How do we win greater public support for lower speeds on our streets ?
Victoria Walks is sharing some evidence based tips for communicating with decision makers and the Community
VicWalks Safer Speeds on local Streets : Communication Guide provides tactical tips to assist councils successfully implement safer speeds projects. The guide is based on interviews with local councils, reviews of council materials, focus groups, a public survey of over 2,200 people and a user testing workshop.
The public surveying undertaken of different population cohorts indicates that a majority of people are persuadable to being more supportive of 40 and 30 km/h streets.
The challenge is reframing our cultural mindset from ‘roads are for cars’ to ‘streets are for everyone’. Talking about the benefits such as improved safety for all reinforces the ‘streets are for everyone’ frame. Messaging should consistently be positive and talk about the benefits of safer speeds and the people who will benefit or are benefiting.
Gaining the support of most people helps to shift social norms and attitudes over time, as initiatives become normalised, as seen in shifts in support for initiatives such as seat belt laws.
However, engagement efforts are unlikely to bring steadfast opponents on board. We can expect some vocal opposition, which tends to taper off in the months post-implementation.
Keep the messages positive, the guide says. It can be tempting to address publicly aired untruths or unhelpful assertions by myth-busting (headlining a myth to then explain why it is false) or negation (saying what something is ‘not’). Unfortunately, these techniques tend to reinforce the unhelpful idea that is being debunked.
The order matters: to maximise support, talk about “safer speeds” where possible.
Facts alone rarely change people’s minds. Personal stories can help connect with audiences’ values and emotions, changing how they feel about an issue which opens the door to changing how they think about it. Including the voices of community spokespeople can humanise the issue, as they tend to talk about friends, neighbours, school children, sons and daughters, aunties and uncles and so on.
The Communication Toolkit includes:
- The communication guide
- Conversations and objection handling – providing suggestions for how to address some common objections to safer speeds.
- Messaging survey report – a summary of survey findings across five regions of Victoria
- Evidence summary – outlining the science around why 40 and 30km/h are safer and the evidence of road safety and other improvements where safer speeds have been introduced.
Glenn, E; Burtt, D; Rossiter, B; Oulton, G; Safer speeds on local streets: Communication guide, Victoria Walks, Melbourne, March 2025.
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