Go Safe Glasgow launches interactive driver and rider training website

Go Safe Glasgow has launched Cycle Aware, a short online driver and rider training course featuring over 200 narrated video clips with associated multiple choice questions. The aim is to increase awareness of road hazards and consequently reduce casualties in the city

Go Safe Glasgow is a partnership led by Glasgow City Council’s Traffic and Road Safety Development Section and including members from Police Scotland, the Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership, the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Glasgow Community and Safety Services. Its aim is to share knowledge and attempt to reduce casualties on Glasgow’s roads.

While the city's road casualties are at their lowest since records began in the 1930s, the group says that cyclists are over represented in road casualty statistics and this is why they have developed the Cycle Aware website.

The site offers a series of short interactive courses concerned with cycle safety. You are asked whether you wish to take the course as a cyclist, car, taxi, bus or lorry driver and a different perspective on road usage will then be presented depending on which you pick.

The format is a short video depicting a certain scenario before a multiple choice question asking how you would deal with it. Another short video then gives the correct answer and explains the reasoning.

For example, if you take the course as a cyclist, scenarios include how you would react to being confronted with a queue of cars at traffic lights, or how you would approach turning right on a busy road when you need to cross lanes. Take the course as a car driver and you will be asked about waiting to enter a roundabout when there is a cyclist in the inside lane and how to go about overtaking cyclists on narrow country lanes.

Speaking to Glasgow’s Evening Times, Frank McAveety, convener of the city council's sustainability and the environment committee, said:

"Cycling is one of the most popular participation sports in Glasgow and is firmly established as a major form of commuting. It's important cyclists and other road users have a clear understanding of their responsibilities on the road and how they respond to the actions of others

"The real strength of the Cycle Aware resource lies in the ability to participate and interact in the role of one of the five road users. It is hoped by highlighting and demonstrating how accidents occur, we can promote a safer shared road space.”

McAveety adds that the council’s road safety team has a programme in place to visit every business across the city as part of its Cycle Aware and Drive Safe It’s Your Business initiatives.