Targeting young drivers? Need to re-think

Many publicity campaigns target young drivers. Close targeting of a group can reduce a campaign?s impact. There is a trade-off between
– the fewer people impacted, and
– a greater impact on each group member.

Despite their higher risk, young drivers are a minority of fatality involved drives. Demographic changes imply a further decline in this proportion. Target groups should be set so as to optimise resource use, which means a close interaction between those who define a road safety problem (based on crash data and research data) and those who design countermeasures.