Share the road

How to run campaigns related to speed, driveway safety, giving way and cycle courtesy.

Speed (target -drivers)

Introduction

Drivers travelling at inappropriate speeds increases the risk of pedestrians being hit by a vehicle, causing injury or death. Inappropriate traffic speed also increases the perception of danger and makes walking less pleasant.

Pedestrians are more likely to be involved in a crash with a vehicle in commercial areas or on arterial and collector roads. Those most often struck are young children and older pedestrians. Young children may:

be unable to see approaching traffic clearly
have little concept of speed, distance or danger
see the world differently from adults.

Older pedestrians may:

find it more difficult to judge speed and distance of traffic
be unable to react (to assimilate information and make decisions) quickly
take fright easily, over react and fall
have physical disabilities.

Community action

The following are ideas for community action. Many of these have been used in New Zealand or elsewhere. There many other ideas that you or the groups you work with might like to use.

Groups of school students crossing the road carrying placards or signs.
An event outside a school to demonstrate stopping distances either as a stand-alone event or as part of wider school road safety day.
Walking groups carrying or wearing messages.
Pedestrians being interviewed on radio.
School students developing and performing a rap, a song or a drama for their peers or for parents or the community.
A performance by community members on pedestrian safety, and held in a public area.
Workshops or forums for older secondary school students to help them develop their own ideas for community action.
Secondary school students developing their own event or promotion, possibly using a crashed car to convey the message.
Invite local schools to use campaign artwork in newsletters or information sent home to parents.

Community groups to involve in planning

Ideally you should work with the main problem groups. Use data or observations from your area to determine the make-up of your target groups.

The following are some groups from the target area who might be involved.

Those who have a culture of driving fast for fun.
Groups of young drivers such as secondary or tertiary students who may occasionally drive fast.
Commercial drivers.

The following are some groups affected by the actions of the target group that could be involved in planning a project.

Schools, school students, parents, teachers, and school communities.
Groups of older drivers such as Age Concern, Probis Groups, Lions Clubs, Rotary, or Grey Power.
Walking groups who may be aware of issues on the street and may be interested in helping with planning to make walking safer.
Residents’ groups might like to be involved in planning for their area.
Tertiary students may be able to contribute research or provide information to the project.
Groups representing people with disabilities often have a particular point of view to promote and are keen to be involved in planning.
NZ Police.

Messages to communicate

The following actions might be asked of drivers in a situation where pedestrians are being put at risk by the inappropriate speed of traffic.

Slow down, reduce speed.
Expect the unexpected, expect children to behave in unexpected ways, prepare for children to do something different.
Drive slowly in areas where children are present, slow down when you see pedestrians, slow down in shopping areas where there are a lot of pedestrians.
Slow down and prepare to stop at pedestrian crossings or school crossings.

Media to use

Nationally, drivers aged 15-25 years are slightly more likely to be involved in pedestrian crashes where the driver is at fault than other age groups, so you will probably want to be sure they see the promotion. However, you should target campaigns that are appropriate to your area.

Some forms of media that are likely to reach the younger age group include:

cinema advertisements used when films that appeal to young people are being shown
advertising on the backs of buses or at bus stops in urban areas
billboards with messages either on established urban billboard sites or set up at locations where the issue is most problematic
promotions involving texting, pxting or the internet
café cards
radio – as it is a good way to reach drivers, especially during rush hours in the morning or evening. Select stations that will reach the intended target audience
television channels that focus on youth
local television channels that offer cheap advertising rates, played at times when your target audience is likely to be watching.

Forms of media likely to reach drivers in general include:

promotions in the newspaper, especially local community newspapers
local television channels
leaflets or cards distributed to schools for students to take home
information included in school newsletters
a card or leaflet delivered in a letterbox drop or inserted in community newspapers. The leaflet needs to be novel or eye catching to attract people’s attention
information cards or promotional products distributed by Police at check points
speed trailers or message signs on the road clearly visible to drivers. Ensure that the design isn’t dangerously distracting for drivers
messages incorporated into or delivered at ethnic, cultural or sporting events
messages on products of use to the target group, such as car rubbish bags, calendars, shopping lists and CD holders
demonstrations of stopping distances at different speeds placed outside a local school or at a community event.

Emotional slant

The following ideas are designed to engage the emotions of the target group when they come in contact with your promotion. If you want to create a fear response you need to include a call to action so people don’t feel afraid and helpless.

The idea of running into a child is a good way to make people emotional in relation to driving too fast around pedestrians. Ways to engage emotions might include having the promotion feature a child asking drivers to keep him or her safe, using the slogan ‘Kill your speed, not a child’, asking the question ‘How would you feel if you killed or injured a child?’ The call to action is ‘Slow down’.
In relation to the risk of running into older people, a question such as ‘How would you feel if this was your grandmother? Slow down’ will engage emotions.
Another way of engaging emotions is to ask the target driver to put him or herself in the place of the victim. For example, ‘We are all pedestrians sometimes. How would you feel if this were your child?’ or ‘How would you feel crossing the road if you were blind? Slow down’.
Images can also engender emotion. Often something other than blood and guts can pull at people’s heartstrings. A body outline in the middle of an intersection, an abandoned child’s shoe, a leaf fluttering from a tree, can all engage people’s emotions.
Humour is an emotion and both images and words can convey humour. However, the humour should not detract from the serious nature of the message.

Enforcement

Enforcement activities might include more intense enforcement of speed around schools.
Greater speed enforcement activities might take place at shopping centres.
A speed trailer with Police enforcement further down the road. This may also lead drivers to think the next time that they see a trailer that the police may be there again.

Events

The following are some events where information on driving speeds and pedestrian safety might be distributed.

Demonstrations of stopping distances at different speeds.
Walking group celebrations.
Community fun days.
Children’s music festivals.
Pre-schoolers and parents festival days.
Walk to work days.
Marathons or running events.
Pacific Island health days.
Maori cultural events.
Asian cultural events.
Speedway events.

Related resources

(The following numbers relate to the list of existing resources contained in the companion document.)

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Last updated: 22 February 2007