Street Smart Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Campaign: Goals, Evaluation, and Funding
Briefing to the TPB Tech Committee, Friday, March 4th, 2005
Item #6
Michael Farrell
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Background
• At its February meeting, the TPB received a briefing from COG staff on the status of funding and proposed activities for the Street Smart Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program. TPB requested:
– the number of pedestrian fatalities versus total traffic fatalities
– Evaluation results for the 2002 and 2004 Street Smart campaigns
– Suggested local contributions to the 2006 Street Smart campaign, at a level of five cents/capita.
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Pedestrian and Bicycle Fatalities
• Of 42,643 traffic fatalities in the United States in 2003, 4,749 were pedestrians
• Nationally pedestrians account 11% of motor vehicle deaths.
• In the Washington, D.C. metro area, over 2600 pedestrians and bicyclists are injured every year, and 89 are killed.
• Pedestrians and bicyclists account for nearly a quarter of those killed on the roads in the Washington region.
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Average Annual Traffic Fatalities in the Washington Region, 1994-2003
82.7, 22%
6.4, 2%
278.9, 76%
PedestrianFatalities
BicycleFatalities
Other TrafficFatalities
Annual Traffic Fatalities: 368
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Annual Traffic Fatalities in the Washington Region, 1994-2003
96 88 83 84 71 82 85 78 78 82
58
4 96
8 6 10 4 4
294286
248258
261214
278
326318 306
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
MotorizedTrafficFatalities
BicycleFatalities
PedestrianFatalities
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Street Smart: Origins and Rationale
• Three E’s of Safety: – Engineering, – Enforcement– Education
• Street Smart deals with Education, specifically mass media.
• Economies of scale require a unified regional mass media campaign
• Goal: to change driver and pedestrian behavior in order to reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries
• Reaction to an emerging suburban pedestrian safety problem
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The Campaign
• Launched in October 2002
• Consisted of a one-month wave of radio, Metro and outdoor transit advertising.
• Prime target: male drivers age 18-34
• Second wave in April, 2004
• Expected multi-year campaign to achieve results
– Anti-drunk driving
– Buckle up
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April 2004 vs. October 2002
April, 2004• Radio (680 spots) $114,614• TV (241 spots) $56,500• Print (12 insertions) $9,556• Public Relations $10,000• Collateral Materials $28,000
– Posters (1,500)– Handouts (100,000)– Transit Shelters (41)
• Outdoor Media $96,064– Busbacks (150)– Interior Cards (375)– Transit Shelters (41)Total: $315,000
October, 2002• Radio (941 spots) $181,250• Posters (2,250) $12,700• Brochures (50,000) $5,000• Safety Tips Inserts (250,000)
$10,000• Stickers (10,000) $600• Outdoor Media $90,250
– Busbacks (65)– Metro Station Poster Cards (12)– Bus Cards (350)– Transit shelters (43)Total: $300,000
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Street Smart Encourages Coordination with Law Enforcement
• Enforcement is helpful
– Fear of legal consequences is a motivator that can be mentioned in ads
– Used effectively in anti-drunk driving, seatbelt campaigns
– Media pays attention to enforcement drives
• Crosswalk enforcement events were conducted during the April, 2004 campaign in Montgomery County, Fairfax County, and Prince George’s County
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Evaluating Street Smart
• Methodolology: Pre- and post-campaign telephone surveys of randomly selected motorists.
• Results:– Since 2002, there has been a notable improvement in reported
driver behavior regarding yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks. – Among target male drivers under 35 years of age, awareness of
police efforts to crackdown on drivers who did not yield to pedestrians increased 22 points, from 10% to 32% between April and May 2004
– Overall awareness of campaign messages increased by 8% – No change in beliefs about likelihood of getting a ticket for failure
to yield to a pedestrian– No reported improvement in pedestrian behavior– Drive-time radio was most effective in reaching the target
audience
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Challenges for the Future
• Changing behavior requires long, sustained effort
– Anti-drunk driving
– Seatbelt
• Pedestrians are harder to reach than motorists
• More enforcement, and better coordination with enforcement, would be helpful
• Education is a complement, not a substitute for Engineering and Enforcement
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Street Smart Funding
• At its February meeting, the TPB asked staff to prepare a table of suggested contributions
• COG retains 8% of project funds to cover administrative expenses
• Local contributions are needed to meet the matching requirements for federal money distributed through the States
• Need formal, written mechanism for the region to solicit local contributions for this program.
• A commitment is needed now for the Spring, 2006 campaign– January in future years
• Five cents per capita is proportional to the level at which 2005 sponsors are contributing.
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Suggested 2006 Local Contribution, at five cents per capita
2006 2006
Jurisdiction Adj. Population Contribution
Fairfax County 1,055,167 $52,800
Montgomery County 811,411 $40,600
Prince George's County 741,218 $37,100
Prince William County 336,820 $16,800
Loudoun County 255,616 $12,800
Frederick County 218,830 $10,900
Arlington County 201,900 $10,100
Alexandria, City of 136,500 $6,800
Charles County, Urbanized Area 74,765 $3,700
Gaithersburg, City of 61,641 $3,100
Rockville, City of 57,619 $2,900
Bowie, City of 55,240 $2,800
Manassas, City of 36,500 $1,800
College Park, City of 26,392 $1,300
Greenbelt, City of 21,340 $1,100
Takoma Park, City of 17,229 $900
Manassas Park 13,225 $700
Falls Church, City of 10,700 $500
Total 4,132,113 $206,700
Projected federal funds from DC, MD, & VA: $300,000