This spotlight series is dedicated to showcasing the best practices shared by ESRC members. Each month, we highlight a different member’s innovative road safety initiative. By presenting these success stories, we aim to create a collaborative environment where others can recognise, celebrate and adopt lessons learned and best practices.
Our February spotlight features the project ‘On the road with Risi & Ko’, established by the KFV Association in Austria. The project aims to equip secondary teachers with practical tools to deliver continuous, age-appropriate road safety education, closing the gap that exists after primary school.
Why this initiative has been recognised as Good Practice of the Month
This initiative stands out because of its engaging and accessible approach to providing essential road safety and mobility education for children and young people. By offering free teaching materials, lesson plans and school activities, it overcomes common barriers such as limited school budgets and the high costs of developing and distributing quality resources. Its comprehensive approach, combined with dedicated effort to ensure widespread uptake, demonstrates a model that could be successfully adapted in other countries where organisations are committed to promoting road safety education.
Key inspiration behind the initiative
The project was driven by the growing recognition that although Austria provides traffic safety education in primary schools, a major gap exists in secondary schools, where no dedicated subject is assigned to this topic. Consequently, this leaves a critical gap at an age when young people are increasingly independent and at greater risk on the road. This highlighted the need for a structured, continuous educational approach that supports young people as they become more independent road users. To support teachers in delivering lessons in an interdisciplinary setting, the ‘Risi & Ko’ materials were created to provide ready-to-use resources that make traffic safety education continuous, age-appropriate and effective throughout secondary school.
Project activities
Launched in 2018, the project has provided flexible age-specific teaching materials, including multiple lesson plans and comics for each topic, to encourage classroom discussions. For secondary schools, the resources address topics especially relevant for teenagers, including:
- Peer pressure
- Social responsibility in traffic
- Distractions in traffic
- Different modes of mobility
To ensure broad reach, the materials were officially launched in 2018 via a KFV press release, followed by a formal letter to all secondary schools detailing the free ordering and download options. The project was further supported by the Ministry of Education.
In 2019, the project expanded to also provide teaching materials for primary schools. The materials align with the Austrian curriculum and first focus on walking to school safely for the early years. In the 3rd and 4th grades, the focus shifts to safe use of public transport and cycling in traffic.
In addition to classroom materials, the initiative offers hands-on support through workshops and school visits, where KFV experts work directly with students and teachers to explore specific issues such as speeding. There is also online professional training for teachers, delivered annually.
Outcomes of the initiative
The ‘On the Road with Risi & Ko’ initiative has successfully engaged schools in traffic and mobility education across Austria. Evaluations conducted in 2019 and 2023 with over 250 teachers across school years assessed the materials’ pedagogical approach, classroom suitability and usability. Teachers consistently rated the resources as easy to implement, educationally valuable and highly engaging for students, with many using them multiple times during the school year. While direct effects on traffic accidents are difficult to measure, teachers confirmed that the materials effectively support the acquisition of key age-appropriate competencies in traffic safety, aligned with Austria’s competence-oriented curriculum.
However, one challenge has been the varied uptake between primary and secondary schools. Primary school teachers, who already have traffic safety embedded in the curriculum, are more likely to use the materials, while secondary schools often rely on external experts or workshops to deliver these lessons. To address this, KFV has provided ongoing workshops and activities for all school types.
The initiative has also achieved a substantial reach. Over five years, the digital teaching folder was downloaded around 3,700 times by primary schools and 4,200 times by secondary schools, while printed materials are present in almost half of Austria’s primary schools. These figures, alongside positive teacher feedback, demonstrate the initiative’s strong implementation and broad impact on traffic safety education.
For more information
Read more about the project here – explore the project’s activities and outcomes in further detail.
If you want to develop a similar strategy at a national level, contact the project lead, Cordelia Wilson at media@euroncap.com
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