Young Mobility Ambassadors

Initiative details

The SWARCO Lighthouse Project Young Mobility Ambassadors Program was launched in Austria in January 2024 with the aim to become a long-term project with a positive impact on society, focusing on the most vulnerable group in traffic - young people aged 14 to 19. According to statistics, distraction and risk-taking are the main causes of accidents among this group. With this project, we want to motivate young people to actively think about how they can move intelligently and safely in our rapidly changing world of mobility. The project consists of 3 pillars: Road Safety Survey, SWARCO Award and Educational Materials.

Initiative date

Who was/is your target audience?

Children 0-16
Young adults 17-25
Educational staff

Topic

Create awareness
Education in school or in community organizations
Knowledge building and sharing

Organisation details

SWARCO AG
Enterprise
Austria
Wattens, Tyrol

Contact name

Danijela Stevinovic

Telephone number

00436648210085

Website link

Project activities

If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role.

Sicher Unterwegs (www.sicherunterwegs.at) This company, made up of traffic psychologists, provides educational materials and is in the process of creating an interactive quiz for our project

IMAD (www.imad.at) – A market research and data analysis company was hired to conduct a road safety survey.

Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit - KFV (www.kvf.at) – Independent association active in preventing accidents and increasing safety; consultation

SIPCAN – Special Institute for Preventive Cardiology and Nutrition (www.sipcan.at) – made the partner schools aware of our project; consultation

BOKU University (www.boku.ac.at); Institute of Transport Studies; made the partner schools aware of our project; consultation

Please describe the project activities you carried/are carrying out and the time period over which these were implemented.

The project started in January 2024 with the Road Safety Survey in schools which examines the risks for young people in the current mobility situation. The survey will be completed by July 2024. The result will be a road safety index created for participating schools. Between May and August 2024, an interactive quiz will be developed as a form of educational material in collaboration with a team of traffic psychologists. The quiz can be integrated into classes and teachers will be provided with materials to prepare for the lessons.
In September 2024, school classes in Austria from grades 8 to 13 will be invited to participate in the project by developing their ideas to improve their own and their classmates' road safety and thus become ambassadors. The deadline for submissions is February 2025, after which the evaluation will take place. The jury will consist of 3 members from the SWARCO Group and 2 external road safety experts. Prizes will be awarded to the three best projects (1st place €4,000, 2nd place €3,000, 3rd place €2,000). The prize money should be used for an event of choice.

In terms of implementation, what worked well and what challenges did you need to overcome?

The project started this year and the biggest challenge was to reach the schools. Thanks to good preparation and professional support from a market research and data analysis company, we have already received positive feedback from school authorities about the project.

Evaluation

Please summarise how you have evaluated the initiative’s impact (e.g. social media reach, survey, feedback forms, statistics).

According to the school principals and school authorities contacted as part of the market research, the project is very welcome and needed, especially since very little educational material on road safety is available for the target group (14-19 years) compared to younger students. As this population group is the most vulnerable in traffic, we hope that our project will have long term positive impact on road safety statistics in the future.

What has been the effect of the activities?

We invite all school classes in Austria from 8th to 13th grade to participate in the project. The project focuses on distraction and risk-taking in traffic as the main causes of accidents and motivates young people to find their own solutions to minimize risks and improve safety. In addition, we intend to develop a library of educational materials on traffic safety on the SWACO homepage. The project aims to reduce accidents, injuries and deaths among road users.

Please briefly explain why your initiative is a good example of improving road safety.

The Young Mobility Ambassadors program aims to motivate young people to become road safety ambassadors, to think actively about how they can improve their own and their classmates' road safety, and to influence their peers to travel smart and safe. Our goal is to motivate, to call for action, to get young people to use their creativity for a road safety project. We don't want to tell young people what to do. We want to motivate them to think and propose solutions.

How have you shared information about your project and its results?

All information about the project can be found on SWARCO homepage (Young Mobility Ambassadors | SWARCO). Schools have been approached with flyers and posters. We will see the results in the fall of 2024, when the school classes will confirm their participation in the project.