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

2 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.

3 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.

4 Annual Traffic Fatalities: 368

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6 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

7 The Campaign Launched in October 2002 Consisted of a one-month wave of radio, Metro and outdoor transit advertising. Prime target: male drivers age Second wave in April, 2004 Expected multi-year campaign to achieve results –Anti-drunk driving –Buckle up

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11 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

12 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

13 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

14 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.

16 Suggested 2006 Local Contribution, at five cents per capita 2006 JurisdictionAdj. PopulationContribution Fairfax County1,055,167$52,800 Montgomery County811,411$40,600 Prince George's County741,218$37,100 Prince William County336,820$16,800 Loudoun County255,616$12,800 Frederick County218,830$10,900 Arlington County201,900$10,100 Alexandria, City of136,500$6,800 Charles County, Urbanized Area74,765$3,700 Gaithersburg, City of61,641$3,100 Rockville, City of57,619$2,900 Bowie, City of55,240$2,800 Manassas, City of36,500$1,800 College Park, City of26,392$1,300 Greenbelt, City of21,340$1,100 Takoma Park, City of17,229$900 Manassas Park13,225$700 Falls Church, City of10,700$500 Total4,132,113$206,700 Projected federal funds from DC, MD, & VA: $300,000