Educating road users to improve safety

Author: Lindsey Van Parys
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At a glance

Implementing a road user education campaign in conjunction with the rollout of new transportation infrastructure can help augment the effectiveness and safety of even the best-designed new projects, and is especially critical in cases where unfamiliar road systems are being implemented.

Implementing a road user education campaign in conjunction with the rollout of new transportation infrastructure can help augment the effectiveness and safety of even the best-designed new projects, and is especially critical in cases where unfamiliar road systems are being implemented.

Safety is the number one concern and complication with any transportation infrastructure project. Reaction times of road users in unfamiliar territory can lead to unnecessary collisions and accidents, causing property damage, injury and in extreme cases, death. No matter how well planned and designed your new road, roundabout, intersection is, an education component can elevate the effectiveness of your carefully calculated project and save unnecessary expenses due to property damage, injury and fatalities.

What considerations should inform the design of a road user education campaign? One is whether the public has been previously exposed to the proposed change, such as a new roundabout or active transportation road system, it would be highly beneficial to put a communication plan in place. Others include the complexity of the project and the extent of changes to the users' experience, the availability of driver training materials in your state or local community, and other project, location and human factors.

Campaign considerations

What do we mean by “road user education campaign?”  It is a public outreach effort to provide information to all road users who may travel through the new project site. The efforts are focused primarily on the road users' interactions with the project site once construction is complete and tells them how to use the new roadway configuration safely. Users will vary from project to project but can be any road user, including drivers of cars, trucks, farm equipment, public transit, electric vehicles and golf carts to non-motorized users such as cyclists (experienced and inexperienced) and pedestrians, including those with disabilities. The public outreach effort should be a tailored approach to the users in the languages that are present in the community.

Road users encompass all backgrounds and generations, from Gen Z to Millennials, Baby Boomers and more, each with their own preferences for learning and communication. So how do you best speak to your community to ensure all users are on the same page? Consider incorporating different mediums into your education campaign, and include the use of diverse tools and platforms, from virtual tools and online platforms to more traditional print methods and public stakeholder sessions. Use methods that best speak to your community and that will reach the most people possible.

Tools and platforms might include:

  • Online media: Websites, landing pages, online banner ads, geo-fencing
  • Social media: Social account communications and promoted content to your target community
  • Videos: Online or commercial advertising
  • Print: Handouts, info sheet with utility bills, direct mail or newspaper articles and ads
  • In-person: Public consultation and stakeholder sessions
These methods can be used in combination to ensure you are reaching the majority of your community in their preferred method of communication.

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Project-specific driver, pedestrian and cyclist education sheet. These handouts were created and used to communicate to the community at public consultations sessions, then uploaded to the project website and emailed to the community subscribers.
The location of a project can also alter your campaign approach. For example, if your project is located adjacent to a school with kindergarten and primary age students, communications geared towards children should be included. With this in mind, GHD put together a video for the City of La Quinta “A Road Diet Project” who was opening their first roundabout adjacent to an elementary school. Other locations such as emergency response services, hospitals, retirement communities and nursing homes may also warrant tailored approaches.

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Roundabouts: a prime candidate for campaigns

In North America, roundabout intersections are growing in popularity and tend to be a newer, lesser-known intersection type for the majority of drivers, particularly older generations. With most drivers only participating in formal driving education in their teenage years, and with no regulations in place for retraining, the majority of road users do not have exposure on how to drive, walk or bike through this new intersection type. As the first few roundabouts are coming to communities, agencies are finding they must take extra steps and provide some specific road user information.

To do this effectively, we recommend agencies consider the variables mentioned above, where this intersection control is newer to the community, and implement a road user education campaign. Alternatively, if the general public is already familiar with single-lane roundabouts and a multilane roundabout is in the works, it is still beneficial to provide the community with further education communication and tools. 

How GHD can help

Our Engagement, Communication and Communities team, in collaboration with our transportation team, can help you to develop a project and community-specific road user education campaign. Check out a few other examples of “how-to” education videos GHD produced for a series of different road users. These videos take you through how to drive, walk, bicycle, and drive your golf cart through a roundabout, featuring a general introduction to the project and roundabouts. GHD worked with our client, a local agency, to develop these videos to help the community safely navigate through three new roadway corridors that are currently being converted from vehicle-centric corridors to multiuse facilities with bicycle/golf cart lanes, sidewalks and five roundabouts.


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