Designing and testing theory based road safety messages

Road safety education campaigns had been widely used in many jurisdictions to raise public awareness of traffic safety issues, modify drivers' behaviors and improve safety. Despite their prevalence, relatively few studies had been conducted to examine their efficacies and few messages were designed using behavior change theories. This study evaluated a pre-existing intersection safety poster using several constructs from well established psychology, health and communications models, including perceived severity of threat shown, response efficacy, self efficacy, cost and benefit of preventive strategies, realism and credibility. These constructs were found to be positively correlated with self-reported changes in behavioral intentions. As an illustration on the applicability of these constructs in future designs, a new poster was developed in an effort to strengthen these constructs and the efficacy of the new poster in changing drivers' self-reported driving intentions. The new poster was found to perform better than the pre-existing poster in changing drivers' intention to drive more safely at intersections.