Last minute news of an open-letter many UK readers of this blog may be interested in co-signing.
It is spearheaded by the RunSome campaign and is in response to the current consultation on reviewing The Highway Code to improve road safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders. The letter seeks to use this once-in-a-generation opportunity to make runners included and considered within the Highway Code through an expanded and more explicit definition/articulation of pedestrian.
To borrow from the letter overview:
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make runners visible, and heard, in the Highway Code. This will improve the safety and wellbeing of not just the UK’s 11 million runners, but all road users. But we don’t have long – just a few days until the consultation closes on 27 October!
Your support will form part of the RunSome campaign formal submission. Whilst it sounds technical, this is about making our roads safer, friendlier and more welcoming for all, however we chose to move. It’s simply that until now runners – whilst visible in all our towns, cities and places – have been invisible in transport, land-use and urban planning for too long.
We propose a small yet significant clarification in the wording to reflect the range and diversity of activities that we see on our roads, pavements and streets. Specifically by co-signing our letter, you will be supporting our proposal to expand the working definition of pedestrians. This is in order to explicitly include those running and playing out on our roads, pavement and streets. Something we are doing in record numbers, for leisure, sport and transport, not least due to COVID and the profound shifts in how we live and move.
If you would like to support this, you can co-sign the letter here, as well as provide any comments/thoughts/edits to the letter. This closes on 26th October.
Jographies 