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

Campaigns and awareness raising strategies in traffic safety — Deliverable D-1.1Scale and types of campaignsAt a national level, mainly television and radio spots are concerned.Campaigns are rarely accompanied by enhanced enforcement; and whenthey are, it is quite difficult to see evidence or explicit links between theinitiatives. At a lower level, Regions, Provinces and Municipalities carry outroad safety campaigns: One might see collaboration/co sponsorship of privateorganisations.There is no clear strategy or explicit decision, at least at national level, butfear arousing appeals messages, with shocking images in television spots aremainly adopted. At a national level, television and radio spot are mainlyadopted. The collaboration, either at vertical (same field, different level, e.g.from municipality up to province, region and ministry) or horizontal level (samelevel, different field e.g. between ministries of different types, as transport andhealth) is very rare, if not absent. The target group is rarely defined, even if wecan see campaigns mainly and generally aiming at young drivers withspeeding and drinking and driving as main issues.Theme of campaignsThe topic is rarely defined, but recently an higher number of campaigns havebeen registered with alcohol related problems. Note: even if we have aspecific argument chosen for the campaign (alcohol in this case) unfortunatelyoften this specificity is not only dedicated to the road safety issue: e.g. oftenthe organisation involved are in the health frame (public or private) and theyoften choose as a strategy to start from an alcohol related issues(consequences of alcohol assumption/abuse/addiction) and extendingafterwards the problem to the drinking and drive issue.Evaluation characteristicsIt is difficult to obtain detailed reports of the evaluation of campaignsindependently from the level (national/local) and evaluation seems to be reallyrare. When it is present, evaluations are only on the form of aftermeasurementsregarding the opinion of the campaign (if the campaign wasliked or not).4.9 THE NETHERLANDS 9Themes and time periodsThe use of road safety campaigns to increase road safety has gainedprominence in the Netherlands since the eighties. Over the years thecampaigns have concentrated on various themes: speeding, safety distance,drink driving, bicycle lightning, seat belts, aggression, the introduction of newlegislation, etc.9 Text provided by Paul Schepers, The Transport Research Centre AVV (part of the Ministryof Transport, Public Works and Water Management31