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| Although leaflets have been widely used in campaigning on road safety, very little is actually known about their effectiveness in this role or the way in which they are viewed by the public. The Scottish Office therefore commissioned System Three to examine the effectiveness and impact of two specific sets of leaflets produced by The Scottish Road Safety Campaign in 1997 - the first aimed at parents of young children, the second at drivers and the road-using population in general. Awareness of and reactions to both sets of leaflets were examined through a quantitative study followed by a series of qualitatative focus group discussions conducted in two areas of Scotland. |
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| Main findings |
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- There was a high level of awareness of the leaflets on children and road safety which were distributed via the school with 79% of parents having seen them. Awareness was higher among women than men, but very similar for parents of children of nursery and primary age.
- Two-thirds of those who had seen the children's leaflets had read some or all of them and, though most felt that the leaflets contained little that was new, it was agreed that they were very well designed and that they were a good way of teaching children about road safety.
- Roughly two thirds (63%) of those who had seen the leaflets said they had been prompted to speak to their child about road safety as a direct result of receiving it. Moreover, the vast majority (85%) of those who had seen the leaflet said they had kept it,suggesting they saw it as a useful resource.
- The two leaflets aimed at drivers and the road-using population in general were much less likely to have been seen - 18% of respondents having seen one and 17% the other. This appears to be largely the result of the distribution method (direct delivery by the Royal Mail), with the leaflets being widely mistaken for 'junk mail'.
- The overall 'hit rate' for these leaflets (defined as the proportion of people who read them in full) was just 5%.
- Overall, the research suggests that the leaflets on children and road safety found a particularly receptive audience because of a high level of concern among parents about their children's safety. The leaflets aimed at drivers and road-users in general lacked this sense of a clear target audience. However, the effectiveness of these latter materials was also undermined by poorer presentation and a method of distribution which risked association with 'junk mail'.
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| Introduction |
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| Although leaflets have been widely used in road safety campaigning, as in other areas of public education, relatively little is known about their effectiveness as a means of disseminating information or influencing public attitudes and behaviour. |
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Against this background, The Scottish Office took the decision to commission a project to assess two very different sets of road safety leaflets - one aimed at parents of nursery/primary-aged children, the other at drivers and the road-using population in general. The main aims of the research were to: - ascertain views on the role played by leaflets compared to other forms of road safety publicity
- examine views on the style and format of the leaflets
- identify differences between user groups in terms of the acceptability of or receptiveness to the leaflets.
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| Although there are limits to the extent to which the results of an evaluation of particular leaflets used in particular settings can be generalised, it was hoped that the research would generate understanding about the way in which these particular leaflets were received, the means by which they were distributed and the role that leaflets in general may play in educating different groups about road safety. |
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| Methodology |
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| The fieldwork for this research was conducted in Fife and in Falkirk. Both sets of leaflets were examined in the same way. First of all, an initial quantitative survey was carried out to establish awareness and recall of the leaflets among the target population. In Fife, where the leaflets on children and road safety were distributed, this consisted of interviews with parents - either outside their child's nursery school or, in the case of primary school parents, in their own homes. In Falkirk, where the general public leaflets were distributed, the survey was a household sample of local residents. The second stage of the research in both areas consisted of a series of focus group discussions, looking in more detail at the leaflets and some of the broader issues related to road safety. |
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| Children's leaflets, Fife |
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| The leaflets examined in this stage of the research were entitled Road Safety for the Under Fives and Children as Pedestrians. They were distributed through nursery and primary schools in three areas - in the former, the leaflets were given to parents when they came to collect their child; in the latter, children were given the leaflets in class and asked to give them to their parents when they got home. |
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| Face-to-face interviews were subsequently carried out about a week later with 200 parents of children at nursery schools and 300 with parents of children at primary school. In addition, four focus groups - each consisting of 6-8 parents - were conducted. |
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| Teaching children road safety |
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| There was a near universal commitment among parents to teaching their children road safety, but very few had taken a structured approach to this task. Most simply taught 'by example' when out with their children. In terms of the basic message they tried to put across, some took a 'don't do that!' approach, while others tried to explain the possible consequences of not crossing the road safely. Although parents were seen as having the main responsibility for teaching children about road safety, it was felt that they needed support from schools and government road safety campaigns. |
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| Awareness of and reactions to the leaflets |
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| The survey suggested a high level of awareness of the leaflets - 79% of the parents interviewed recalled seeing them, though the figure was markedly higher among women than men. |
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| Two-thirds of those who had seen the leaflet had read some of it (or just over half of the sample as a whole). Those who had not read the leaflet were most likely to say that they simply 'didn't have time'. |
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| Over four out of five of those who had seen the leaflets could remember something about the content, though they were more likely to remember broad topic areas than specific issues. That said, more than one in four of those who had read the leaflets remembered that they contained games or activities for the children. |
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| Nearly two-thirds of parents who had seen the leaflets said that they had been prompted to discuss road safety issues with their children as a direct result of receiving the material. Of this group, three-quarters (or roughly half of all those parents interviewed) had actually used the leaflet in doing so. |
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| Though parents were unlikely to find anything new in the content of the leaflets, they felt that they served as a useful reminder and were likely to prompt them to discuss road safety issues with their children. Moreover, the vast majority (85%) of those who had seen the leaflets said that they had kept them, suggesting that the leaflets were viewed very much as a resource, rather than simply as something to be read and thrown away. |
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| It was widely felt that the leaflets were well designed and produced, but that they needed to be used in conjunction with other means of getting road safety messages across, including teaching at nursery and primary school and the use of television adverts aimed specifically at the relevant age groups. |
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| General public leaflets, Falkirk |
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| The leaflets distributed in Falkirk were very different in style and content from those targeted specifically at parents. The leaflet, Drivers & Their Responsibilities provided advice and some specific information about road safety issues affecting drivers, vehicles, passengers and other road users. The second leaflet, Being Seen, provided some background information about accidents occurring at night and specific advice about visibility after dark for different groups of road users (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers). Both leaflets were distributed (together) to households through the Royal Mail's Door to Door service. |
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| For the quantitative survey, 520 in-home interviews were carried out with respondents aged 16 and over about one week later. The sample was representative of the local population in terms of age and sex. As in Fife, this was followed by a series of four focus group discussions in which some of the issues were examined in more detail. |
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| Awareness of and reactions to the leaflets |
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| Awareness of the leaflets was not particularly high, at least by comparison with awareness of the leaflets distributed in Fife. Overall, 18% of respondents reported having seen Drivers & their Responsibilities and 17% Being Seen. Curiously, there was very little overlap in awareness of the two leaflets, with just 3% of the sample reporting that they had seen both. |
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| It appears that the main reasons that the leaflets were not seen by respondents was that they were mistaken for junk mail or that someone else in the household had already disposed of them. |
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| Of those who saw the leaflets, roughly 6 out of 10 said they had actually read it. Overall, each of the two leaflets was read in full by just 5% of all respondents. |
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| It was widely felt that the leaflets contained little that was new or surprising, though Being Seen was seen as slightly more useful than Drivers & Their Responsibilities. |
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| There was some confusion about who the leaflets were aimed at and also criticism of the style and presentation. |
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| While most people felt that there was value in producing leaflets of this kind, in general, participants in the focus groups felt that leaflets were more useful as a resource that they would go and seek out rather than something which is sent to them unsolicited. |
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| Conclusions |
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| The results of the research suggest that the leaflets focusing on child safety were markedly more effective overall than those aimed at adults. |
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| The most obvious reason for this discrepancy is that, although all road users are vulnerable on the roads (and some sections of the adult population - e.g. the elderly - are especially so), our thinking about road safety seems to focus - consciously or unconsciously - on the dangers posed to children. The leaflets distributed to parents in Fife were inevitably more likely to find an attentive and receptive audience, since road safety is a constant preoccupation for most parents of young children. |
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| The Falkirk leaflets, by contrast, generally failed to tap into an existing well of interest or concern, since they mainly provided road safety advice which was seen as obvious or 'commonsensical' and were targeted on a diffuse audience which was not unduly concerned about its own road safety. |
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| That said, there were also other factors at work. The most important of these was undoubtedly the method of distribution. The leaflets for parents in Fife were distributed via the school, giving them a certain authority from the outset, and were often supported by classroom teaching. The Falkirk leaflets, by contrast, arrived without any prior warning through a method of distribution more usually associated with junk mail. The combination of this, a lack of clear focus for the leaflets and poorer presentation almost certainly reduced the leaflets' impact. |
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To summarise, the research suggests that the following features will maximise the effectiveness of leaflets on road safety issues: - a clear target audience;
- focused content, providing specific information rather than just general advice;
- attractive presentation and design;
- a link to broader road safety campaigns;
- a method of distribution which avoids any possible confusion with advertising or junk mail.
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| 'Evaluation of Indicative Forestry Strategies in Scotland', the research report which is summarised in this Research Findings, is available priced £5.00. |
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