Road safety awareness campaigns

Carefully designed and targeted campaigns to improve people’s behaviour on the road can be highly effective.

For example, the sustained campaign against drink-driving, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017, has evidently made a positive difference. Since 1979, when detailed reporting on drink-drive collisions in Great Britain began, the number of people hurt or killed in such crashes has dropped significantly.

The campaign was and still is highly focussed, its messages are unambiguous and it’s backed up with strong enforcement. This is evidently a winning combination.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of all awareness campaigns relating to cyclists’ safety.

Cycle awareness campaigns

A common failing is to base cycling-related campaigns on a false equivalence between the impact of problem behaviour from people who cycle and that of people who drive.

Often inspired by an effort to be even-handed, this approach risks leaving audiences with the impression that cyclists cause as much (if not more) harm to themselves and others than drivers do.

Yet, as we explain elsewhere, cycling poses very little risk to others compared to driving, while people who cycle are over-represented in casualty statistics.

To suggest otherwise is not only misleading and unjust, but also means that the campaign deflects energy from tackling the main threat: motor traffic.

In fact, the new Highway Code makes it very clear that it’s motor vehicles that cause most harm.

 … those in charge of vehicles that can cause the greatest harm in the event of a collision bear the greatest responsibility to take care and reduce the danger they pose to others. This principle applies most strongly to drivers of large goods and passenger vehicles, vans/minibuses, cars/taxis and motorcycles.

Rule H1, Highway Code, England, Wales & Scotland. 

In other words, cycle awareness campaigns that aren’t clear about this will always be off-target and unfit for purpose.

The right messaging

Whether they’re targeting drivers’ behaviour around cyclists, cyclists’ behaviour in particular or promoting respectful and considerate road sharing, all awareness campaigns need to:

• deliver truthful, simple and memorable messages
• be unambiguous about the imbalance in risk
• never indulge in victim-blaming
• avoid lecturing and a judgemental tone
• be informed by whatever prompts the behaviour in question
• if aimed at problem behaviour, focus on the group exhibiting it (not any other)
• if about considerate road sharing, convey positive messages to both drivers and cyclists
• never pander to the gallery by using simplistic, negative stereotypes of people who cycle
• avoid exaggerating the risks/dangerising cycling (there is no sense in putting people off a form of environmentally-friendly transport, the health benefits of which far outweigh the risks).

The above check-list is important whatever form the campaign takes and for all its materials and outputs: online advice; videos; posters; banners; booklets; leaflets; and even vehicle stickers (e.g. on the back of buses and lorries aimed at cyclists).

Enforcement & education

Coupling education/awareness-raising exercises with strong police enforcement is known to be highly effective, and is one of the reasons why the drink-driving campaign worked so well.  

The interaction between these two prongs is, in fact, synergistic: the campaign boosts public support for police activity against the offending behaviour in question, while enforcement makes sure that those who ignore the campaign's messaging are punished.

As mentioned above, good awareness campaigns accurately reflect the imbalance in risk faced by different types of road users, and are clear about the level of danger posed to others by each of them. Targeted enforcement should take the same approach.

Funding for awareness campaigns

Likewise, decisions over whether or not to fund a road safety awareness campaign should be based on a realistic assessment of how much impact it is likely to have on road safety.

Again, this means being clear about who most victims are and why.

Key messages for drivers

Raising awareness about how to drive safely in the presence of cyclists means pointing to:

• the requirements of the Highway Code, especially the changes made in 2022
• the importance of looking before turning at junctions and/or roundabouts (reported road casualty statistics show that 'failed to look properly' is the most common ‘contributory factor’ assigned by police at the scene of road collision)
• why speeding is both dangerous and intimidating
• why distraction puts other at risk (e.g. using mobile phones at the wheel)
• how to overtake cyclists safely – see Cycling UK’s own Too Close for Comfort campaign
• how to avoid opening car doors negligently – see our Dutch Reach campaign
• what cyclists are taught about road positioning and why (e.g. the practice of sometimes 'taking the lane')

For more, please see our tips for drivers.

Audiences

To promote (and scope out) campaigns aimed at cyclists, a sound tactic is to engage constructively with the cycling community first and foremost, e.g. the cycling press, cycle trainers and cycling organisations.

Further reading

For some examples of good and bad practice for promotional and enforcement campaigns, see the case studies we collected for our submission to the Department for Transport’s Cycle Safety Review in 2018.