Initiative details
The road safety challenge is motorists parking their vehicle on footpaths and cycle lanes, blocking access for pedestrians, cyclists, pushchairs and those with reduced mobility. This leads to vulnerable road users such as wheelchair users, the visually impaired, people with buggies, children and older pedestrians not having adequate room to walk safely, potentially forcing them out onto the road. Parking in cycle lanes forces cyclists out into mainstream traffic, where there is an increased risk of a collision occurring.
Initiative date
to
Who was/is your target audience?
Children 0-16
Young adults 17-25
Adults
Parents
Seniors
Company employees
Fleet operators
Car drivers
Car drivers – professional
Public transport
Van drivers
Lorry/truck drivers
Cyclists
Micromobility riders
Powered two wheeler riders (excluding micromobility)
Pedestrians
Others
Topic
Create awareness
Organisation details
Road Safety Authority
Association
Ireland
National
Contact name
Christine Hegarty
Telephone number
+353 87 9143104
chegarty@rsa.ie
Website
Project activities
If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role.
The Road Safety Authority produced all of the creative and public relations material for the campaign, but we launched it in association with An Garda Síochána, as they are the enforcement authority, and the Department of Transport, as they govern road safety policy. From start to finish, we engaged regularly with An Garda Síochána, the Department of Transport, and local authorities to inform them of our progress.
Please describe the project activities you carried/are carrying out and the time period over which these were implemented.
In 2021, the Road Safety Authority became aware of an increase illegal parking on footpaths and cycle lanes and the potential road safety risk to vulnerable road users. We developed a creative brief for our creative agency to help raise awareness of the issue and aid behaviour change. We produced a digital road safety campaign that consisted of video that ran across our social media platforms and certain websites targeting motorists. We developed a press release in partnership with An Garda Síochána and the Department of Transport and issued to all media to alert the public to the new public awareness campaign of the issue of illegal parking and to support "Make Way Day" which takes place in September. We ran the campaign in February and September of 2021.
In 2022, we ran the campaign in February and September. In February, we produced a press release in association with An Garda Síochána and the Department of Transport to raise awareness of the increase in fines (doubled from €40 to €80) for illegal parking on footpaths and cycle lanes. We continue to raise awareness of the issue on our social media channels and through our interactive road safety shuttle which, which travels the country, and through our National Promotional Road Safety Officers, who attend businesses, schools, and communities throughout the country.
In 2022, we ran the campaign in February and September. In February, we produced a press release in association with An Garda Síochána and the Department of Transport to raise awareness of the increase in fines (doubled from €40 to €80) for illegal parking on footpaths and cycle lanes. We continue to raise awareness of the issue on our social media channels and through our interactive road safety shuttle which, which travels the country, and through our National Promotional Road Safety Officers, who attend businesses, schools, and communities throughout the country.
Evaluation
What has been the effect of the activities?
The campaign has had a wide reach since it was first published. Our target audience for this campaign was all adults. To date, it has had over 10.4 million impressions across our social media channels. The social media channels used were Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, as well as a further 916,000 impressions from display where we focused on the independent.ie and the journal.ie to ensure delivery against our target audience.
Please briefly explain why your initiative is a good example of improving road safety.
The campaign was clear and simple in its message, showing the consequences of illegal parking on footpaths and cycle lanes for vulnerable road users. The launch of the campaign included the combination of education and enforcement, and provided motorists with a reminder of the consequences and the risks that they're actions pose to vulnerable road users, and a possible fine.
How have you shared information about your project and its results?
At launch, we issued a press release to regional and national media to raise awareness of the campaign. In 2021-2022, we ran a paid digital media campaign and also regularly post organically across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We have highlighted the campaign to the local authorities, who can also issue fines in relation to this, and encourage the sharing of the information across their communication tools and we will examine the number of fines issued in relation to this offence to see if there is an impact on behaviour. We will update local authorities and An Garda Síochána on the progress of the campaign. Our National Promotional Road Safety Officers continue to raise awareness of the issue and our interactive Road Safety Shuttle travels the country, providing information on this issue and campaign. We will conducti tracking research on the campaign to investigate behaviour change.
Supporting materials
