When it comes to saving lives, preventing injuries, and reducing the economic costs of traffic crashes, America does not have a communications problem. It has a behavioral problem.
Why traffic safety is a behavior-change challenge
Drivers, particularly 18- to 34-year-old males, are prone to cognitive biases that lead to poor, sometimes fatal, decisions. They believe they can drive safely while speeding, texting, or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, or they see no need to wear seat belts.
Why combined safety messages can work
To change driver behavior and effectively communicate to drivers to stop behaviors that cause crashes and road fatalities, we advocate combining safety messages into memorable forms that support multiple actions.
Research from both transportation safety practice and behavioral science literature supports the use of combined safety messaging when multiple behaviors are involved:
- Occur within the same situational context
- Are executed at the same decision moment
- Can be reinforced through a single, low-friction routine
How Yes& developed Click, Stow, Go
Based on these insights and research principles, Yes& developed a concept campaign that features complementary actions within a single safety-prevention habit, thereby ultimately improving outcomes among target audiences.
Click, Stow, Go is a demonstration of combined campaign messages focused on seatbelt use and distracted driving, using behavioral science to drive change.
Why sequences make safety actions easier to remember
We don’t just remember actions.
We remember sequences.
The Click, Stow, Go message sequence leads with “Click,” directly reinforcing seat belt use and aligning with the proven legacy of the Click It or Ticket campaign. The inclusion of “Stow” adds a complementary, trip-start safety action without redefining distracted driving strategy. “Go” reinforces that once the actions are complete, it’s time to start. When actions occur at the same moment, they’re learned and recalled together.
Click. Stow. Go. A smarter approach to safety from the moment you get in a vehicle.
For more information, contact our team.
FAQs
Behavioral science helps communicators understand why drivers make certain decisions and design messages or interventions that make safer behaviors easier to remember and perform.
Combined safety messaging connects complementary behaviors that happen in the same context or decision moment so they can be reinforced as one routine.
Click, Stow, Go is a Yes& concept that links buckling a seat belt, putting away a phone, and beginning a trip into one memorable safety sequence.
Both actions can happen before a vehicle starts moving, making them candidates for reinforcement within the same trip-start routine.
It can help campaigns move beyond awareness by considering when decisions happen, what creates friction, and how safer actions can become easier to recall and repeat.
