The project aims to guide and raise awareness of traffic drivers in the city of Palmas - Paraná.
The ideas
As road users, traffic is common to all of us and this project was an opportunity to look at the reality of road safety in our community with more attention, from an analytical and critical point of view.
In a field trip around the school, we could observe drivers of various types of vehicles commit infractions, even knowing that not only they are endangering road safety but there are penalties: fines and eventually lose the driving license.
It is worth noting that the Brazilian traffic code makes clear that any infraction that violates any of its rules is punishable, because dangerous driving is directly related to the risk of life..
Our perception of the local reality led us to go deep in our research and we decided to create a survey with different questions regarding the behaviors of drivers in our city and their knowledge on traffic rules. We shared it using digital media and we could reach a significant number of people. Some of the most relevant data that we collected were: the misuse of seat belts by drivers, the lack of use of car seats for children under 25 kg and giving permission to minors to drive vehicles. The research provided us with an idea of how drivers in our town might deal with traffic rules and the knowledge they might have of them. We found impressive and alarming that simple rules like respecting pedestrians ‘crosswalks or red traffic lights are neglected.
The initiatives
For our campaign, initially we had thought of an action at an intersection near the school. We would perform a theater and show our posters with messages on road safety. We had planned to use a crashed car to make our performance more impactful and make people see in a very “visual” way the danger of reckless driving and also the importance of keeping vehicles in good condition. For this action we would have the collaboration of the City Hall, Fire Department and the Police, to assure that our action would take place with all the necessary care and guidance.
With Covid-19 and the confinement at home we had to change our plan and re-define other action. Therefore we decided to share the results of our research in local media, and we created an infographic with the information to make it clearer and more understandable to the readers. Besides the newspaper, the local radio and TV were of paramount importance to disseminate our work and survey results and it allowed us to reach a significant number of drivers. We also published our findings in social networks such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram.
It is noticeable that the daily rush makes us commute in an irresponsible way, either because we neglect simple acts that can save our lives, like fastening the seatbelt, either because we disrespect traffic rules. Our project wanted to make people reflect on their own behaviors as drivers and we hope we could make a change!
