The assumption of driver responsibility, given reasonable help, underlies much road safety policy. This paper suggests that encouraging driver responsibility through personal public commitment to change may be a very cost effective method of introducing road safety to the wider community, especially where the structures, e.g. police enforcement, are not highly developed. The method proposed in the code draws support from corporate society and institutions to network best practice in the respective organizations, encouraging good behavior through education and peer pressure. The development of a network also creates an economy of scale in the distribution of road safety information through corporate nodes to the employee/members participating. The corporate and institutional code commitment may vary slightly but it would be managed by the organizations and it is hoped will become part of the organizational culture eventually embodied in staff/organizational contracts. The essential element is to get personal and public commitment to the issues of the code. At a national level support would be sought from national opinion leaders, politicians and the media to make the code a good citizen issue as part of the national cultural change to improve road safety. The change process is being conducted through social marketing but at this stage of development the most appropriate tools are still being investigated. Maintaining sensitivity to the issues by the regular supply of current information on safe practice is part of the change process. With time the network created having gained critical mass, will become a beacon of good practice and a lobby for important road safety issues at the national level (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see E217780.
Abstract