Client Story: Light Rail Safety & Standards Board

The Problem:

The Light Rail Safety and Standards Board is the central body responsible for improving tram safety and setting standards across the UK.

Every year, hundreds of people are injured on UK tramways. Part of the problem is that tramlines blend so easily into busy city centres that pedestrians often cross them without registering the risk.

LRSSB needed a national safety campaign that would make people more alert around tramlines, while giving every UK tram operator the flexibility to adapt it to its own network and brand.

The MindField Thinking:

Our research showed that pedestrians were most at risk when moving through familiar city-centre environments on autopilot.

People were distracted, complacent or forced to make quick crossing decisions without a clear visual prompt. We needed to interrupt that automatic behaviour and replace a potentially confusing decision with a mental shortcut that could be understood instantly.

The Answer: Two Lines = Stop

Spotting the tram was never the real problem. Spotting the tramlines was.

TWO LINES = STOP turned the tracks themselves into an immediate cautionary prompt. By presenting the two tramlines as an equals sign, the campaign created a simple mental shortcut at exactly the moment pedestrians needed it.

The posters showed recognisable distractions that can prevent people from noticing tramlines: looking at a phone, wearing headphones, pushing a pram or talking to children.

A bold, Bauhaus-influenced visual style gave the campaign the impact needed to stand out in busy city centres. The flexible design system also allowed individual tram operators to localise the campaign using their own brand colours while retaining a consistent national message.

The Results:

The campaign was adopted by all seven light rail networks across the UK.

Effectiveness research found that, among people who recalled seeing the campaign, up to 70% had changed their behaviour when approaching a tramway or crossing the tracks.

A simple mental shortcut had become a behaviour-changing national safety message.