your mode of transport.
5. Regularly read the Highway Code to make sure that you know the rules of the road, how you should act and how other road users are likely to act.
5 tips to keep others safe on the road
1. Although we mentioned it above, you should also read the Highway Code to know how to act around different types of road users so that you can help keep them safe as well. This is especially important for those in motor vehicles as they're faster and heavier so can cause a lot of damage if they don’t understand the road hierarchy and expected behaviour based on this.
2. Give others plenty of room when overtaking them on the road. No matter what mode of transport you’re using, if you’re travelling faster than another road user you should give them at least a metre, possibly more, depending on their method of travel, when passing them.
3. When approaching a road user with animals, turn down the volume on your radio as loud noises can spook horses or dogs and cause them to act in an unpredictable way.
4. Make sure to regularly check your blind spots for other road users, particularly pedestrians or cyclists who are the smallest road users and so harder to spot.
5. Don’t operate a vehicle, including a bicycle, if you feel impaired at all by alcohol or drugs. Additionally, if you're too tired to be at the required level of alertness then you should rest before driving or cycling as you could be a hazard to others and yourself.