The research evaluated a variety of traditional and innovative behavioral traffic safety campaigns to identify noteworthy practices and cost-effective approaches.
Status: Research Completed (published in February 2026)
State highway safety offices (SHSOs) collaborate with media outlets that provide various avenues to disseminate traffic safety messages to the motoring public. Common strategies include print, broadcast, digital, out-of-home, social, experiential, and partner co-branding. Little is known about the effectiveness of such messaging, whether one form is better than others, or which demographic groups might be most impacted by each form of messaging.
The objective of this research was to develop guidelines for delivering effective traffic safety messaging and to determine how different delivery methods impact various demographic groups. The research evaluated a variety of traditional and innovative behavioral traffic safety campaigns to identify noteworthy practices and cost-effective approaches. It included case studies of several SHSOs and a diverse spectrum of media strategies.