Community Engagement for Road Safety in Western Australia

Abstract

As a result of a review of the Western Australian Road Safety Commission’s (Commission) public participation and engagement activities carried out during 2019, broad interest in the Commission’s community engagement, attitude and behaviour research was generated. The scope of this paper is to report and discuss the data collected on community engagement with an aim of zero road trauma and fostering road user cohesion. Qualitative research methods, focus groups and kitchen table discussions were used to identify what core narratives would be effective to generate confidence and motivation in a vision of eliminating road trauma by influencing how road safety is discussed amongst community members. The study identified that Western Australia needs to adjust the narrative used to engage the community with the objective of eliminating road trauma.