Deliverable D 1.3 RESULTS OF META-ANALYSIS ... - cast-eu.org

Campaigns and awareness raising strategies in traffic safety — Deliverable D-1.12.2.4 Task 1.4 - Key elements for evaluationOne main conclusion from GADGET was the frequent inadequacy of“evaluation designs” that had been used in evaluation studies. Very often anafter-measurement of one single variable, as for example attention orawareness was used as a criterion variable for assessing the effect of a givencampaign. This is clearly an insufficient evaluation design strategy putting theevaluators in an inconclusive position.To do proper evaluations, the evaluators naturally have to think and plan inadvance of the campaigns. Before-measurements are essential to be able toevaluate any behavioural change, and, hence, obtain valid conclusions abouteffects. It may seem self-evident, but this criterion is nevertheless frequentlyjeopardized. Key elements for evaluation should be sought at two levels: Oneregarding the individual campaign, the other the individual road user. Inpractice then, an outcome of task 1.4 should be the key psychological andsocial factors that influence driver behaviour, or aspects of the driver modelthat is expected from task 1.3.Several candidate variables regarding campaigns have been mentioned –such as theme of campaign, type of campaign, size of target group, etc. Inaddition, factors as type of message, layout of message, the ability to stir upawareness, knowledge of the target group, intensity and frequency ofmessages, emotional aspects etc, must be elaborated qualitatively andquantitatively.2.3 THE OBJECTIVES OF WP1Summing up the above elaboration of the tasks of WP1, the followingobjectives were stated as the main objectives of (Annexe 1 “Description ofwork” of the CAST project):• Describe state-of-the-art regarding applicable theories of behaviour and(partial) effects of campaigns;• Estimate (partial) effects of campaigns on speeding, drink driving andrelated accidents, and estimate the (partial) effects of enhanced seat beltwearing on the reduction of personal injuries by meta-analysis;• Develop a generic and theoretically based model for road safetycampaigns by ascertaining campaign characteristics (key elements) thatcontribute to behaviour change and/or reduction in the number ofaccidents by meta-regression;• Elaborate a model of the road user, based on applicable theories ofbehaviour, and empirical evidence of effective strategies for behaviouralchange;• State hypotheses about predictors for behavioural change, establish keyelements identified by evaluation studies, by meta-analysis, by road usermodels, and provide proposals for variables to be measured as integralparts of the evaluation of campaigns.17