This report summarises a comprehensive review of published knowledge regarding legislation, enforcement, reinforcement, and education as tools for influencing road user behaviour in pursuit of safer travel. General models of behaviour change and those directed specifically to health-related behaviours are addressed. While virtually all aspects of road use are addressed by legislation, the impacts of the great mass of legislation seems to be largely unknown. Reviewing major changes makes it clear that legislative interventions, if properly implemented and evaluated, can have measurable impacts on behaviour. However, durable effects of legislation on behaviour and collisions are by no means automatic. Enforcement presence can affect specific road user behaviours, and it may mediate the general and special deterrence effects of traffic law. Review of theory and research suggests that the effects of traffic enforcement are limited by psychological, social, economic, and political realities. Enhancing effects through strategic linkages between enforcement and the other countermeasures are considered. Theory and evaluations support the potential of behaviour analysis and reinforcement for influencing behaviours of road users. These techniques can be effective, but, while common in industry, they are rarely applied in routine, operational settings in governmental road safety programs. The potential of incentive programs, prompting, feedback, participation, and other behaviour-analytic interventions are discussed. Road safety education is reviewed, including school-based programs, driver education, skill-development training, patient and health-care client education, public education and mass-media programs, parent education, DWI education, and community education. Educational objectives and the relative importance of underlying abilities, skills, knowledge and attitudes are discussed. Lessons for road safety to be learned from health promotion are discussed. The basic questions addressed here are what works and what doesn't work in influencing road user behaviour. The short answer is "everything and nothing". Road user behaviour is so strongly determined that a broad range of influences must be applied to effect lasting change. Some influences are inherently stronger than others, but they all can add weight to a combined program, and almost nothing works well all alone. An approach to planning co-ordinated influence programs is presented. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting