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.

 

What is a recession?

I Lead-in.

1.    What comes to your mind when you hear a word ‘recession’?

2.    Take 2 minutes to note down your associations. Compare your lists with other students. What similarities do you have? What are the biggest differences?

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

1.	value	A.	the amount of money businesses and people have to pay to the government
2.	to shrink	B.	powerful effect
3.	in a row	C.	a place where shares in companies are sold and bought
4.	debt	D.	to stop slowly
5.	to cripple	E.	price of something; how much money something is worth
6.	consumer	F.	money for defence, education, health
7.	to grind to a halt	G.	a number of times
8.	impact	H.	to damage something and make it ineffective
9.	currency	I.	to make something smaller
10.	to  collapse	J.	sum of money someone has to pay back
11.	trigger	K.	client who buys things or services
12.	tax	L.	to become smaller
13.	to cut	M.	sudden fall in the value of business
14.	public spending	N.	return to the normal state after problems
15.	stock market	O.	to suddenly fall down
16.	crash	P.	a situation that causes something to start
17.	bounce  back	Q.	a system of money used in a country

III Vocabulary focus. Follow the link below. Study the words and  word combinations using flashcards, check your understanding, practise their  spelling. Check your knowledge in the test. Play matching vocabulary game (match words to their translations to make cards disappear)  and save the planet from asteroids by typing in correct words.

  https://quizlet.com/518689831/what-is-a-recession-flash-cards/?new

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

upset; recession; decades; healthy; economize; economy; financial; homes; banks; shock; Germany

We’ve heard it mentioned more and more during the coronavirus pandemic: 1) _______, severe recession, this is a recession, recession, a recession. Experts think that many countries including the UK and the US are in the midst of the worst recession seen in 2) _______. But what exactly does that mean and how could it affect you?

When a country's economy is 3) _______, it grows over time. The value of the goods and services it produces, its gross domestic product, increases. And economic growth is good for most people. But an 4) _______can also shrink. A recession is usually defined as when this happens for two- three month periods or quarters in a row. The last time this happened in many countries was during the global 5) _______crisis, which started in 2007. In the UK that recession lasted longer than a year, and GDP fell by an estimated 6 % over that time.

So why do recessions happen? There are lots of reasons, and debt is one of them. It was the trigger for the global financial crisis when lots of people in the United States couldn't keep up with payments on their 6) _______. It led to huge problems for 7) _______, which effectively ran out of money to lend crippling businesses and banking systems not just in America, but eventually around the world. A recession can also take place when an economy suffers a sharp 8) _______, like the coronavirus pandemic. Because of lockdown measures and consumer confidence taking a hit, spending, travel, and investment have ground to a halt in a number of countries including 9) _______, Europe’s biggest economy.

  

V Watch the video and choose the correct word to complete the.

 And the impact of a recession in one country can quickly spread/dread/bred. Let’s take a look at the 1997 crisis in East and Southeast Asia. It started out in Thailand, when the value of their currently/curate/currency, the baht, collapsed. Investors and businesses lost confidence in the country, and that spread to the rest of the region.

So what could a recession mean to you? Companies are more likely to cut jobless/jobs/robs, and people staying in work might have to accept pay cuts or reduced hours leaving them worse off financially.  The negative impact on job prospects and pay/way/paid can last for years. And governments themselves can get into a debt criticize/crisis/cried in a recession. As businesses and people pay less tax, pressure can build to cut public spending and service. If a recession carries on for a long time or it's particularly bad, it's known as a depressive/depressed/depression. It’s a bit harder to define and it’s often associated with what's known as the Great  Depression in the 1930s. It started with a stock market crash in the United States and spread. It lasted for about 10 years and its impact was felt globalized/globally/globalists.

Now as economies suffer in countries around the world, governments are preparing for what some have called ‘the crisis like no other’. But we're in unknown territorial/terrorize/territory, and nobody knows how strong or how quick a bounce back could be.

VI Watch two parts of the video and answer the questions.

1.    What is a recession?  

2.    When was the last global recession?  

3.    Why do recessions happen?  

4.    What was the trigger for the global financial crisis in 2007?  

5.    What are the possible reasons for the recession linked to pandemic?   

6.    What is Europe’s biggest economy? Germany is Europe’s biggest economy.

7.    Can recession in one country spread? What examples does the video give?  

8.    What could a recession mean to people?  

9.    Will many people be better off financially during the recession?  

10.How long can the negative impact on job prospects and pay can last?  

11.Can governments suffer because of recessions? What examples does the video give?   

12.What is a depression in economy?  

13.When was the last depression in global economy?  Where did it start and how long did it last?  

14.   Do governments around the world know how long the recession caused by pandemic will last?  

VII OVER TO YOU. Share your opinion: When were the past recessions in your country? What helped your country to bounce back after the recessions in the past? What strategies can your country try not to feel the negative impact of global recession?