This article outlines results from the 2025 RSE evaluation process.
Throughout 2025, RSE has undertaken a comprehensive suite of evaluations, collecting important data from students, teachers and parents to help us evaluate their needs and the impact of how we address them. This year, over 2,050 teachers who attended or coordinated Ryda provided their detailed feedback. Over 2,350 students completed our short survey, a further 440 completed all three of our pre, post and 3-months post workshop evaluation, while over 5,000 provided free text responses. Over 390 parents also completed surveys on their needs for supervising and supporting the next generation of drivers.
The extraordinary measures taken by RSE have been acknowledged by the recent independent MAIC study, which noted RSE’s commitment to continuous improvement through its governance and quality assurance processes.
“Data-led decision making is central to everything we do, and RSE invests heavily in ensuring we capture sufficient evidence of both what is needed to be covered and how effective this coverage is with our students.”
John Elliott, Head of Program Delivery (Australia) and Group Data
3 phase student research
In the largest research project of its kind, over 3,000 students from 84 schools participated in our 3-phase research project, with 14% completing all three surveys over a time period of 3 months. Two thirds of participating schools were in regional or remote communities, allowing us to track impact on our most at risk young road users.
Ryda develops knowledge that is retained by students
Students were asked a series of questions to track their knowledge on key road safety issues. In eight of these there was a significant growth in the percentage of correct answers, both immediately after Ryda and 3 months after the workshop, showing that knowledge was gained, and retained.
Students come to Ryda with existing strong knowledge about the impacts of alcohol, which subsequently doesn’t grow much. This is one of the reasons why alcohol is not given much coverage in the Ryda program, freeing up time for where more knowledge is needed.
Pleasingly, the growth in knowledge was most pronounced in both regional and socioeconomically disadvantaged schools, where students face the highest exposure to road trauma, showing that Ryda is working especially well where it is needed the most.
Ryda changing attitudes towards road use
After attending Ryda, students were significantly less willing to engage in behaviour that contributes to four of the fatal five – the main causes of preventable road deaths: fatigue. distractions, seatbelt use, and speed.
Students from regional communities were slightly more likely than metropolitan students to drive while fatigued prior to Ryda, perhaps reflecting the lack of alternative options in areas less well serviced by public transport. Post Ryda regional students demonstrated a bigger fall in willingness to drive fatigued, but this highlights that more needs to be done to provide alternatives to driving for regional road users.
The extensive knowledge about the effects of alcohol on driving that students bring to Ryda is reflected in commensurate positive attitudes about avoiding alcohol if they intend to drive, reiterating why Ryda only has a small section on the impacts of alcohol.
Students putting Ryda into practice on the road
3 months out from Ryda, 93% of drivers had tried at least one of ten listed Ryda strategies, with 78% having used more than half.
This supports data from other student surveys taken immediately after Ryda, in which 91% of students indicated they were likely or very likely to apply what they learnt at Ryda.
Student feedback reflected by teacher and parent evaluation
An average of 88% of students rated each of the sessions as worthwhile or very worthwhile in increasing their understanding of, and approach to, driving and being a passenger.
This is commensurate with evaluations from teachers, who overwhelmingly rated Ryda as very worthwhile, and the delivery of each session as very effective.
Ryda has long enjoyed positive feedback from teachers, but changes made to the program for Ryda 6.0 have shown further improvements in teacher feedback, with an additional 2% of teachers rating the program as very worthwhile, and 2.5% rating facilitators as very worthwhile, in 2025 compared to the previous year.
98% of teachers believe Ryda should be compulsory, up on the previous year and reflecting the value they perceive the program has on their students.
Parents echo this perception of value, with 91% of those surveyed believing Ryda will make their teens safer on the road.
“It is especially pleasing to see that the investments made in program development and the training of the hundreds of facilitators is paying dividends, with improvements in feedback year on year from students, teachers and parents.” John Elliott
RSE will continue to improve our program content and delivery to maximise the investments made by so many in our community in equipping young people to take lifelong responsible action through best practise road safety education.
