How safe do you feel on our roads?

Tuesday 24 July 2018

People are being asked for their views and experiences of road safety in Guernsey through an anonymous web chat that is being trailed this week.

The online chat aims to give people a quick and easy way to make their voices heard without the need for a meeting or formal consultation process. The interactive online conversation takes around three minutes.

The survey called Novoville runs through either Facebook Messenger or a standalone chat window on mobiles or desktops and the trial in Guernsey follows the successful use of the platform in Jersey over the last 15 months.

A spokesperson said: "We have had 400 responses in the first 48hour of running the trial with lots of positive feedback emails on the ease of use and interactive nature. People like the fact we asked them. The results will be published at the end of this two week consultation period."

You can click on a link to join the interactive conversation and share your views on road safety, compare your answers to how other users responded and leave any comments you might have on specific issues. 

Novoville’s co-founder, Alex Tupper said they hoped to reach more people than traditional survey methods. Deputy Barry Brehaut, President of the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure, said: “Road safety is the highest priority for the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure in terms of key transport policy aims and objectives over the next few years.

“The nature of our roads, infrastructure and the relatively high number of vehicle movements affect different people in different ways. We are particularly interested in the views of more vulnerable road users such as people on foot or bike, children and older people. How safe we feel on our roads and footpaths is a fundamental factor in people’s travel choices. Understanding the safety issues that affect people most will help us focus our work to improve safety for everyone, and to improve the range of transport options islanders and visitors feel are genuinely available to and appropriate for them as well."

Pictured: The home page of the online survey

“The team at Traffic and Highway Services monitors data from various sources to assess road safety, including recorded accident statistics. However, statistics don’t tell the whole story. For example, the Police do not attend many of the more minor traffic accidents, so the details of these incidents are not recorded. Similarly, near misses or incidents where a road user (particularly a person walking or cycling) has felt vulnerable are rarely reported, even though experiences like that can have a profound effect on how safe people feel.

“That’s why we want to collate public feedback about some of these important road safety issues. We keep a database of specific concerns that people write, phone or email us about, but what we want is a well-informed understanding of the bigger picture when it comes to people’s perception of road safety in the island. Novoville is a good tool for obtaining this qualitative data and I hope that the public will use it to let us know their views.”

If you would like to take part then please follow this link to the chat: api.novoville.com//campaigns/guernsey_road_safety