By Anita Eichhorn and Daniela Knowles The TRUST project will test and evaluate different interventions to improve Traffic Safety Culture (TSC) in different settings. These are called the TRUST pilots. One of the TRUST pilots will focus on secondary schools. Traffic safety and mobility education are key elements of the Safe System and essential for developing safe and sustainable traffic behaviour. European countries committed in as early as 1968 to provide traffic safety education in schools and reaffirmed this commitment in 2001 by promoting a shared safety culture through education. But implementation still varies widely – especially at secondary school level. The TRUST pilot in secondary schools addresses this challenge and will focus on students aged 13–18. Its main goal is to develop and validate teaching materials that will enable teachers to integrate traffic safety and mobility topics into everyday lessons with minimal additional effort. The pilot builds on proven approaches, combining ETSC’s LEARN! Manual for developing and evaluating traffic safety and mobility education activities with the ‘Risi & Ko’ teaching concept, endorsed by the Austrian Ministry of Education. For 13–14‑year‑old students, the pilot will develop and test teaching materials designed for use within single lessons and for easy integration into different subjects or substitute lessons. The content builds on existing Risi & Ko topics addressing risk and peer pressure, social competence, distraction, and different mobility modes. Rather than focusing on traffic rules alone, the materials aim to foster responsible behaviour by strengthening self‑regulation, cooperation, and awareness. The materials will be tested in three countries: Bulgaria, Italy and Serbia. An online survey has already been conducted in each of the three countries to identify relevant traffic safety topics. Based on these findings, the teaching materials will now be specified, tested, and validated in three school classes per country. Additionally, the Austrian Risi & Ko materials will be expanded to include a new topic – regulating emotions.   For 15–18‑year‑olds, where suitable materials are currently less readily available, the TRUST secondary school pilot will be more exploratory. Focus groups and testing different approaches in school classes across various regions of Austria, will investigate how best to reach older adolescents, while considering their differing attitudes and needs. An online survey on this topic is currently being prepared. The TRUST secondary school pilot will result in a) validated teaching materials in national languages for four countries, b) insights on engaging older adolescents, and c) a recorded webinar for practitioners, available via the TRUST platform, to support traffic safety education across Europe.

By Tor-Olav Nævestad   Better roads, safer vehicles, traffic laws and enforcement all matter. But they are not enough on their own. To make roads safer, we also need to understand the everyday beliefs, habits and expectations that shape how people behave in traffic.   This is what we mean by traffic safety culture. It concerns what people in a group see as normal and acceptable: Is it normal to speed? Is it acceptable to drive after drinking? Do friends encourage risky driving, or do they speak up? Do parents model safe driving for young people? Such shared expectations may influence how people behave on the road.   In our study, we reviewed a large body of international research on the relationship between traffic safety culture and road safety among private road users, including drivers, cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians. The studies examine traffic safety culture at different levels and in different types of formal and informal social groups.   The review indicates that traffic safety culture may be relevant for road safety, particularly through its relationship with behaviour. A recurring theme in the literature is the role of shared norms. People may be influenced by what they believe others usually do, and by what they think others accept. These expectations can support both safe and risky behaviour.   The reviewed research also points to the importance of close social relationships. Young drivers, for example, may be influenced by parents’ driving habits, family rules and peer expectations. Local social norms around alcohol use may also be relevant for understanding drink-driving. At a broader level, social values and shared expectations may contribute to understanding why road safety outcomes differ between places.   At the same time, the relationship between traffic safety culture, behaviour and crashes is complex. Not all studies find the same patterns, and the field still faces important methodological challenges. More research is needed to better understand how traffic safety culture can be measured, how it relates to behaviour and safety outcomes, and how it can be influenced in practice.  This work is important because road deaths and injuries affect everyone: families, local communities, health services, employers and public authorities. Safer road cultures can help protect children, young people, older people, cyclists, pedestrians and drivers alike.   The purpose of this review is to improve knowledge about which aspects of traffic safety culture appear most relevant for road safety. This can help identify what needs to change, and where road safety efforts should be targeted. In the TRUST project, we will also develop knowledge about how traffic safety culture can be influenced in practice. The long-term goal is to strengthen safer shared norms, attitudes and behaviours, and thereby contribute to reducing the number of people killed and injured on our roads.  

By: Uta Meesmann, Mathias De Roeck Every year, around 20,000 people lose their lives on roads in the European Union, and at least 100,000 are seriously injured. To continue improving road safety, we need to look beyond technology and focus on the shared beliefs, values, norms, and behaviours that shape the transport system. This is often referred to as Traffic Safety Culture (TSC). Despite increasing attention in research and policy, no commonly accepted definition of TSC currently exists. Different studies and organisations have conceptualised TSC in different ways, making it difficult to compare findings, measure progress, and apply the concept consistently in practice. One of the first actions of the TRUST project was to address this gap by developing a shared definition that can support both research and policymaking. To achieve this, we combined several complementary approaches. Firstly, we reviewed the scientific literature to see how TSC has been defined and studied so far. Secondly, we engaged international experts in a structured consensus-building process (Delphi study) to identify TSC’s key components. Finally, we used group discussions to refine and test these ideas in practical, real-world contexts. Across all stages of the research, strong agreement emerged, resulting in the following definition: “Traffic Safety Culture encompasses shared values, beliefs, attitudes, norms, and patterns of behaviour that shape how traffic safety is understood and enacted within a meaningfully defined group of actors in the transport system. These groups can include road users, organisations, authorities, or other actors within the transport system.” This definition provides a clear and consistent foundation for future research and policy development. TSC still varies according to societal and organisational contexts. Workplace driving, everyday road use, and public sector responsibilities may each involve distinct norms, expectations and safety challenges, even when they share common underlying cultural elements. But, by moving from fragmented interpretations to a shared understanding, this common definition supports a more coordinated approach to improving road safety across Europe. A copy of TRUST deliverable 2.1 in which the TSC definition is described in more detail is available on our website here.

By Susanne Kaiser, Klaus Machata It’s been a whole year since the TRUST project kicked off with its first meeting in Vienna. Together with our 12 TRUST project partners, the Austrian Road Safety Board (KFV) has been working to lay the groundwork necessary for designing and creating tools and interventions to measure Traffic Safety Culture. We welcome this project because we know that road safety experts increasingly agree on one fundamental point: lasting reductions in road deaths and serious injuries require an understanding of how road users and institutions think and decide, i.e. their traffic safety culture. Changing road users’ culture requires a shared definition of what Traffic Safety Culture (TSC) is and a common understanding among road safety researchers and professionals. That’s why we’re pleased that the first major piece of work was to come up with an operational definition of TSC (see article below) and we’re delighted that the definition and work put into creating it has also been shared at important EU conferences and in journal articles (see events below). Year two of our project sees the focus shift to developing models and tools which can be used for measuring (aspects of) Traffic Safety Culture as well as designing and evaluating interventions for improving Traffic Safety Culture in 7 pilot contexts: Pilot 1 | Local authorities & cities Pilot 2 | Drivers at work Pilot 3 | Food delivery Pilot 4 | Tourism sector Pilot 5 | Driving school students Pilot 6 | Secondary school students Pilot 7 | Road safety professionals Work is already happening behind the scenes to prepare for the pilots including informing implementation partners and of course designing the intervention and materials for each specific pilot context. The pilots should begin testing interventions towards the end of 2026. You can read about what’s already been happening in Pilot 6 in the article below. Further research into Traffic Safety Culture is a constant during the TRUST project and we’re looking forward to publishing our work on the link between Traffic Safety Culture and road safety and our inventory of current Traffic Safety Culture measures and good practices towards the middle of 2026. Strengthening culture does not have to be an abstract ambition. The TRUST project has taken on the challenge and is working towards establishing a common language and definition, measurement tools and interventions by 2028. Join us at https://trafficsafetyculture.eu/ | trust@kfv.at | LinkedIn