Pedestrian safety

Walking is a healthy, pollution reducing way of travelling especially for short trips. Take a look at our pedestrian safety tips and make sure you and your family are safe on the road.

When Walking

• Wear clothing and accessories incorporating reflective and fluorescent materials at dawn and dusk, in the evening and during other low-light situations, such as rainy or foggy conditions.
• Always use a pavement or footpath whenever these are available, but still take care and look out for other people, vehicles and cars, particularly around entrances to driveways and car parks.
• Where there is no pavement, walk on the right hand side of the road to face traffic coming towards you.
• Walk one behind the other at bends in the road or at night or if there is a lot of traffic.
• Take special care if you can't see the road very far ahead.
• Take direct routes with the fewest roads to cross unless you feel it would compromise your safety.

Stop, look and listen

• These three simple instructions are easy for everyone to remember whenever and wherever they cross the road.
• Stop at the curbside, just behind the edge, rather than on it.
• Look carefully in all directions, left, right, front, behind to check that there are no cars approaching.
• Listen for other cars nearby. Sometimes you can hear a car before it appears.
• Take special care to look out for bicycles and electric cars, neither of which make much noise.
• If there is a traffic island in the middle of the road, then stop there and repeat the above stages once again before carrying on.

Choosing a safe place to cross

Crossing the road is safer at a pedestrian crossing or on a footbridge or underground subway even if it means walking a little further. Try to make eye contact with drivers before crossing in front of them. Do not assume that because you can see the driver, the driver can see you.

Crossing at a zebra crossing

• Wait on the pavement near the curbside until all the traffic has stopped before you start to cross.
• After traffic has stopped from both directions, walk across on the black and white stripes.
• Keeping looking all round and listening in case a driver has not seen you.
• Drivers need plenty of time to slow down and stop, especially in wet weather.

Crossing where there is an island in the road

• Use the stop, look, listen skills to cross to the island from the kerb. Stop there and repeat the process to cross the second half of the road.
• Watch out for overtaking vehicles.
• If there is an island then treat each half of the crossing as a separate crossing. Do not assume that vehicles will stop. Check that they have stopped before crossing.

Crossing between parked cars

This can be dangerous because you can't see traffic as easily and drivers can't see you. If there is no other choice, take the following steps to stay safe:

• Choose a place where there is space between two cars and make sure that it is easy to get to the pavement on the other side of the road.
• Check that the nearby cars are not preparing to move: look and listen for engine noise, exhaust fumes, or drivers in the cars.
• Don't cross near large vehicles. You could be standing in a blind spot, where the driver cannot see you.
• If safe, step off the kerb and move to the outside edge of the car nearest the road. Here you can be seen by drivers.
• Carefully lean out, look all around and listen for traffic.
• If you are satisfied that it is safe, start walking straight across, and continue to look and listen all the time.

Crossing one-way streets

• Check both ways in case of driver error.
• If there is more than one lane of traffic, do not cross until it is safe to cross the whole road.

Crossing bus lanes

• In bus lanes, buses may go faster than other traffic. Sometimes they go in the opposite direction.
• Cyclists and taxis may also be using them so take special care when crossing.

Pedestrian safety barriers

• If you need to cross the road walk to the gap in the pedestrian safety barrier and use the advice for Stop, Look and Listen. NEVER climb over or walk outside them.

Railway level crossings

There are many kinds of crossings: Level crossing with gate or barrier ahead and level crossing without gates or barrier ahead.

• You must never cross when red lights flash or when you can hear a warning sound.
• Always stop behind the STOP line. Never go past a barrier that is down.
• Remember, if the lights continue to flash after a train has gone, another train is coming. It is not safe to cross until the lights go out.
• If there are no flashing red lights, warning sounds or gates, you should still stop, look and listen to make sure it is safe to cross.