A new US road safety campaign is challenging drivers to rethink their behaviour in a novel way.
While most of us like to think we're safe drivers ourselves, we're also inclined to question the road-safety credentials of everyone else on the road. In fact, a 2022 Transurban survey (of 400 Greater Washington Area residents) found drivers overwhelmingly feel they are safe on the road while texting and speeding while simultaneously believing others on the road cannot safely drive while taking these same risks.
Now, this mindset is the driving force behind a new road safety campaign targeting motorists in Virginia, United States.
The campaign uses dynamic messaging signs (DMS) along the Transurban-operated 95, 395, and 495 Express Lanes - and on the wider 95, 395, and 495 corridors - to display road safety messages that connect with motorists in an unexpected way. Instead of the standard 'slow down' and 'no phones' we're used to seeing messages, this campaign takes a different tack: STAY ALERT FOR SPEEDERS, one sign says, with the reminder, POLICE DO TOO. Another campaign message warns: EXPECT BAD DRIVERS. MAINTAIN SPACE.
This approach encourages motorists to factor other drivers' behaviour into their own driving decisions - and it has already led to safer speeds and driving decisions. An earlier pilot of this approach, conducted on Transurban's Express Lanes, found alerting drivers to the potential risky behaviours of other motorists, had a positive impact on driver behaviour.
For example, signage saying WATCH OUT FOR SPEEDERS helped reduced mean speeds by up to 1.4m/ph. It doesn't sound much, but this equates to up to a 14% reduction in fatalities due to road crashes. (This is why speeding is such a focus of road safety campaigns - even a small reduction in speed can be difference between life and death.)
The pilot demonstrated that encouraging motorists to focus on the unpredictability of others on the road can lead to motorists adjusting their own behaviour - slowing down, staying off their phones and taking greater responsibility behind the wheel.
This new campaign extends well beyond Transurban's Express Lanes, and is supported by radio, digital, and social media activities on both Express Lanes and Transurban channels, as well as those of our partners. We'll also be capturing data from this latest campaign to gain further insights into the effectiveness of driver-behaviour-based initiatives.
Project partners
This campaign is the result of a partnership between:
- Transurban
- Virginia Department of Transportation
- Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles
- Virginia State Police.
