Victoria Police will actively involve the Victorian community in road safety through various communication channels, with the Neighbourhood Policing Framework playing a crucial role.
Our approach includes media, social media, and daily face to face interactions with road users.
While addressing extreme road behaviour remains a priority, we will focus on communicating with the segment of the community responsible for the majority of road trauma (approximately two thirds), road users who routinely commit single acts of non-compliance.
International experience and academic research provide evidence that consistent messaging and enforcement have proven effective in promoting positive behavioural change among this group.
We will adhere to research backed principles for impactful road safety messaging based on academic research and international experience.
This includes acknowledging that:
- Campaigns promoting enforcement activities are the most effective. Road users are more fearful of enforcement consequences than the risk of being involved in road trauma.
- We will promote the enforcement outcome of single acts of non-compliance (e.g., specific fines, demerit points and license suspensions) in these campaigns.
- Road users only become safer if they change their behaviour.
- Messaging that focuses solely on extreme driving behaviour (e.g., a driver detected 60+ km/h above the speed limit) can also be counterproductive to road safety. It can create a perception that single acts of non-compliance such as low level speeding are acceptable in comparison to extreme behaviour.
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