Request a road safety improvement through Safer, Better Streets

Safer, Better Streets Programme 2026 to 2027

Brighton & Hove City Council receives many requests from residents about road safety. These include concerns about speeding, rat running, cycle safety or perceived collision blackspots.

The Safer, Better Streets process was developed as a way of fairly assessing and prioritising these requests.

Officers carefully consider all requests and first check whether the location meets the minimum criteria for improvements.

An initial assessment is carried out to measure vehicle speeds and/or pedestrian counts. Small measures such as road markings, signs, or Motion Vehicle Activated Signs (MVAS) may be introduced to resolve issues quickly, where appropriate.

If a location is successful in the initial assessment, we carry out a more in-depth full assessment to get an idea of how urgent improvements are. This full assessment takes into consideration a wide range of social and safety factors, including:

• perceived risks to pedestrians and cyclists
• improvements for mobility impaired
• access to public transport
• speeding vehicles
• collision history
• active travel and walkability improvements
• links to the South Downs

Every year, using the above criteria, officers produce a list of the top 10 locations prioritised for improvements. These are presented to and approved by councillors.

Officers then aim to improve as many locations on the top 10 list as possible, subject to available funding.

View the full details of the Safer, Better Streets process, approved by the former Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee in January 2023.

How to request a road safety improvement

Contact your ward councillor to make a new Safer, Better Streets request.

When you complete the form, there is a drop-down menu under 'What is your enquiry about?'. Select one:

• Pedestrian Crossing Requests
• Requests for traffic calming

Please give us as much information as possible, and tell us:

• the exact location - describe the location, for example, outside a house number or business or at a particular junction
• an exact description of the road safety issue (for example rat running, speeding, lack of pedestrian crossing infrastructure). Please only include the most significant issue.    
• who it impacts
• if it is a problem at a specific times of day, for example:
  • the school run
  • rush hour (am/pm)
  • weekends

More information

There's more information about road safety in Sussex, including how to report anti-social driving to Operation Crackdown on the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership website.