Tracey explains, ‘The theme of the day was Safety for all users, whether driving, riding, walking or a specific related section of the public'.

Opening speaker was Rt. Hon. Ruth Cadbury MP Brentford and Isleworth, Co-chair of the Transport Safety APPG. -

It isn't the person who is disabled - it is the environment that is disabling.

Ruth opened with the positive progress in areas such as Highway Code revisions, road collision Investigation, changes to the criminal justice system and the basic standards of London and Metropolitan authorities on buses and trams etc.

The issues for transport safety and equality are personal safety, health and well-being of all users, taking into account the 'intersectionality'. Particular groups are facing distressing issues in all areas of transport mobility.

Equality matters for public transport especially outside the major cities as inadequate facilities, due to local authority funding and investment impacts on those who have the least transport options. Road safety numbers of injury has since 2005 continued to drop, UK continues to be one of the lowest level of recorded injuries in Europe but the UK do not have a strategy in place.

Ruth spoke of the current issues at government, holding up decisions in legislation and there is an across party push to achieve pavement marking ban and default Urban 20mph. The APPG is reaching out to understand better the reported injured accidents on the road as the reported accidents do not define who was the cause of the injury. The heated questions were volleyed at Ruth with too many areas not discussed like rural speed limits, pathways and A&B road regulation.

Helen Davies Principal of Policy and Strategy officer TfWM. The impact of violence against women and girls, transport champions. This project launched July 2021 and was implemented for the Commonwealth Games.

Helen explained why it matters: 90% of women travelling on public transport have experienced harassment (ONS 2020) whilst travelling. In-depth round-tables were held in specific vulnerable groups that spoke of the same issues - policy making, communication, design and enforcement.

The outcome from the roundtable and surveys resulted in thirteen priorities and short / medium and long term goals were listed e.g. infrastructure changes, bring more women into the industry and national education in schools to achieve the reality that No woman or girl should need to change their behaviour when travelling, throughout the whole journey, end to end. The TfWM transport champions have now made presentation to the DfT for national consideration.

Safety in vehicle design was discussed regarding the safety implications of disregarding the 'gender' of crash dummies - a crash dummy is considered to be 'genderless’  - simplistically representative of only the mass and size of the the average human. Interestingly Colonel Stapp - the first crash dummy - was a US Marine who had suffered injury and wanted to understand how that injury came about more clearly. Vehicular crash systems work, as they have reduced the numbers of those killed on the roads by 60% in the last 50 years. This modelling is now going virtual and therefore can now recreate precise models of the human body. Driven by morphology not sex! Occupancy Monitoring technology will be coming soon, watch this space.

Whilst the introduction of speakers was lightened by the explanation of where there surname came from, leading to the comment that the conference therefore covers all areas of the UK the facts of the day were more serious. Stephen Edwards Chief Executive, Living Streets West Yorkshire. Discussed the research project regarding the impact of creating walking and wheeling more inclusive within the transport infrastructure. Every journey includes walking or wheeling so how better can we prioritise marginalised groups? The research made several recommendations including ‘embed proximity to the things people need into spatial planning by adopting a ’20 minute neighbourhood’ approach, increasing the diversity of walking within the neighbourhood.

Blanche Shackleton, Blind Dogs Association: What it means for those who are visually impaired. Transport safety is not just for vehicles, it is the accessibility of those travelling, typically the access needs of those who use dogs and how that affects how they travel. With a lack of equitable access to public transport, obstacles and street clutter seriously affect quality of life. Add unthinking attitudes of employers and lack of understanding of the public and how they can be told how they can help becomes a high priority.

Dr Kay Inckle, Wheels for Wellbeing. Access to cycling for any disability: campaign and policy guidelines for inclusive cycling. Kay raised the issue of physical restriction as the number one issue for those using larger cycle provision.

Following this insightful presentation the panel was opened to questions, batting strongly against the wave of 'why hasn’t it been done?’ The panel tried to explain that all organisations were trying hard to get the message out and trying to get others to understand that safety is more of a cultural change and needs to be based on strong evidence-based approach.