EV Road Safety for Teenagers
We’re making road safety fun. Yep, you heard that right! Are you a teen who needs to up their road safety game? Or maybe you’re a parent desperately wondering how to engage your 13-year-old in something other than TikTok? Buckle up, your road safety journey starts here…
Let’s talk stats
With more than 1.1 million electric vehicles (EVs) on Britain’s roads, we’re on a mission to equip all pedestrians with the right road safety skills to stay safe in this modern, EV world. In February 2024, we conducted research with 1000 UK parents, and 250 children aged 11-16, to uncover the reality of road safety in teenagers. Here are just a few of our findings:
Introducing Silent Signals
We soon realised that we needed to take our Green Car Cross Code campaign to the next level and make sure that we’re not only gearing up our youngest generation of children with the skills they need to stay safe on the roads, but also our pre-teens and teens.
And along came Silent Signals. We’ve partnered with the award-winning illustrator, graphic designer and artist, Kingsley Nebechi on a graphic novella that warns teens of the dangers of being distracted whilst out and about. With some EVs making almost no noise at all, along with the ability to accelerate faster than petrol and diesel cars, Silent Signals aims to make young people think again about their road safety habits in the EV era.
Download Silent Signals below and start an EV road safety conversation today. 3...2...1, go!
Meet the illustrator - Kingsley
Favourite film?
I've always loved Inception. The first Dune is a very close contender for no.1 spot though.
Early bird or night owl?
I'd say I'm more on the night owl side. The nighttime has a special type of atmosphere and I love how peaceful it feels.
Favourite food?
I was born in Italy, and I remember the first time I had a bowl of spaghetti bolognese as a child – it’s been an ongoing love story ever since!
Coolest thing you’ve ever illustrated?
Years ago, I had the honour of illustrating Thierry Henry for a charity event hosted at the Willow Foundation. 10 prints of the illustration were made to be auctioned for the event. Thierry Henry signed all 10 prints and I still have mine hanging on the wall of my studio!
What advice would you give to a young person who wants to pursue a creative career?
Being creative is like speaking a language, sometimes it might be hard to express yourself but it's important to keep going even when you feel discouraged. I believe it's important to practice as much as you can. Practice doesn't always make perfect, but it'll make you better and wiser.
Talking about the campaign, Kingsley said:
"Given the difficulty of getting teenagers engaged in topics like road safety, a strip feels like an ideal medium for sparking awareness amongst the age group. The story was inspired by some of the conversations I used to have with my friends on the way to events when I was younger. My dad always made a big fuss about checking both sides of the road when crossing which made me hyper-aware of the road.
Being hyper-aware also saved us a few times when we got distracted by phones as we approached the road. My friends appreciated it at the time but also made fun of me for it too in typical teenage fashion! With increasing cars and EVs on the road, now is a really important time to get teenagers engaged in the topic."
Top tips for teaching EV road safety to your teen
We get it, talking about road safety with teenagers can feel like an eye-roll moment and a tough, but important, conversation to start as a parent. That’s why we’ve teamed up with parenting expert, Kirsty Ketley to do all the work for you. Use these tips to spark an electric vehicle road safety conversation with the young people in your life:
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Be a good role model
Don't scare them
Be smart with tech
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Act as a good role model by being mindful of how your own road safety can influence your child, and practice what you preach. Every walk, every car or bus journey, is an opportunity to educate your teen on road safety. Teens can often find car journeys – or being out on a walk – a better time to chat with their parents/carers as they don’t have to be face to face with them. This can make it easier to talk about the bigger, more important things.There’s no need to find footage on the internet or tell horrifying stories to show your child the dangers that are out there – your aim is not to make them fearful, but it’s still best to be honest about what could happen in certain scenarios. Never underestimate your child though. Discuss what they already know first, so it’s then more of a two-way chat – rather than a lecture – which is a more engaging way to build on their knowledge.Phones can be a huge distraction for teens – they’re often showing their friends a funny meme or the latest TikTok trend whilst out and about, meaning they’re not paying full attention to the dangers around them. Putting boundaries in place for phone and headphone usage will help with this. For example, setting up a screen time limit on their phone can be a good idea, as they will likely opt to use their viewing time once they’re at home, rather than whilst they’re walking places.
Your EV road safety journey isn't over yet! Next stop: Green Car Cross Code.
Konnie Huq stars in a video with updated road safety guidance for children, urging young people to look, and listen, extra carefully when crossing the road. You can even take a quiz to test your road safety knowledge! Have you got what it takes to score full marks?