Citation

Desjardins F, Lavallière M. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023; 20(11).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph20116012

PMID

37297617

PMCID

PMC10252720

Abstract

For the past few years, police officers from the City of Saguenay have been installing a billboard combined with a damaged car along roadsides to make drivers aware of the road risks related to dangerous behaviors at the wheel. To assess the short-term effect of this device, evaluative research with a quasi-experimental design with pre-exposure, during, and post-exposure. The results show a significant decrease (p < 0.001) of 0.637 km/h for the first site (a 70 km/h zone) and 0.269 km/h for the second site (a 50 km/h zone) when the device is exposed. At the time of this last evaluation, a reduction of 1.255 km/h remained even after the advertising panel was removed. Although minimal, this speed reduction where the billboards are placed shows the police that this awareness-raising approach works since it reduces the speed of motorists at very low cost.

Language: en

Keywords

evaluation; primary prevention; road safety; built environment; responsible behaviors