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here’s a lot to learn about being a safe road user. In fact, to be a really safe driver requires lifelong learning. Vehicles change, rules change, roads change, we change. The earlier you start on being a safe, considerate road user – whether you are a pedestrian, bike rider or vehicle driver – the better it is for everyone. Being safety-focused doesn’t just benefit yourself, it makes the road safer for all users. That’s at the heart of the RACT’s road safety program that we roll out in Tasmanian schools. It’s not just about rules and regulations: it’s about behaviour, it’s about sharing, it’s about being a good citizen. These are not just safety lessons, they are life lessons. Every year the RACT’s two community co-ordinators deliver road safety education
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to almost 4000 students – from the Yippee program for year 3 and 4 students to the critical engagement with year 10 to 12 students who are on the cusp of learning to drive or are about to go for their licence test and those muchcoveted P plates. “Visiting Tasmanians from a young age really sows the seeds for them to make safe choices when they’re navigating the roads throughout further stages of their lives,” says RACT’s Hobart-based Community Co-ordinator Grace Ring. “From starting out as a pedestrian, learning how to ride a bike near the road and eventually learning to drive a car, our programs are designed with the intention to instill safe behaviours for life,” she says. Mary Gill, the RACT’s Launceston-based Community Co-ordinator, says young children pick up safe and unsafe behaviours very quickly.
Photo: Austock/Caro Telfer
RACT’s extensive road safety programs are just the start of life-long learning, writes Garry Bailey.
