"Respect Those who Work on Your Roads"
Portugal has launched one of its most ambitious road safety campaigns to date, mobilizing the energy of public and private stakeholders to keep work zones safe by raising awareness among road users. Under the high patronage of Portugal’s Secretary of State for Civil Protection, the campaign successfully mobilized the country’s police forces, emergency rescue services, other governmental entities, and private road operators.
Ascendi, one of the leading operators of Portuguese motorways, has expressed hope that the campaign will raise awareness, alert and educate by
- directing drivers´ attention to the presence of these people on the road, reinforcing that they work, every day, to ensure safe and quality roads.
- pointing out the risk to which these teams are exposed to, mainly due to excessive speed and distraction of drivers.
- appealing to care and respect for those who work on the road.
According to Ascendi’s Chief Operations Officer and elected IRF Director Jose Revés: “We know that capturing attention is essential for the success of the campaigns message. For this reason, we needed to convey the message in a strong and different way. We want it to make drivers think”.
Many of the campaign’s messages directly echo the policy recommendations for safe work zones published by IRF in 2018 covering the establishment of national guidelines, the selection and use of temporary traffic control devices, work zone inspections and the need to invest in strengthening skills within public agencies and the contracting community. The policy paper may be downloaded at https://www.irf.global/policy-statements/.