Reframing Road Safety: How Marketing Can Shift the Narrative on Road Violence 

by | Mar 9, 2026 | News, Road Safety

by Amélie Desroches

In late January, CapaCITY/É was pleased to support a public seminar, “Reframing Our Roads”, at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, featuring Tom Flood. The event brought together professors and students in the Department of Geography and Planning, transportation planners from the City of Kingston, and community members interested in rethinking how we talk about road safety.

“Road safety is a critically important issue that impacts the health and well-being of our communities and especially vulnerable road users, like pedestrians, cyclists, children, and older adults”, said Patricia Collins, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning. The key question guiding the presentation: How can we reframe road safety?

The image displays a child riding a bicycle in a designated bike lane marked by a pavement line. Directly beside the lane is a large cargo truck. The image shows the close distance between the cyclist and the truck with no protection in between.
Source: Rovélo Creative

From Selling Cars to Advocating for Vulnerable Road Users

Tom Flood’s career background is in advertising, where he helped craft campaigns for automotive clients. These ads often marketed vehicles as powerful, fast, and dominant—messages that, as he later realized, contributed to a culture that normalizes reckless and dangerous driving.

Things shifted when Tom began taking his kids to school on their bikes. He noticed the serious imbalance between cyclists and vehicles on the streets, limiting the ability of children to travel to school independently. Tom now develops creative strategy for clients through his firm Rovélo Creative to support active transportation and road safety.

Shifting Language from Road Accident to Road Violence

As a Master of Urban and Regional Planning student attending the seminar, one of my biggest takeaways was that road violence is no accident. It is a predictable outcome due to poor infrastructure – which ultimately is the result of a lack of political will. Tom Flood emphasized that the public often blame individuals harmed by road violence rather than the systems that failed to protect them.

Another student had a similar takeaway, “[Tom’s] lecture emphasized above all that the lack of proper bike lanes, barriers, and stricter car slowing measures in cities constituted a systematic choice our society was making to accept car-related violence”. This mindset shift from individual blame to collective responsibility was a resonant theme of the seminar.

How Marketing Perpetuates Inequity on our Streets

Tom shared that current road safety marketing and communication frequently reinforces the idea that vulnerable road users must protect themselves from road violence. He pointed to Halloween safety campaigns urging children to “watch out for cars,” a message that subtly positions pedestrians as responsible for avoiding harm.

One student in attendance shared, “The example of Halloween was especially eye opening, showing how what should be a fun and independent night for children is increasingly restricted by safety fears”. Repeatedly telling pedestrians to be cautious in marketing campaigns removes the responsibility of the vehicle in road violence.

Tom Flood stands at a podium giving a speech on road safety. The screen is behind Tom and displays a list of “Things kids have sacrificed for drivers” with items such as air quality, playing on their street, etc. It is compared to a list of “Things drivers have sacrificed for kids”, which has no items.
Tom Flood’s seminar at Queen’s University. Photo: Patricia Collins.

Reframing the Marketing Strategy

Tom Flood’s approach to marketing and communication comes down to a fundamental principle: find the emotional connection that makes an issue matter to your audience. Instead of restrictive messaging like in the Halloween example, he suggested reframing road safety around concepts and values that resonate widely, such as children’s freedom to play, explore, and move independently.

Alternative text: A poster used for a large billboard in Vancouver displays text and a visual image sponsored by Vision Zero Vancouver. The text says in large, “There will never be a bell loud enough, a helmet strong enough, or clothing bright enough to make up for poor infrastructure.” The image is of a child biking in a bike lane designated by pavement markings. On both sides of the bike lane exists vehicle lanes.
Source: Vision Zero Vancouver by Rovélo Creative

Rovélo Creative’s marketing on Vision Zero Vancouver sets an example of effective and equitable road safety communication. One campaign, displayed on a billboard in October 2025, reframed the conversation around improving cyclist infrastructure to help build public support for safer, more equitable streets.

Changing the Narrative is the First Step

In the end, reframing road safety requires a conscious effort “to change the dominant narrative around road safety so that we can better recognize and work to rectify the imbalance on our streets”, stated Professor Collins.

Road safety, as Tom noted throughout, is not a “two-way street” where pedestrians and drivers share equal responsibility.  We must recognize the increased vulnerability of those outside of the car. While everyone plays a role in keeping each other safe, the way road safety is framed—by news media, social media, the automobile industry, and public institutions—shapes public understanding and, ultimately, political decisions.

The seminar made it clear how changing how the way we talk about road violence is a crucial step toward changing the systems that produce it.

About Tom Flood

Tom develops creative strategy for clients through Rovélo Creative and gives talks and workshops about framing and communications in regard to active transportation, road safety and road violence. If you are interested in learning more about Tom Flood’s work, please check out the resources below.

Amélie Desroches is a Master of Urban and Regional Planning student at Queen’s University and a research assistant for CapaCITY/É, investigating the implementation process for speed management interventions in Kingston, Ontario. She is a motivated emerging planner with strong ambitions to make urban areas more liveable, sustainable, and resilient.