Konferens: Road safety on four continents: 16th international conference, 2013, Beijing, China

In Sweden the risk of being hit and killed by a car in darkness is 3 times bigger than in daylight. Between October and March, the days are short and the nights are long. 40% of all crashes where pedestrians are involved happen at night or dusk.Most accidents at night where pedestrians are injured and killed happen in urban areas where street lights are lit.And why? Because people believe that if they can see, they can also be seen. But street lights help you to see in the dark but it doesn´t make you visible.The human eye has difficulties to discern contrasts even in lighted streets. With the visibility campaign: IF YOU ARE VISIBLE YOU EXIST the City of Malmö wants the cyclists and pedestrians to pay attention to that they are not to be seen if they don´t use reflectors and/or lamps in the dark. One week in early November for the last three years, the campaign has been conducted in terms of activities in the central parts of Malmö, in various cycle routes as well as newspaper advertisements, billboards and cinema advertising. Evaluation shows that more than 70% of citizens felt that it was a good and credible campaign and it brought up an important topic. 40% said that they were affected by the campaign to use reflectors more often. More than 90% said that it´s a good thing that the city of Malmo conducts campaigns concerning road safety and traffic rules. One thing that shows that the campaign is appreciated is the popularity of the reflector vests that are handed out to cyclists. With the message on the back: IF YOU ARE VISIBLE YOU EXIST, you see cyclists wear these vests a lot in Malmö. The campaign has influenced other cities in Sweden to use the same message in similar campaigns. The presentation will show how the campaign was conducted but will also try to inspire other countries to raise awareness of the importance of visibility.