Abstract

In 2014 more than 4 000 people aged 15–24 died on European roads. On this base an idea to conduct a European project focused on preventing young road users’ accidents has been developed. In 2015–2017 in 8 European Union countries series of workshops were realized in vocational schools, followed by the evaluation of the method used.

The aim of the study within European Road Safety Tunes project was to measure the effectiveness of the Safety Tunes method which was implemented during workshops in high schools. The goal was to address young people on an emotional level, in order to affirm their responsible behaviour in traffic. The aim of the project was to improve road safety by reducing accidents, injuries and fatalities among young drivers, cyclists, moped-riders and motorcyclists.

The Safety Tunes method’s main idea was to motivate young road users to behave safely on roads by creating own statements and messages and also producing artistic outputs on road safety issues relevant for their age group. Both the impact (pre and post questionnaires) and process (post questionnaire) assessments were carried out in order to measure if the opinions/attitudes of young people changed due to the participation in workshops and also whether the method used was successful and accepted by the target group.

In general, sample included 5 549 students who participated in the workshops. For the impact (pre and post) and for the process (post) assessments over 8 000 questionnaires were collected. The expected positive change was recorded regarding students’ knowledge of road safety behaviours and attitudes. The Safety Tunes method was also assessed positively.

The general conclusion of Safety Tunes project evaluation is that the project itself and the methodology used proved to be successful and had a positive impact on young road users’ behaviours.