What frustrates you about other drivers? What makes you happy? And how does your driving affect other people on the road?
The road, after all, is a social space - and the way we behave on the road has an affect on other people. It's a concept explored by the next stage in the Transport Agency's Drive Social campaign, with a quirky new animated TV advertisement hitting the nation's screens this weekend.
The new ad makes it's TV debut on Sunday, but you can get a sneak preview on-line here(external link)
The Drive Social campaign launched in February this year, asking the question, if we stopped thinking 'cars' and started thinking 'people', would it change the way we drive?
The campaign challenges drivers to accept the idea that the road is a social space and that the people we share the road with are part of our community, because if we accept that idea, it follows that we have to accept that the way we behave on the road affects others.
Drive Social aims to build demand for road safety by changing the way people think about the road, as part of New Zealand’s Safer Journeys strategy, applying the "safe system" concept to make the whole transport system more accommodating of human error.
One element of creating a safer system is to encourage drivers to be more tolerant of other people on the road.
The next stage of the Drive Social campaign expands on the idea of Think people not cars and urges people to identify with some of the behaviours that frustrate other road users.
The new animated ad uses emoticons to identify some of the most frustrating behaviour and some of the most ‘social’ behaviour on our roads. People will be able to see how their good and bad behaviour can affect others and how it potentially has a ripple affect across many road users.
The ad has been informed by the conversations generated in the first stage of the Drive Social campaign. People shared their views on the kinds of behaviours that are seen as ‘social’ and ‘anti-social’ on the road. The dominant themes and gripes shared by the public have been depicted in the new 'emoticons' ad.
More information on Drive Social is available here(external link)
