FOI release

Middle Lane Hogging Ad campaign spend

Case reference FOI2024/00150

Received 24 May 2024

Published 20 June 2024

Request

I have seen and heard your ad "Darren - what-a-man - don't hog the middle lane and keep your distance" on radio and TV. I would like to know how much money has been/ is planned to be spent on this awareness campaign. I haven't, however, come across any ads highlighting the dangers of close passing cyclists and making unsafe overtakes rather than wait seconds. Could you please let me know how much money has been/ is planned to be spent on cyclist-close-pass campaigns? If you could please provide figures per year.

Response

Safety is National Highways’ top priority. We believe that everyone who travels or works on our roads should get home safe and well.

The Little changes, change everything campaign aims to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on the strategic road network (motorways and major A-roads) by encouraging safer driving behaviours. Tailgating is a factor in 1 in 8 collisions on the strategic road network (Overall proportion of collisions recorded using STATS19 data between 2009 and 2019) and middle lane hogging prompts this unsafe behaviour. The campaign aims to address both issues.

The total amount spent on the Little Changes, Change Everything road safety awareness campaign since it began in March 2024 is £4,062,863.85.

This covers all creative development, customer research and testing, strategic development, third party production, editing costs and all paid-for media spend across multiple channels.

Our remit as National Highways is to safely manage, maintain and operate the strategic road network, which is made up of 4,500 miles of motorways and major aroads across England. Cycling safety is very important and something we support, however, due to the nature of the roads we manage, cyclists represent a very small proportion of the traffic using them and that is why they have not been the subject of major advertising campaigns led by us. This has, however, been the subject of a campaign led by the DfT.

Advice and Assistance

To answer your question regarding cyclist campaigns fully, we have contacted our colleagues at the Department for Transport (DfT) who are responsible for the THINK! campaign. Please note that this is information held by DfT rather than National Highways, but we hope that this is of assistance to you.

Since the January 2022 changes to The Highway Code to help improve road safety for people walking, cycling and horse riding, they have run advertising campaigns as part of Think! including:

• A factual awareness raising campaign in February and March 2022, alerting road users to the changes as they came into effect. Further information can be found here: www.think.gov.uk/campaign/highway-code-changes/.

• Broader behaviour change campaigns in the summer of 2022 and 2023, to help embed the changes and encourage understanding and uptake of the guidance. Further information can be found here: www.think.gov.uk/campaign/travel-like-you-know-them/.

Over £2.4million has been spent on media across the campaign, utilising channels such as radio, digital audio, video on demand and social media advertising.

The DfT will continue to promote The Highway Code changes on THINK! and DfT social media channels and via their partner organisations.

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

This is National Highways' response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.

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