In the autumn of 1994 the Danish Road Safety Council and Danish Local Safety Groups launched a campaign to persuade car drivers to reduce their vehicle speeds and observe the speed limits in urban areas. The Danish Council of Road Safety Research evaluated the campaign effect among the target group, i.e. drivers aged 18 to 50 years. The method was as follows. Drivers were randomly selected and asked whether they had noticed the campaign, understood its message, talked about it or felt themselves influenced by it. Furthermore, their speed was measured just before the interview. After the interview a questionnaire was handed out which the driver was requested to fill in at home and return by mail. A number on the interview and the questionnaire forms made it possible to compose the answers. The main results of the interviews showed that most of the drivers had noticed the campaign message in various media. However, no significant correlations were found between drivers' speed and their perception of the campaign apart from a tendency that mainly fast drivers felt themselves influenced by the campaign. As regards questionnaire results, it seems that the specific road section is the most important factor for choice of speed. Furthermore, some drivers had conflicting attitudes. On the one hand, for instance, the majority of the drivers overestimated other drivers' vehicle speeds and regarded speeding as a problem. On the other hand, more than 70% of the drivers supported the idea of raising general speed limits - except in urban areas. On the whole, many interesting correlations were found between expressed attitudes and sex, age, and the measured vehicle speeds. (A)
Abstract