Sharing the road with heavy vehicles: online engagement getting results

Overview

Action 3.2: Deliver promotion and education on sharing the road with heavy vehicles and bikes as part of the Road Rules Communication Action Plan.

Lead agency: Department of Transport and Main Roads

Status: Complete

Achievements

Social media is being used to help educate heavy vehicle drivers and bikes riders to share the road safely.

We have developed a series of educational social media posts covering issues such as the blind spots of heavy vehicles, safe passing distances, and other road rules and safety issues. The posts were distributed on our social media channels.

As awareness and knowledge of social media followers increased, we created new posts with more detailed information about road rules, to further develop the understanding of audiences.

Social media offers us the unique opportunity to engage directly with our customers and the public. This has allowed us to promote key messages such as sharing the road safely and in turn has enabled us to refresh road rule knowledge.

Stakeholders such as the Australian Trucking Association and bicycle advocacy groups have showed support for the education project by sharing posts.

Our social media posts were also complemented by safety messages posted regularly on the StreetSmarts social media channels.

Evaluation of engagement with the posts on social media shows that they have been an effective way of engaging the community to help increase road users’ knowledge of road rules.

Our Facebook page has over 116,000 followers. A recent post (29 April 2019) promoting a heavy vehicle observing the safe passing distance when sharing the road with bike riders reached approximately 35,000 people and elicited 662 comments. This was an organic, unpaid post which also gained 14% engagement.

StreetSmarts has over 148,000 followers and its social media posts regularly reach over half a million people. StreetSmarts’ recent post (15 July 2019) advising bike riders to give heavy vehicles room when turning reached approximately 300,000 people and was shared 199 times, while the post from 15 March 2019 promoting the stay wider of the rider message reached 575,000 people.

Next steps

We will continue to publish social media posts and other communications that promote positive and safe interactions between heavy vehicles and bike riders through the delivery of the 2019 Road Rules Communication Action Plan.