Transport for NSW Western Region Bicycle Forum

Description

Title of Presentation: Look out at roundabouts! CycleSafe Bathurst's video campaign to improve bike safety.
Background - roundabouts are dangerous to people on bikes
Following the death of a much loved local bike rider, CycleSafe Bathurst established in 2020 to
promote a culture that encourages safe cycling and cooperative road use. Bathurst recorded 2 bike fatalities and 19 serious injuries between 2017-2021, most occurred at roundabouts and
intersections. Local riders have had countless close misses and frightening narrow escapes at
roundabouts. The LookOut at Roundabouts campaign was funded with a NSW Community Road Safety Grant.
Aims - to remind motorists to take care at roundabouts
1.Humanise people who ride bikes and raise awareness of them as vulnerable road users
2.Raise motorist awareness of high risk situations at roundabouts where driver actions are critical
Bathurst Campaign - ‘Let’s make sure we all get home safely’
We created a positive campaign promoting sharing and togetherness among all road users. We used local people in local settings to create a memorable, evidence-informed, video-led social media campaign that embeds the campaign messages in community consciousness, and in turn influences driver thinking and behaviours, especially at roundabouts.
Results - high engagement and high acceptance of campaign messages
Social media analytics showed high levels of reach and engagement over the 3-month
campaign.
Videos reached over 420,000 different accounts
Average over 25,000 plays of each video
Average 30,000 engagements (shares, comments, reactions, link clicks) per video.
A post-campaign online survey (n=222, 97% car drivers) showed high levels of awareness and
acceptance of the main campaign messages among those who reported seeing the campaign.
89% said it is important to remind motorists to slow down at roundabouts
98% said motorists need to be reminded to look out for people on bikes.
People who saw the campaign reported much stronger agreement with key campaign
messages about motorist actions that could improve safety for people on bikes at roundabouts, including:
‘Look out for people on bikes’ (100% agree or strongly agree v 84%)
‘Slow down at roundabouts’ (100% v 84%)
‘Be aware of distractions at roundabouts’ (100% v 74%).
Conclusion - awareness was raised - continue reminding of roundabout risks
The communication targeting improved safety for vulnerable road users was widely distributed, well accepted, and effective in promoting motorist understanding of roundabout dangers such as visibility and simple behaviours that can reduce risk, such as slowing down and looking for bikes.
Future campaigns should continue to target motorists with messages of advice about safe driving at roundabouts including reminders to slow down and look out for people on bikes.

Authors Peter Simmons and Henry Simmons

Period	09 May 2024
Event type	Conference
Location	Bathurst, Australia, New South WalesShow on map
Degree of Recognition	Regional