Are Traffic Announcements Really Effective? A Systematic Review of Evaluations of Crash-Prevention Communication Campaigns

Abstract

Communication campaigns are commonly used in the traffic and road safety sector to raise public awareness of the importance of avoiding risky road user attitudes and behaviors. Surprisingly few of these communication campaigns evaluate their effectiveness in a formal and comprehensive manner. The core aim of the present systematic review is to identify the type of studies that evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns in this sector, in order to identify and contrast their main findings. This systematic review followed the PRISMA methodology, by means of which the relevant articles based on the search term were identified. A total of 613 indexed articles were filtered, and a final set of 27 articles directly addressing the issue was analyzed. Search strategies were developed and conducted in WOS, Scopus, NCBI, Google Scholar and APA databases. The selected articles point out that, although advertisements alone have a certain positive effect, their effectiveness is substantially increased if they are accompanied by other preventive measures such as legislation or road safety education. In any case, more evaluations of traffic campaigns are needed to identify which techniques are effective and which are not, and which should therefore be replaced by new methods of behavior modification in future communication campaigns.

Analysis on alteration of road traffic casualties in western China from multi-department data in recent decade

“…Fixed speed cameras should also be installed on high accident risk roads. Furthermore, Road safety communication campaigns should be organized frequently, which had been confirmed that the effectiveness of communication campaigns was substantially increased if they are accompanied by other preventive measures such as legislation (51).…”

Moderating effect of safety culture on the association inter work schedule and driving performance using the theory of situation awareness

“…A solid safety culture requires open and honest communication between drivers and supervisors [ 103 ]. Second, safety training assists oil and gas drivers in understanding safe behaviours and expectations [ 104 , 105 ]. Third, involve drivers.…”

Over-speeding trend across self-reported driving aberrant behaviors: A simulator study

“…Thus, these results are relevant to the integration of useful information in expanding interventions and training designed to reduce risky behavior and promote road safety. Indeed, as highlighted in the systematic review by Faus et al (2021) , studies revealed that intervention programs are more effective when several different countermeasures, such as educational programs, simulator-based driver trainings, improvement in legislation, and increase in police control, are associated. Moreover, communication strategies employed in advertising campaigns have different outcomes on different samples of population, being less effective in drivers more prone to risky behaviors, that is, those road users whose behavioral change would be most desirable ( Faus et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Indeed, as highlighted in the systematic review by Faus et al (2021) , studies revealed that intervention programs are more effective when several different countermeasures, such as educational programs, simulator-based driver trainings, improvement in legislation, and increase in police control, are associated. Moreover, communication strategies employed in advertising campaigns have different outcomes on different samples of population, being less effective in drivers more prone to risky behaviors, that is, those road users whose behavioral change would be most desirable ( Faus et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, the recall of these kinds of intervention seems very low in some countries, and varies on the basis of educational level, age, sex, and income ( Alonso et al, 2021 ), which suggest the need to replace the intervention on the basis of follow-up studies.…”