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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9

10

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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

15

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