The Road Safety Trust is funding The DriveFit 2.0 project, updating the original programme aimed at young, novice drivers in the UK.

It’s an initiative aimed at improving road safety education nationally for young people.

Redesigning and improving the interventions is based on previous results and academic research into the best ways of engaging young people.

Active intervention

This new version will incorporate active learning components, leveraging the insights gained from the acclaimed Pre-driver Theatre and Workshop Education Research (PdTWER) project.

DriveFit 2.0 aspires to make a lasting impact on the road safety attitudes and intentions of young drivers.

Primarily, DriveFit 2.0 aims to deliver a robust and accessible road safety education programme.

It will:

  • redesign the DriveFit intervention for easy implementation in schools and colleges
  • evaluate the intervention’s impact on student attitudes and intentions with the support of two fire and rescue services
  • disseminate findings to inform and improve road safety education practices nationwide

Resourced

Funding from The Road Safety Trust allows the DriveFit 2.0 project to begin work immediately.

It is scheduled to run until July 2025.

Partners and support comes from the RAC Foundation, the National Fire Chiefs’ Council (NFCC), the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), Road Safety GB, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service and Surrey Fire and Rescue Service.

Making inroads

Road traffic injuries are a leading cause of death among 5–29-year-olds globally.

As we know, young drivers in Great Britain represent a significant portion of serious road incidents.

Despite years of efforts and good intentions, the need for impactful educational interventions has never been more critical.

The proportion of young road deaths has not seen significant improvement.

Evidence based interventions have to be the way forward, building on and understanding why and how successful interventions work, and expanding these.

A journey

The initial phase focuses on the redesign and adaptation of the DriveFit intervention, followed by a pilot phase in select schools and colleges.

An evaluation period, involving pre- and post-intervention assessments, will span several months to ensure comprehensive data collection and analysis.

Then the final phase will concentrate on the dissemination of findings and the preparation of resources for broader implementation.

A promotional film outlining the DriveFit 2.0 project has been released: