Since 2014, terrorists have used vehicles in over 140 attacks around the world. These have led to deaths, significant injury and have caused disruption amongst society. 

Alongside ensuring our public spaces are welcoming, multi-functional and attractive, is a responsibility to subtly embed safety aspects too. 

CIHT's e-learning course builds on the the Public Realm Guide for Hostile Vehicle Mitigation.  This provides a welcome insight into the threat and shows those who influence public space how to improve safety in aesthetically considered ways.

Designed by CIHT and NPSA, this course introduces the vehicle threat to public spaces, recommended principles to follow to lessen it, and concepts showing how to implement them through a considered design approach. Participants will learn about:

• The vehicle threat and what Hostile Vehicle Mitigation is.
• Risk management and stakeholder engagement.
• Engage protective design on different scales and maintain pedestrian comfort
• Key design principles: versatile, proportionate, enhance, multi-functional, accessible and inclusive, and maintenance.
• The Designer’s toolkit and established project processes

This course equips you with the knowledge and skills to create safer spaces for the public to use without compromising the quality of the public realm.

Learning outcomes: 

• Understand vehicle threats and how they manifest.
• How to reduce the impact of an attack by introducing Hostile Vehicle Mitigation.
• Realise the wider stakeholder groups and manage risk appetite.
• Be able to propose ways to limit vehicle access and speeds to public spaces.
• Know how to maintain pedestrians’ experience in better protected spaces.
• Understand what tools and techniques are available to implement Hostile Vehicle Mitigation into the public realm.
• Realise how familiar project processes can be applied to better embed security considerations into design.

Example of hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) blended into the public realm