New BCT guidance published for RSOs

A new publication by the RAC Foundation provides guidance for the road safety community on the use of behaviour change techniques in road safety interventions.

The publication, which was unveiled yesterday (26 April) at the Young Driver Focus 2017 conference in London, is authored by Dr Fiona Fylan from Brainbox Research.

Dr Fylan is a health psychologist who specialises in designing, conducting and applying psychological research to understand and explore road users’ experiences and behaviours. She works with road safety stakeholder organisations to help them gain insight into the way people behave and develop and evaluate interventions to change behaviour.

Dr Fylan told delegates at YDF 2017, “it’s not enough to tell people what to do,
and that their behaviour is risky”.

The new guide outlines 10 steps for road safety practitioners when developing an intervention – from defining the problem to evaluating. It goes on to outline the most effective behaviour change techniques, from a total of 93, and gives examples of how they can be used.

Dr Fylan says the guide “builds on what others have found out, provides inspiration, saves time and adds credibility to interventions”.

Liz Box, head of research at the RAC Foundation, said: “Developing road safety interventions is an intensive and time-consuming activity and it is essential to develop interventions that work.

“This guide was commissioned to pull together advice in one place with a step-by-step process for the design and delivery of interventions using behaviour change techniques.

“The report provides a practical guide following an earlier RAC Foundation publication by Dr Mark Sullman from Cranfield University, which highlighted what can be learnt from the use of behaviour change techniques in other areas of public health.

“We hope the report will provide an important resource for the road safety community to draw on as they develop interventions to improve the road safety record of the nation.”

The report is available for download from the RAC Foundation website.