Education

Safety Through Education

The Council has an increasingly important role to educate the public on road safety. It performs this duty by identifying focal points, initiating curriculum-based programmes and course tools and co-ordinating the work of other groups interested in, or responsible for, road safety.

This multi-agency approach is particularly effective in wide-ranging community education initiatives across all age groups. The concerted efforts of District Councils, schools, community centres and non-governmental organisations produce a variety of road safety education. Lectures and seminars are given by the Police to various groups and organisations at venues including the Road Safety Bus, Road Safety Towns, schools, centres for the elderly and other community venues. The messages delivered are tailored to specific groups and audiences. For example, road safety educational programmes designed for new immigrants to Hong Kong help these newcomers better understand local regulations and requirements.

In addition, Road Safety Bulletins prepared by the Transport Department (TD) are also regularly distributed to various stakeholders to enhance understanding of traffic regulations and of the importance of obeying traffic rules; to disseminate road safety messages; and to enhance the road safety awareness of all road users.

Youth Education

The Road Safety Towns transform road safety education into a fun experience for children and other young people, in a pleasant and comfortable environment. Managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the towns attracted more than 48,000 visitors of all ages in 2012, an increase of 10% compared with 2011. The towns are favourite destinations of kindergartens and primary schools, as well as clubs, social service groups and elderly service organisations. Open days with interactive games and performances are regularly held to promote road safety themes.

Hong Kong’s four Road Safety Towns are:

For many years, the Road Safety Bus has delivered road safety messages to students at schools, residents at housing estates and children at youth centres. The Road Safety Bus underwent a revamp project in 2010 and was decked out in a fresh livery, depicting the road environment and some of the most common crossing facilities found in Hong Kong. The interior of the bus is now better utilised, with more space for road safety education. Other new features of the bus include a rolling poster light box, driving simulator, pedestrian lights simulator with control box and buzzer, and advanced
audio-visual equipment with touch-screen display. With its vibrant colours, simulated road environment and innovative computer games, it recorded more than 45,000 visitors in 2012, underscoring the valuable role it plays in road safety education. In addition, to raise road safety awareness and to develop good practices, we continue to reach out to our young people through interactive educational activities.

School Education

A holistic school curriculum comprising knowledge, skills and attitude is provided for students in accordance with their developmental needs. One of the learning objectives of pre-school education is to know how to protect oneself since early childhood through nurturing basic safety habits and awareness. Elements of road safety education, such as understanding safety regulations, cycling safety, proper use of public transport and common causes of traffic accidents, are also covered in some Key Learning Areas and subjects in primary and secondary education. These include General Studies at the primary level and the Personal, Social and Humanities Education and Physical Education at the secondary level. Students develop consistently proper attitudes towards road use and have their safety awareness heightened across the learning of different topics.

When promoting road safety education, schools may utilise various learning and teaching materials, including educational television programmes, lesson plan exemplars and web-based resources provided by the Council. In addition, corresponding life-wide learning activities, such as the Hong Kong Road Safety Patrol, are organised to provide an authentic learning experience for students to develop a broader sense of road safety and strengthen their awareness and habits. Positive values that the school curriculum stresses – such as responsibility, respect and care for others, and civic awareness – are indispensable personal qualities for students to cultivate to be responsible road users.

Cyclist Education

We attach great importance to cycling safety. In recent years, the Council, the Police and TD have been promoting cycling safety through various forms of publicity and educational activities. In view of the increasing popularity of cycling in Hong Kong, we increased our efforts in this area. Major recent undertakings were:

Driver Education

Safe driving is one of the main themes of our road safety campaign in Hong Kong. An annual Safe Driving and Health Campaign was launched in 2012 to enhance awareness of safe driving and health issues among commercial vehicle drivers. A wide range of services were provided under the campaign, including: safe driving and health-related seminars and workshops; dissemination of safe driving and health messages through radio stations; advertisements in newspapers, at tunnel entrances, and at prominent sites near trunk roads; posters; and free health checks for commercial vehicle drivers. The ‘Driver Improvement Scheme’, introduced by TD in 2002, continues to promote a culture of road safety by providing driving improvement courses for drivers who wish to voluntarily improve their driving behaviour, as well as for those who have accumulated 10 or more driving-offence points (DOPs) in respect of offences committed during a two-year period or those otherwise ordered to attend by a court due to conviction of a serious traffic offence.

Once all sessions and assignments are successfully completed, drivers receive a certificate and, when relevant, have their DOP total reduced by three. Since the implementation of the Driving Improvement Course in September 2002 and up to December 2012, nearly 75,300 drivers have attended the course. Encouragingly, about 80% of the participants did not incur any new DOPs within six months of completing the course.

The Road Traffic (Amendment) Ordinance 2011 introduced new offences which include ‘driving motor vehicle without proper control under influence of specified illicit drug’, ‘driving motor vehicle with any concentration of specified illicit drug’, ‘driving motor vehicle without proper control under influence of drug other than specified illicit drug’, ‘refusal to undergo preliminary drug test’ and ‘failure to provide specimen of blood or urine for analysis’. One of the penalties for these new offences is to attend a Driving Improvement Course. To educate drivers about the new Ordinance and common medicinal drugs that may impair driving ability, a leaflet, ‘Drug Driving – Never Risk It’, has been published for publicity purposes. In addition, two drug driving seminars were arranged for commercial vehicle drivers.

Pedestrian Safety

In Hong Kong, elderly pedestrians remain vulnerable to road accidents. The Council continues to focus on many of its seminars, campaigns, bus parades, road safety messages and publicity and educational programmes on this demographic group, emphasising proper road use and crossing. In particular, we continue to broadcast the television API reminding the elderly to ‘Love Yourself, Love Your Family, Be a Smart Pedestrian’. The Council also worked closely with District Councils to conduct education in areas with relatively more traffic accidents involving elderly pedestrians to remind the elderly to use proper road crossing facilities.

A Road Safety Bulletin ‘Watch out before you cross’ has been produced to disseminate safety messages to pedestrians about the proper way to cross the road and offer safety tips to drivers about pedestrian safety.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.roadsafety.gov.hk/en/tips/tips_drivers.html