International road safety program delivers ‘shared responsibility’ message to young Brazilians.
An international road safety program, which allows young road users to create engaging behaviour
change campaigns for their own age group, launches in Brazil today for the first time.
The Re:act road safety behaviour change program challenges university students to raise awareness
among 18-25 year olds of road safety issues to change behaviour and make all road users safer.
Re:act will run in Brazil for the first time in 2022, with students at Fortaleza University (Unifor).
Fortaleza joins 11 other locations around the world where Re:act is running this year, including in the
United States, the United Kingdom and across Australia. All Re:act topics chosen are aligned to local
road safety issues.
Under the Re:act program, a panel of government safety and industry partners in each location selects
the most compelling road safety campaign, which is then developed and launched in public via Re:act’s
media partner on out-of-home advertising assets.
The selected Brazilian campaign is expected to be launched in the second half of the year through
Re:act’s foundation Brazilian media partner, JCDecaux.
“This is the first time Re:act has been run in South America,” Re:act Founder and CEO Andrew Hardwick
says. “Fortaleza has been proactive in introducing measures to reduce road trauma, and our unique
program will build on the city’s progress.
“With interactions between vehicles and vulnerable road users, including pedestrians and motorcyclists,
accounting for a significant proportion of road trauma in Fortaleza, Re:act 2022 will focus on raising
awareness among all road user groups that we each have a shared responsibility to contribute to the
safety of all road users.
“Program evaluation and feedback has consistently shown Re:act is effective in increasing awareness
and changing behaviour of young road users by giving them a voice in road safety and bringing together a
unique collaboration of industry, government, higher education institutions and students.
“Re:act’s launch in Brazil today reflects the commitment of our media and program partners to road
safety, in particular reducing road trauma among young road users who are over-represented in road
fatalities and injuries the world over.”
Fortaleza Mayor José Sarto said: “Fortaleza has stood out in urban mobility, with important results,
including decreasing road traffic injuries and deaths. This is due to a public administration committed to
the best practices, which prioritizes pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users.
“Part of this work is to educate the population about the responsibilities of everybody in constructing
safer traffic. I’m very proud of this initiative in partnership with Unifor and the Re:act program, which will
have the involvement of young students.”
Dante Rosado, Road Safety Coordinator for Brazil at Re:act program partner Vital Strategies, added:
“The city of Fortaleza has been standing out for its road safety public policy by managing to reduce the
number of deaths and injuries over the past few years.
“Initiatives like the Re:act program that involve the public administration, academia, and the third sector
are essential in this process to promote society’s engagement with the road safety issues and help in
the much needed professional development in the area. I look forward to seeing the work that Unifor
students will produce.”
JCDecaux Brazil General Manager Ana Celia Biondi said: “We understand that road safety initiatives
like these save lives and we are very proud to contribute to this important message achieving a wider
audience by making available our street furniture in two big cities in Brazil: Fortaleza and São Paulo.”
