Abstract

This research provides insights to government into the potential of web 2.0 as a mechanism to engage with the public on issues concerning road safety. It uses the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) to bring about citizen engagement. An important first step in TTM was to establish young people’s ‘contemplation’ of engaging with government via web 2.0 by determining their abilities and expectations. Reasonably high levels of abilities with web 2.0 tools as well as expectations for Road Safety 2.0 applications were found, thus encouraging government to pursue the potential of web 2.0. Expectations were highest for information management followed by data management and citizen engagement. The next stage of TTM will see the public becoming ‘active’ in their engagement with government. This imposes significant challenges for Road Safety 2.0. Externally, government has to adapt to the attention economy by acquiring ‘eye-ball time’ for road safety and an increasingly reflexive society that reacts to events on the basis of their own choosing. Internally, government systems have to be transformed to reflect an organisational architecture of participation to enable open and transparent collaboration with citizens.

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