Channel 4 Teachers
Citizenship - Citizens of the World
Be There
Interactive Activity

At 17, society trusts teenagers enough to operate a moving vehicle on a motorway but doesn't trust them enough to make decisions about the country they live in.

While many teenagers can't vote, they can still be highly influential in bringing about change. By joining pressure groups, teenagers can lobby the government and make radical changes from the ground up.

Five articles address a variety of key issues; from pollution, public transport, taxes, speeding, protesting, and drink driving. Each area has an accompanying quiz which test users knowledge as they progress on their virtual journey.

 Aims:
During this activity, students will explore laws, where they start off from, and why they're made. After completing the activity and accompanying worksheet, students should be able to:
Citizenship, KS4
Knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens
Developing skills of participation and responsible action
 Worksheet

Choose one of the following scenarios:

  1. Over the last month you have noticed that the traffic in your neighbourhood has grown increasingly worse, so much so that, at junctions where you could once easily cross, you now have to wait for up to ten minutes to get to the other side.

    When you investigate the problem, you discover that it is due to the fact the council has removed a traffic light on the road.

    Write a letter to your local newspaper, asking for the reinstatement of the traffic light.


  2. The government has announced that a major motorway is going to be built near your town. Some residents think the motorway is a good idea because it will generate income for the community.

    Up until now, the town has been hard to get to because it is along a narrow winding country road. A motorway would mean that there would be easy drive-by access. More tourists would visit and more people would buy products from the town's businesses.

    However, many residents are protesting at the construction of the motorway. The motorway would cut through a large area of grassland, where several species of birds nest.

    Choose one of the following roles and write a letter to your local newspaper, identifying reasons why you either support or protest at the motorway:

    • Lorry driver
    • Working mum who takes the bus to the next town to buy bulk foods
    • Environmental activist
    • Farmer
    • Senior citizen who must drive to get out and about
    • 16 year old whose friends live in the next town
Traffic Lights Bus Stop
Petrol Station Police Stop
Road Works  

Click to go to the top of the page Traffic
Your passenger, Suzie says: 'Just jump the red...'

Three pedestrians are killed each day on British roads
Traffic lights are supposed to help pedestrians get across the road safely. And they do, except, of course, when drivers jump the red light. Red-light jumping is a dangerous activity that causes road deaths.

SCOOT
Traffic lights help traffic flow in an orderly way.

They reduce the frequency of accidents. Traffic signals can be timed - many areas of the UK use SCOOT (Split Cycle and Offset Optimisation Technique) - to automatically respond to traffic, while still helping both pedestrians and cyclists cross busy roads.

Traffic kills
Traffic lights become even more important when you think about the fact that traffic kills.

Over 12,000 people are killed and injured each year by vehicles while walking or cycling. According to the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents, pedestrians account for 14% of road accident casualties, but over a quarter of all road deaths (3,443 people lost their lives on Britain's roads in 2002).

More than 80 per cent of accidents involving pedestrians are fatal (pedestrians don't have the luxury of a car to protect them).

Risky behaviour
Those most at risk are 5 to 14 year olds.

In a study which looked at the road habits of 4,000 11 to 14 year olds across the UK, 25 percent admitted to having been pushed into the road by a friend and 49 percent texted while they crossed the road.

Give me a little convenience
Pressure groups can lobby councils to address road safety issues. Living Streets, a nationwide campaign group with the mandate of 'winning back the streets', says streets are unsafe because for decades authorities have allowed traffic priorities to control local streets and public places.

They say traffic crossings should be erected where people find them convenient, not just where they suit traffic flow.

Where necessary, 'double-cycling' - traffic lights that allow pedestrians twice as much time as cars at busy crossings - need to be introduced.

Drivers need to get smart
But others, such as urban designer Ben Hamilton-Bailey, say safety isn't about traffic lights but about intelligent drivers.

He says traffic lights should be scrapped altogether. Speed limits should be cut to 20mph. Drivers should make eye contact to determine when it is safe to proceed.

Hamilton-Bailey points out such initiatives have proved successful in the Netherlands. 'It's premised on the notion that it's more sensible to treat drivers as if they were intelligent, rather than to treat them as if they were idiots'.

The rationale, says Hamilton-Bailey, is that intelligent driving and slower speeds make it easier for pedestrians, cyclists and cars to mix together - not to mention fewer people get killed if collisions occur at that speed.


Click to go to the top of the page Bus Stop

Your friend, Ab says: "I'm really fed up I've been waiting here for hours.."

Tired of waiting around?
Almost 90 percent of Britons have reasonable access to public transport (reasonable is defined by the Department for Transport as less than a 13 minute walk) but we much prefer to get where we have to go by car.

It's not all that hard to figure out why.

Buses aren't convenient
UK buses aren't all that reliable. They're not all that convenient (you can't get the same door-to-door route availability that you can from a car). They're slow. Not only do you have to wait for the bus to arrive, but, once you're on the bus, it stops and starts and stops and starts… and stops and starts (it's a bus, after all). Not to mention, if you have to switch buses, you have to wait all over again.

Buses are expensive
It's also expensive to take the bus in the UK. British bus fares are three times higher than Holland's and British bus travellers pay 60 percent more than their counterparts in France.

If you average out all the trips made in the UK last year - to and from school, shops, work, etc. - each person made one thousand trips. Only 58 of them were on public transport.

And yet, despite all the annoyances, taking the bus is a fairly important activity.

Buses help relieve traffic congestion
Buses help relieve traffic congestion. When people take buses, fewer cars are on the road. A double-decker bus, for instance, can transport as many people as 20 cars can (about 90 altogether).

If people take buses, fewer new roads need to be built. Money saved on road building can go towards improving the quality of public transport.

Buses reduce pollution
Buses reduce air and noise pollution. A bus passenger creates only about one-fifteenth of the air pollution created by a motorist.

Decreased pollution means better air quality and better air quality means more people want to use public spaces. More people enjoying public spaces encourage the development of pedestrian-friendly areas.

Improvements in bus emissions needed
However, buses play a part in contributing to air quality problems.

Most buses in the UK are powered by diesel engines. While diesel buses are more fuel efficient and emit less carbon dioxide than petrol-guzzling buses, they produce more particulates and nitrogen oxides.

Diesel emissions are linked to acid rain. Diesel exhaust contributes to health problems such as lung cancer, asthma, and chronic bronchitis.

Improvements in the emission performance of buses are needed. Several bus companies are conducting trials with alternative fuels. Bus companies in Reading, Southampton, and Cambridge have experimented with several environmentally friendly bus schemes.

It's clear, though, that dramatic changes need to be made to Britain's public transport service before people will start taking the bus.



 Click to go to the top of the page Petrol Station

The petrol attendant: "That'll be £35 please." Petrol too much for the wallet?
Three years ago, outraged drivers protesting petrol prices brought Britain to a standstill.

In September 2000, angry lorry drivers and farmers blockaded an oil refinery in the north-west of England.

Two days later, the protests had spread to refineries across the nation. The delivery of fuel to petrol stations was disrupted. Motorists began panic buying and, within five days, 90 percent of Britain's petrol stations had for all intents and purposes run dry.

Fuel shortage shuts down country
The impact of the fuel shortages was far reaching. Delivery of goods stopped. Schools closed. Hospitals stopped operating. Rubbish collection was scaled back. Supermarket shelves were cleared, as people began to stockpile groceries.

Eventually, the protesters stopped blockading the refineries - before the public lost patience, but not until they had made their point.

We pay the most for fuel
Britain has the highest petrol tax in Europe. The tax makes up about 70 per cent of the cost of fuel.

Proponents of petrol taxes say they help reduce pollution and traffic congestion because they discourage driving. Not to mention, higher tax revenues help pay for the substantial increases in public spending for developing roads.

Cars pollute
Cars are one of the biggest sources of pollution in the UK. When petrol is burned in motor vehicles, car exhausts release pollutants. These emissions include carbon dioxide, a 'greenhouse gas' linked to global warming. Other exhaust emissions - nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and particulates - can cause serious health problems.

Petrol taxes don't work
Opponents of petrol taxation say taxes aren't effective at reducing congestion since they don't encourage people to modify their driving patterns to avoid the rush-hour peak, nor do they encourage people to drive on other, less-congested routes.

They say petrol taxes penalise motorists who have no alternative to using their cars - the disabled, those living in rural areas, or those who drive for a living. They make essential goods and services more expensive because it costs more to deliver them.

Drivers are victims
They also suggest that drivers aren't customers but 'victims', who pay large sums of money to drive on poor quality roads. Less than 20% of the £20 billion raised each year from petrol taxes is spent on transport.

Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, says motorists want a firm commitment that spending will go toward transport infrastructure:

'What the motorist wants to see is more expenditure on road improvements and bypasses.'


Click to go to the top of the page Police Stop

 The police woman says: "In a bit of a rush?" The first car accident fatality in the UK was way back in February 1899. A car turned a corner at 25 mph. Its wheels collapsed. The driver and front seat passenger were killed. Newspapers of the day demanded drivers cut their speed.

Speeding caused 1,200 deaths and more than 20,000 serious injuries on UK roads last year.

Yet, seven out of ten drivers regularly speed, usually by about 5mph. Speeding is considered one of the least serious traffic offences.

Road safety pressure group, Brake, carried out a survey of 429 drivers caught speeding and found that the most common excuses for speeding given by drivers included: 'I didn't realise I was speeding', 'I'm late', 'I'm in a hurry', 'I forgot' and 'I didn't know what the speed limit was'.

About two-thirds of all accidents where people are killed occur on roads with a speed limit of 30mph or less.

Speed kills but drink driving is more deadly
While speed kills, one in seven of all deaths on the road involve drivers who drink. On average 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured each year in drink drive collisions.

Under the influence of alcohol, drivers have a hard time judging speed. Reactions are slower, which means it takes longer to stop. Alcohol affects decision making, concentration and perception, balance and alertness. It can also give drivers a false sense of confidence, which, in turn, encourages them to take risks they might not normally take.

Message not getting through
The RAC Foundation for Motoring says we need to get the message that, despite years of campaigning, there is still a serious drinking driving in the problem in the UK.

Citing government figures, the RAC says the huge reduction in drink drive casualties in the last 20 years has 'bottomed out'. Fatalities are declining but casualties have increased dramatically. Total drink drive casualties are at their highest level since 1990 (18,420 in 2001).

Drink-drivers are banned from driving for a minimum of 12 months and can face a £5,000 fine and six months in prison. They also end up with a criminal record.

Most drink driving offenders are males, under 30
Most drink drive accidents occur within 3 miles of the start of the journey.

Peak offenders are males under the age of 30. Drivers aged 17 to 19 are four times as likely to have a drink driving crash than the 'all age' average. And not all offenders are legal-age drivers.

In June 2003, a 13-year-old boy crashed a stolen car after drinking half a bottle of Bacardi and three cans of lager.


Click to go to the top of the page Road Works

 The road worker says: "You won't be getting anywhere fast at this rate." British motorways are the most crowded in Europe and the government is tackling the problem by building more roads.

We drive more than any other European nation.

A record 87.5 per cent of British road journeys use cars, while just 12 per cent use public transport. A quarter of major roadways are jammed for over an hour a day. And all the waiting around in cars costs Britain £20 billion a year in lost working hours.

Better public transport needed
British motorists get a raw deal with overloaded roads and relatively high levels of pollution. Much of our reliance on the car has been forced by the inadequacy and expense of a sorely neglected public transport system.

Environmentalists and public transport pressure groups want the government to realise that better buses, trams, and trains have to come before road building. The government says its mandate is to help people get around - whether that's by public transport or by car.

Building roads not the solution
The Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT), an independent body that advises the government on transport, says that building roads isn't a sustainable approach to dealing with congestion. If you build more roads, it won't help congestion; more people will just use them.

'There will be less choice, even longer commutes, more urban sprawl, and social exclusion for those without cars, more gridlock for those with cars.'

said the CfIT.

'Pedestrians will be a rarity, cyclists an oddity - people will not know their neighbours and will spend more time in their cars than they do at home.'

Our insatiable thirst for driving isn't exactly our own fault though. An inadequate and expensive public transport network has forced people into cars. Driving cars is getting cheaper, while the cost of public transport is increasing.

If we continue to starve our public transport system, our time waiting in cars could increase from an hour a day to almost two hours a day over the next ten years.