‘Did no one at council think this looks like catcalling?’
WOMEN’S SAFETY CAMPAIGNER SAYS NEW SLOGANS ARE INAPPROPRIATE
A WOMEN’S campaigner said she cannot fathom how Hull City Council approved eye-catching road crossings with “catcalling” slogans such as “whitwoo” and “ooh la la”.
Sophia Waterfield, who co-founded Reclaim These Streets in March this year in response to widespread fears for women’s safety, said she was in disbelief when she first saw the new crossings which have got the city talking.
The crossings were installed on Anlaby Road and Market Place in the city centre after the council was given a grant by the UK’S Road Safety Trust, which works to reduce the number of people killed or injured on our roads.
They’re designed to use “behavioural science to ‘nudge’ more people to use them, the council has said.
However, its phrases such as “Whitwoo”, “Oof”, “Get You”, “Looking Good”, “Wow”, and “Love it”, have not impressed women’s campaigners.
Sophia, a co-founder of the group which has organised two vigils in the city centre to raise awareness of women being unsafe on the streets, said: “I think how, at any point in the process, did nobody in Hull City
Council think ‘this looks like catcalling.’ “I’d be really interested to know the ‘behavioural science’ behind the use of these words. How does this promote helping people to cross the road? “When I saw them I just wondered how on earth that got through the approval process? I don’t honestly know what they were thinking.
“What were the council’s female employees thinking? I’m assuming it must have been approved by a panel of men.”
A joint statement from all the organisations involved - Agilysis, So-mo, Road Safety Trust, Safer Roads Humber and Hull and Liverpool City Councils, said: “The temporary crossings are part of a roadsafety trial funded by the Road Safety Trust, designed to test whether people can be encouraged or ‘nudged’ towards using them.
“The first of its kind in the UK, the trial was developed by behavioural science experts Agilysis and So-mo with support from the Road Safety Trust, Safer Roads Humber and Hull and Liverpool councils.
“The eye-catching designs are specifically targeted at people on or walking home after a night-out and aim to engage the public by displaying positive affirmations, not to cause any offence.”
When I saw them I just wondered how on earth that got through the approval process
Sophia Waterfield