Help make Leeds streets safer

You are invited to complete a short survey, which seeks the experiences of people who use outdoor spaces for exercise, such as running, jogging, or walking. The purpose of the survey is to understand how safe people feel while exercising outside and to gather feedback on a potential city-wide campaign.

In March 2024, the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council launched their ‘JogOn’ campaign to raise awareness that the harassment of female runners is not acceptable, encouraging people to report incidents witnessed and to change public attitudes, condemning these behaviours.

In October 2024, Womens Lives Leeds published findings from their Leeds Womens Safety Survey, in which 1,371 women of all ages took part. The survey highlighted that men’s behaviour towards women made 81% of respondents feel unsafe when out and about in Leeds. 85% of respondents had experienced being leered at, cat-called or wolf whistled and 74% had experienced sexual comments or jokes. As a result, women stated they have changed their behaviour due to feeling unsafe when using outside spaces, which included some women stating that they no longer exercise outside. You can read more here.

Your survey responses will be used to understand more about how safe people feel when using outside spaces to exercise and whether a similar Leeds campaign would be welcomed and supported. 

You will find some introductory information on the first page of the survey, providing background context, followed by several specific questions. The survey should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.

https://surveys.leeds.gov.uk/s/ORU78U/