ROAD SAFETY. Successful Road Safety Changes in Sweden

 

ROAD SAFETY

Successful Road Safety Changes in Sweden

I Lead-in.

1)    Take two minutes to write down your associations with the word ‘road’. Work in pairs and compare your lists. What are the similarities and differences in your lists? Ask follow-up questions to find out more about other students’ associations with the word ‘road’.

2)     What is road safety? Do you know the road safety rules in your country?

 II Vocabulary focus. Match the words to their definitions. Use three words in your sentences.

1.	rate	A.	a person who is walking
2.	traffic fatality	B.	a machine used for transporting people
3.	to double	C.	to make something smaller
4.	curb	D.	city area
5.	to overtake	E.	someone who rides a bicycle
6.	head-on collision	F.	the speed at which something happens
7.	speed limit	G.	the act of driving a vehicle after drinking too much alcohol
8.	urban area	H.	raised edge of a road between where people can walk and cars can drive
9.	to reduce	I.	death caused by road accident
10.	safety belt	J.	accident in which fronts of two cars or buses hit each other
11.	vehicle	K.	to go faster past a moving car or bus and get in front of it
12.	cyclist	L.	the fastest rate at which people can drive in a certain area
13.	pedestrian	M.	a belt that fastens around you when you are traveling in a car
14.	drink driving	N.	to become two times as many

 

III Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

 

in front; change; centre; traffic jam; left-hand; roads; road signs; traffic fatalities; right; parking; right; limits; song; car; infrastructure; safety

 When it comes to 1) ___ safety Sweden has a pretty good reputation. And it’s based in fact. Sweden has one of the world’s lowest rates of 2) ___ ___ - only 2.8 deaths for every 100,000 people. Here’s how.

As Swedish society became motorized fatalities quickly began to rise. The number of deaths on the 3) ___ more than doubled between 1950 and 1970. One of the reasons was the majority of cars were 4) ___  drive imports being driven on the left-hand side of the road.

It means the driver is closer to the curb and further away from the 5) ___ of the road, which makes overtaking much harder, as the driver can’t see around the car 6) ___ ___, something which makes head-on collisions much more likely. But on September 3rd 1967 the Swedish Government made a big 7) ___ in the name of safety.

-Sweden decides to switch from left to 8)  ___!

The country changed to driving on the right side of the road. Its traffic 9) ___ was completely revamped in just one day. That included changing 360,000 10)  ___ ___.

Understandably, 11) ___ was a huge focus. The Government created a special team, the ‘RightLane Driving Commission’ to make sure the changeover went without incident. Speed 12) ___ in urban areas were reduced. Outside of towns they were introduced where previously they hadn’t existed. ‘H Day’, for högertrafik, Swedish for ‘right traffic’ even had its very own 13) ___. There were plenty of other every day reminders too like these helpful glasses or H-Day underwear.

 

IV Comprehension check. Mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.    In Sweden there is one of the world’s lowest rates of traffic fatalities.

2.    The number of deaths on the roads in Sweden grew between 1950 and 1970.

3.    One of the reasons for the deaths on the road was the fact that in Sweden the majority of cars were right-hand drive vehicles.

4.    Driving on the right means that overtaking is much harder, as the driver can’t see around the car in front.

5.    On September 3, 1967 the Swedish Government made a big change and decided to switch from right to left.

6.    In Sweden the traffic infrastructure was completely changed in just one day.

7.    Sweden changed 360,000 road signs.

8.    The country increased speed limits in cities.

9.    The country introduced speed limits outside of towns they were where previously they hadn’t existed.

10.There were funny songs and other reminders about the new rules.

   

V Watch the video and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

 

The operation was deemed such a successful/succeed/success, the government formed the Swedish Road Safety Agency the very next year. Some of the first things it achieved: lowering speed limits/speed limitation/speeding limitation, and making seat belts and motorcycle helmets law. Meanwhile, the country’s biggest car maker, Volvo, invented the industry-changing 3-point safely belt/safe belted/safety belt, giving up the patent so any automaker could use it in their vehicles. More than a million people worldwide are thought to have been saved/safely/saving as a result. Since the beginnings of the Swedish Road Safety Agency, factual/fatally/fatalities dropped from 1307 in 1970 to 263 in 2015. What makes that even more astonishing is that in the same period the number of versatile/vehicles/technique on the roads more than doubled.

A lot of this is possible because Sweden is one of the wealthier countries in the world. It’s invested a lot of monetary/money/many in road infrastructure, separating cyclists and destination/pedestrians/personnel from traffic - and strictly policing speed limits and drink driving. In fact, the richer the country, the lower the number of fatalities generally. The ultimate goal is ‘Vision Zero’ - where there aren’t any deaths on Sweden’s roads at all. For many contrary/counters/countries there’s still a trade-off between mobility and the deaths that come as a result of it. In Sweden, safety has been the priority over speed/need/speak and convenience, since H-Day, September 3rd 1967.

 

VI Watch the video again and answer the questions.

1. What changes did the Swedish Road Safety Agency introduce?   

2. How did Volvo help the new car safety initiative?   

3. What results did the Swedish Road Safety Agency achieve?   

4. What factors helped Sweden achieve its success in road safety initiatives?  

5. What is the goal of the road safety initiatives?  

 

VII OVER TO YOU. Discuss the questions with other students

A)  Compare the road safety imitative described in the video and the road safety rules in your country. What rules and laws are the same? What are the biggest differences?

B)   What can the government in your country do to improve the road safety and reduce the number of traffic fatalities? Think of at least 3 ideas and share them with other students.