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news
see their side advert screenshotReaction as Transport for London pauses See their Side ad campaign following backlash
Transport for London (TfL) has paused its highly criticised See your Side advertising campaign following a backlash which saw it accused of “victim-blaming” and promoting a “false equivalence” among road users.
> Transport for London slammed for “victim-blaming” road safety ad (+ video)
Confirmation that the campaign, devised by agency VCCP London and launched during last month’s Road Safety Week, has been put on hold to enable reaction to it to be considered was made this morning by Will Norman, London’s Cycling and Walking Commissioner, in a post on Twitter.
He wrote: “I know there has been a lot of concern raised about the ‘see their side’ advert. The campaign has been paused to consider the feedback that has been received. City Hall and TfL remain committed to improving the road culture in London and reducing road danger.”
I know there has been a lot of concern raised about the ‘see their side’ advert. The campaign has been paused to consider the feedback that has been received. City Hall and TfL remain committed to improving the road culture in London and reducing road danger.
— Will Norman (@willnorman) December 1, 2021
According to agency VCCP London, the integrated campaign, including the advert which has now been removed from YouTube, “directly tackles the tribal culture which currently dominates London’s roads.”
However, it was widely condemned on social media for promoting the idea that all road users have equal responsibility for each other’s safety. It was launched at a time when forthcoming changes to the Highway Code will see a hierarchy of road users in the UK; this means that drivers of larger vehicles will be deemed to have greater responsibility for the safety of those who are more vulnerable than them.
Among those who had asked for TfL to withdraw the campaign were Talia Hussain and Jo Rigby. In a video posted to Twitter yesterday, both outlined why they believed that far from making London’s roads safer for cyclists, the ad would instead make them more dangerous.
As a long-standing campaigner for safe and inclusive cycling, I’m asking @TfL again - on behalf of women who cycle and those who are too scared to cycle - *see our side* and take down your ad https://t.co/e00iKBvqVy
— Talia Hussain (@Talia_inReality) November 30, 2021
Responding to Norman’s tweet this morning, Rigby – a Labour councillor in Conservative-controlled Wandsworth, and her party’s active travel and transport speaker for the borough, said: “Thank you for listening Will. We want this campaign to work and we are here to input ways to adapt it so it is not wasted content.”
Thank you for listening Will. We want this campaign to work and we are here to input ways to adapt it so it is not wasted content.
— Jo Rigby (@Jo_Earlsfield) December 1, 2021
Transport journalist and author Carlton Reid also welcomed TfL’s decision, although he said that the campaign should be scrapped altogether.
This is good, Will. Binned would be the more appropriate action, though, and I’m sure that will be the eventual conclusion. Also needs to be a transparent debrief to see how such awful messaging was allowed in first place.
— Carlton Reid (@carltonreid) December 1, 2021
Like Reid, former Haringey councillor Clive Carter said that lessons needed to be learned from the debacle.
🚴 WILL, I'm glad to hear that and trust that "paused" soon becomes pulled. Perversely, such a car-centric viewpoint may have had an opposite effect intended. @tfl needs to learn lessons from this mistaken PR campaign, such as checking by persons competent in the area discussed.
— Clive Carter (@Clive_Carter) December 1, 2021
A detailed critique of the campaign was also provided on Twitter at the weekend in a lengthy thread, but one well worth reading, by Mark Hodson.
A roads policing officer and driver behaviour specialist, Hodson helped pioneer West Midlands Police’s award-winning Operation Close Pass targeting motorists who overtake cyclists while giving them insufficient space, with the initiative since adopted by police forces across the UK.
Right then, I've held off commenting on this to give myself a decent amount of time to think about what I would have spent the budget on instead of this 👇, & why if @TfL want more harmony on their roads they need to come away from asking drivers to "think" and be afraid instead https://t.co/hGIF925h5s
— Mark Hodson (@markandcharlie) November 28, 2021
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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65 comments
If you ever do a driver awareness course (I have) one of the areas they cover is reacting to other drivers as people rather than hostile objects . this video is attempting to cover the same ground.
That's all good - and needed. Stop drivers getting angry at each other, realise there's a person in the box. Sensible. What's that got to do with cyclists and pedestrians though? This video seems to think that's related somehow - but lots of people can't see it.
Doesn't really address my post I'm afraid.
Yoru accusation;
is just a strawman. Nobody here is actually saying this.
Ultimately those operating heavy machinery in a negligent or incompetent manner need to understand that they are risking maiming and killing people, whilst, intentionally or not, actually intimidating and bullying members of teh general public.
This makes no reference to those driving responsibly - empathy abound there, merry chats, cheerful waves at traffic lights etc etc.
Trying to get the victim of negligence to find empathy with their assailant, especially in the heat of the moment is ludicrous.
And what does it solve? Cross words (to me at least) is nowhere near as pressing an issue as blood on the road. And guess what, that blood will mostly be that of cyclists and pedestrians, spilled invariably by negligent motorists.
The issue IS motorists (of which I am one), especially negligent ones(which I try my utmost not to be). That is why the conversation MUST be about changing driver behaviour, and not about saying "it's alright, no harm done (this time at least, apart from the fact I can't walk/ride in a straight line cos of the fear and adrenaline that has flooded my blood stream), just carry on as before"
Trying the "why can't we just....get along" line is bollocks, when the true issue isn't actually about getting a bit shouty, it's a public and social health issue surrounding the completely avoidable deaths of 5-600 pedestrians and cyclists every year, and the maiming of 1000s of others, due to nothing more than incompetence and negligence.
No not all drivers cause road deaths. But 99.9% of road deaths are caused by drivers
Dont you think the video by showing drivers the cyclist is a human helps. Yes its both ways but that doesnt negate the fact its a helpful message for drivers
It seems that you are still trying to ignore the axe you are grinding.
By the by, in the absence of a coordinated road safety program that actually deals with the causes of road conflict, violence, injury and death, I think this video is a distraction.
I think you're grasping at straws there as surely any video of a cyclist shows them as a human?
It would have been far better if they'd shown a driver/cyclist collision and then switched to a montage of hospitals, physiotherapy and drastically changed lifestyle. Maybe have a few shots of family members selling sports equipment that the victim is no longer capable of using in order to install a wheelchair ramp.
Thats not really a"we are all the same" message is it.
Well no, but that's the main complaint aimed at the video is that in terms of road safety we are not all the same. It's not so much that the message is flat out wrong, but the video portrays the after-math of a close-pass and doesn't address the causes which is surely a failing in terms of road safety. I'd like to see the numbers compared for incidents caused by angry cyclists (e.g. Dawkins' Tesla) vs incidents caused by drivers close-passing or left-hooking as I suspect that TfL are addressing a much smaller issue and ignoring the elephant on the road.
I agree - these drivers could do with more situational awareness. When driving most people are looking out for other cars and not pedestrians and cyclists - because they're encountered less often and aren't a threat. How about:
"When you are driving a car look out for people on bikes and pedestrians who are also using the road. They're just trying to complete their journeys - same as you. Even though you don't see them as often as other cars they are perfectly entitled to be there - so watch out! If you hit them you can easily injure or kill them. What if they were a member of your family? Oh, and people on bikes can move a lot faster than people on foot - sometimes faster than your car."
What's that? Something about aggression? OK:
"We're all human. Being stuck somewhere on your journey sucks. But for us all the most important thing is getting to our destination safely. So if you're stuck behind other people in cars, have to slow down for a maintenance vehicle, a horse rider, someone on a bike or are waiting for children to cross the road - relax. Getting angry won't get you there faster. But it might mean that someone doesn't get there at all."
What you said, Captain.
Surprise surprise. Nic, who nearly always blames cyclists for bad driver performance had to do an Driver Awareness Course, but still drives the wrong way around mini roundabouts. So the driver awareness course really really helped.....
To be fair one could have followed the other !
Oddly it didnt touch roundabouts .
Where has this been quoted? The false equivalence argument that most have followed does not say that, but focuses on cause and outcomes. You're letting you own prejudices slip.
He does this whenever someone shines a torch on one the elephants in his room - that as a group drivers are the predominant cause of road violence. The other elephant that's taking up space is that not all police are competent, hard-working or fit for role.
Out comes the whataboutery, the #notalldrivers, #somecyclistsareaskingforit #youhatepolice blah blah. When challenged he then switches to other points without answering
In fairness I don't think he's a troll, and certainly has none of the odiousnes or obnoxiousness of certain individuals, but he really can't accept that robust criticism of those in a privileged position (drivers or police, say) can possibly be justified
So avoiding the question then. No surprise there.
I clicked on the link in Mark Hodson's tweet and nothing happened. It seems he has taken it down? When I try to read the replies I see Mark has several posts explaining his stance. Wonder if his bosses asked him to delete it?
It's been deleted, but I can still see it here
No it was VCCP who are the agency behind the video who deleted their tweet promoting the video, which is what Mark was quoting and linked his replies off, they are still all there just dont have the original linkage, but either follow the link Hawkinspeter gave,or go to the retweet on neighbourhood watch in Marks timeline and it links back to the original thread.
The again Road.cc could have just screen copied them all for us...
Especially if twitter is still considering your appeal from 11 months ago. I'm thinking of having a birthday party for it; you're all invited. Masks mandatory, helmets not.
There's a woman in my village who is very anti mask wearing (and very publicly so). I saw her the other day carrying a cycle helmet. I was tempted to call a sheep and tell her not just to believe what the government and the BBC say but to do her own research.
Can't abide these faceless, anonymous conspiricist theorists, taking risks with their health...
Talking of which, did cyclistformerlyknownas finally go too far with his covidiocy?
I've lost track. There have been a parade of leftfield thinkers on here, sometimes disappearing suddenly and possibly returning under new cover. It's like the drummers in Spinal Tap.
I was only thinking about that this morning.
I speculated he will come back as
antivaxxerswererightallalong.
Or did the mods finally work out he was cibm and btbs?
Haven't seen that Dave Dave since he accused me and Steve k of being like antivaxxers simply for suggesting there is an argument that speed limits don't apply to cyclists in Richmond park.
Funnily enough, within the week, the met conceded this.
Never did get a link from them to the 305mm diameter portable angle grinder using their magical search provider.
Talking of which, did cyclistformerlyknownas finally go too far with his covidiocy?
The management deleted him after I wrote that allowing such an obvious nutter to remain on the site ought to be an embarrassment.
Has his account been deleted? Initially they just removed his "Convid" posts again and he was still posting on other topics.
Has his account been deleted?
Don't know- I don't seem to have seen him since, but I just ignore the usual nutters
Must have been. He would have been all over this topic.
Shame that he seemed so stuck on the COVID thing, his cycling knowledge was top notch and he was fun in the regular helmet arguement.
And Nige, no matter how hard you try, you will never manage to hold a light to the Willo.
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