Truck Safety
Share the Road Safely Program Needs Better Evaluation of Its Initiatives Gao ID: GAO-03-680 May 30, 2003From 1992 through 2001, more than 50,000 people were killed in crashes involving large commercial trucks. Although more than 6,800 of these fatalities were truck occupants, approximately 40,000 were passengers in other vehicles and more than 4,000 were nonmotorists. The Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) conducts a number of truck safety programs, including the Share the Road Safely program, whose goal is to educate the public about driving safely around large trucks. GAO examined (1) whether the program's initiatives are linked to this goal and (2) how FMCSA evaluates its Share the Road Safely program. GAO recommends that the Department of Transportation (DOT) ensure that the Share the Road Safely program initiatives are directly linked to the program's goal and establish a systematic
The Share the Road Safely program's goal is designed to educate the motoring public on how to share the road safely with commercial motor vehicles. To accomplish this goal, the program has undertaken a number of public education and information dissemination initiatives including a series of new initiatives beginning in 2000. Some initiatives, such as incorporating the program's messages into state driver education manuals or developing share the road messages specifically targeted to certain types of drivers, pedestrians or motorcyclists, are clearly linked to the program's goal. However, for a few other initiatives, such as directing program messages to elementary schoolchildren, the linkage is less clear. Research currently under way in the Department of Transportation may enable the program to link its initiatives to the most significant causes of truck/car crashes. Many highway safety experts agree that public education efforts to increase safe driving around large trucks are more likely to produce substantial changes in drivers' behaviors if they are combined with other safety initiatives, such as local law enforcement programs. Share the Road Safely has recently begun to pilot test such a program. FMCSA evaluations of the Share the Road Safely program have provided some information about the program but have not convincingly demonstrated accomplishment of the program's intended outcomes: changes in drivers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. FMCSA has the opportunity to adopt a new evaluation strategy for its recent initiatives, for example, by using evaluation practices adopted by other federally sponsored information dissemination programs to improve its evaluation of the program.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-03-680, Truck Safety: Share the Road Safely Program Needs Better Evaluation of Its Initiatives
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Report to Congressional Committees:
United States General Accounting Office:
GAO:
May 2003:
Truck Safety:
Share the Road Safely Program Needs Better Evaluation of Its
Initiatives:
GAO-03-680:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-03-680, a report to Congressional Committees
Why GAO Did This Study:
From 1992 through 2001, more than 50,000 people were killed in crashes
involving large commercial trucks. Although more than 6,800 of these
fatalities were truck occupants, approximately 40,000 were passengers
in other vehicles and more than 4,000 were nonmotorists. The
Department of Transportation‘s Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) conducts a number of truck safety programs,
including the Share the Road Safely program, whose goal is to educate
the public about driving safely around large trucks. GAO examined (1)
whether the program‘s initiatives are linked to this goal and (2) how
FMCSA evaluates its Share the Road Safely program.
What GAO Found:
The Share the Road Safely program‘s goal is designed to educate the
motoring public on how to share the road safely with commercial motor
vehicles. To accomplish this goal, the program has undertaken a
number of public education and information dissemination initiatives
including a series of new initiatives beginning in 2000. Some
initiatives, such as incorporating the program‘s messages into state
driver education manuals or developing share the road messages
specifically targeted to certain types of drivers, pedestrians or
motorcyclists, are clearly linked to the program‘s goal. However, for
a few other initiatives, such as directing program messages to
elementary schoolchildren, the linkage is less clear. Research
currently under way in the Department of Transportation may enable the
program to link its initiatives to the most significant causes of
truck/car crashes. Many highway safety experts agree that public
education efforts to increase safe driving around large trucks are
more likely to produce substantial changes in drivers‘ behaviors if
they are combined with other safety initiatives, such as local law
enforcement programs. Share the Road Safely has recently begun to
pilot test such a program.
FMCSA evaluations of the Share the Road Safely program have provided
some information about the program but have not convincingly
demonstrated accomplishment of the program‘s intended outcomes:
changes in drivers‘ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. FMCSA has
the opportunity to adopt a new evaluation strategy for its recent
initiatives, for example, by using evaluation practices adopted by
other federally sponsored information dissemination programs to
improve its evaluation of the program.
what GAO Recommends:
GAO recommends that the Department of Transportation (DOT) ensure that
the Share the Road Safely program initiatives are directly linked to
the program‘s goal and establish a systematic process for evaluating
the effectiveness of the program. DOT generally agreed with our
recommendations.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-680.
To view the full report, including the scope
and methodology, click on the link above.
For more information, contact Kate Siggerud (202)512-2834 or
siggerudk@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Background:
Many Share the Road Safely Program Initiatives Are Linked to the
Program's Goal but a Few Lack Clear Linkage:
Evaluations by FMCSA Provided Little Information on the Effectiveness
of the Share the Road Program:
Conclusion:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Figures:
Figure 1: Number of Vehicle Occupants Killed in Large Truck Crashes by
Vehicle Type (1992 - 2001):
Figure 2: No-Zones, or Blind Spots, around a Large Commercial Truck:
Figure 3: Share the Road Safely Program Funding (Fiscal Year 1992 -
2003):
Abbreviations:
DOT: Department of Transportation
FMCSA: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
FHWA: Federal Highway Administration
NHTSA: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
TEA-21: Transportation Equity Act for the 21ST Century:
United States General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
May 30, 2003:
The Honorable Ernest Istook, Jr.
Chairman
The Honorable John W. Olver
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury,
and Independent Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Richard Shelby
Chairman
The Honorable Patty Murray
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury,
and General Government
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate:
In 2001, there were 42,116 people killed on our nation's roads, and
3,033,000 people were injured. About 12 percent (5,082) of the
fatalities and 4 percent (131,000) of the injuries occurred in
collisions involving large commercial trucks.[Footnote 1] The majority
of these crashes were collisions between passenger vehicles[Footnote 2]
and large commercial trucks; and, in such crashes, the occupants of
passenger vehicles are more than 15 times more likely to be killed than
truck occupants. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
(FMCSA) recently set a goal to cut the fatality rate in large truck-
related crashes by more than 40 percent, from its 1996 level by 2008.
FMCSA's Share the Road Safely program is designed to assist this effort
by educating the motoring public on how to share the road safely with
commercial motor vehicles.[Footnote 3] The program, established in
1994, initially attempted to publicize the dangers of driving unsafely
around large trucks to the general public. In 2000, the program
refocused its efforts toward all highways users with more specific
messages for targeted audiences including car and truck drivers, senior
drivers, and new or problem drivers.[Footnote 4]
The House report accompanying the Department of Transportation and
Related Agencies Appropriations bill for 2003 directed us to evaluate
the effectiveness of the Share the Road Safely program and submit the
study to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.[Footnote 5]
We examined (1) whether the program's initiatives are linked to its
goal to educate the public about driving safely in and around large
commercial trucks and (2) how FMCSA evaluates the program's
effectiveness.
To determine whether the program's initiatives are linked to its goal,
we obtained information from FMCSA officials, including representatives
from Safety Action Programs, the office responsible for Share the Road
Safely, and other relevant FMCSA offices. We interviewed officials from
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as well as
various external stakeholders and highway safety researchers. We
reviewed program documents, including budget allocations from 1992
through 2003, for the Share the Road Safely program and other FMCSA
safety programs. To determine how FMCSA evaluates its Share the Road
Safely program, we reviewed evaluations performed by FMCSA as well as
publications from NHTSA and GAO that describe evaluation criteria
appropriate for use in evaluating public information dissemination
programs such as the Share the Road Safely program. We conducted our
review from January 2003 through May 2003 in accordance with generally
accepted government audit standards.
Results in Brief:
Several of the Share the Road Safely program's initiatives, such as
incorporating Share the Road Safely messages into state driver
education manuals and directing its messages to specific audiences,
like pedestrians or motorcyclists, appear to be directly linked to the
program's goal, as established in the Intermodal Surface Transportation
Efficiency Act of 1991, of educating the motoring public on how to
share the road safely with commercial motor vehicles. However, the
linkage between the program goal and a few other program initiatives,
such as providing the Share the Road Safely message to schoolchildren,
is not as clear and direct. Research currently under way in the
Department of Transportation (DOT) may enable FMCSA to direct program
initiatives to ensure its initiatives are linked to the most
significant causes of truck/car crashes, such as speeding or unsafe
lane changes. Many highway safety officials and researchers agree that
public education efforts alone are unlikely to produce substantial
changes in drivers' behaviors unless they are coupled with other safety
initiatives, such as local enforcement programs to increase compliance
with traffic laws. According to a FMCSA official, although the agency
has not combined education and enforcement efforts in the past, it
recently began a pilot of such a combined effort. For example, in
keeping with this new approach, FMCSA has recently targeted six high-
crash highway corridors to pilot an initiative that will combine local
outreach through radio, television, and outdoor advertising, safety
partnerships with local authorities and brochures with targeted police
activity to deter unsafe driving in and around large trucks.
FMCSA has not evaluated the effectiveness of initiatives implemented
since 2000, and its evaluations of earlier program initiatives provide
only limited information. FMCSA has issued three reports about the
program's earlier initiatives that attempted to measure changes in the
general public's knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about driving
around large commercial trucks. These evaluations provide some
information on the program's activities and on how familiar drivers
were with some concepts and behaviors promoted by the program, such as
avoiding driving in large trucks' "blind spots." However, these
evaluations could not determine the program's effectiveness for the
following reasons:
* The evaluations relied heavily on self-reports of attitude and
behavior change that are subject to biased responses.
:
* Because FMCSA did not have a baseline of driver knowledge and
behavior before program initiatives were implemented, it could not
determine the extent to which intended changes in behavior occurred.
:
* FMCSA could not determine whether any changes in driving behavior or
the frequency of car/truck crashes were attributable to program
initiatives or to other influences.
FMCSA believes that funding pilot program initiatives that are directed
at specific target audiences (for example, senior citizens) in smaller
geographic areas will enable FMCSA to more accurately measure the
initiative's effects on drivers' knowledge, attitude, and behaviors and
determine whether the program has contributed to reducing the number of
car/truck crashes. Other federally sponsored information dissemination
programs similar to the Share the Road Safely program, including some
sponsored by other parts of DOT, have used various strategies to
improve their evaluations--such as measuring targeted knowledge,
attitude, and behavior changes before and after program exposure to
assess change. FMCSA could use these or similar strategies to enhance
future evaluations of Share the Road Safely.
We are recommending that the Secretary of Transportation direct FMCSA
to improve its strategic approach to the Share the Road Safely program
by linking its activities more directly to its goals and establishing a
systematic process for evaluating the effectiveness of the program. DOT
officials commented on a draft of this report and generally agreed with
our recommendations.
Background:
Although fatalities resulting from crashes involving large commercial
trucks have decreased in recent years (see fig. 1), this improvement
may be difficult to sustain as more people and goods are moved
throughout the nation. From 1992 through 2001, there were
50,375[Footnote 6] people killed in large truck crashes. Of this total,
6,811 were large truck occupants while 39,516[Footnote 7] were people
in other types of vehicles, and 4,048[Footnote 8] were nonmotorists.
Figure 1 shows the number of passenger vehicle and large truck
occupants killed in passenger vehicle and large truck collisions from
1992 through 2001.
Figure 1: Number of Vehicle Occupants Killed in Large Truck Crashes by
Vehicle Type (1992 - 2001):
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
Concerned with the number of crashes between passenger vehicles and
large commercial trucks, Congress recognized the need to educate the
general motoring public about certain characteristics of large
commercial trucks and their operation. With the enactment of the
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, Congress
directed the Secretary of Transportation to educate the motoring public
about how to share the road safely with large commercial trucks and
authorized at least $350,000 for fiscal years 1992 through 1997 for
this purpose.[Footnote 9]
Through public outreach and education, in the early 1990s, Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) began exploring ways to decrease the
number of passenger vehicle and large commercial truck crashes and
ultimately reduce injuries and fatalities. FHWA sponsored focus group
studies conducted with passenger vehicle drivers, the highway safety
community, and trucking industry officials to determine the concerns of
the public about large commercial truck safety. Passenger vehicle
drivers who participated in these group discussions mentioned the size
and weight of heavy trucks, truck drivers' aggressiveness, effects of
truck-driver fatigue, and traffic congestion as some safety concerns.
Passenger vehicle drivers also reported feeling outmatched by the size
and weight of large commercial trucks and said that truck drivers drive
too fast, too far, and too many hours without proper rest to be safe.
They cited the mixing of large commercial trucks and other vehicles in
congested traffic conditions and inclement weather as major concerns.
FHWA's analysis of the focus group studies indicated that the number of
crashes involving passenger vehicles and large commercial trucks might
be reduced if motorists understood the special characteristics of large
commercial trucks, such as longer braking distances and larger blind
spots.
In 1992, in response to Congress' concerns and in support of FHWA's
goal of reducing highway fatalities, FHWA began to develop a national
public service highway safety program called "Share the Road" to
educate passenger vehicle drivers on how to share the road safely with
large commercial trucks. The Share the Road program was the first
public information dissemination program intended to alert passenger
vehicle drivers about blind spots or "no-zones" around a large
commercial truck in which the truck driver's visibility is limited.
The first phase of the program was popularly known as the "No-Zone
Campaign." This campaign was designed to increase passenger vehicle
drivers' awareness of commercial drivers' visibility limitations in an
effort to influence the passenger vehicle drivers' behavior and thus
decrease the number of crashes involving passenger vehicles and large
commercial trucks and, ultimately, reduce fatalities, injuries, and
property damage. Figure 2 shows no-zones, or blind spots, around a
large commercial truck.
Figure 2: No-Zones, or Blind Spots, around a Large Commercial Truck:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
On January 1, 2000, FMCSA was established within DOT pursuant to the
Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, and its mission was to
reduce the number and severity of large-truck involved crashes. FMCSA
became responsible for developing and implementing initiatives for the
Share the Road program as well as other commercial vehicle safety
programs. FMCSA changed the focus of the Share the Road program from a
public outreach initiative emphasizing the No-Zone Campaign to a
discrete program within its Safety Actions Program Division and renamed
it "Share the Road Safely." The Share the Road Safely program is
intended to target all highway users[Footnote 10] to increase their
awareness about the inherent danger of driving in and around large
commercial trucks and modify driver behaviors. FMCSA officials believe
that through education and outreach to specific target audiences,
highway users will be persuaded to change their behavior with the
eventual result being a reduction in commercial motor vehicle crashes.
Consequently, the program has begun educational initiatives directed at
such discrete audiences as senior drivers, new or problem drivers,
commercial motor vehicle drivers, school trip planners, and drivers in
specific geographic areas.
The Share the Road Safely program is a small part of a group of truck
safety programs administered by FMCSA to reduce large commercial truck-
related injuries and fatalities. In 2003, FMCSA set an overall goal of
reducing the rate of large commercial truck-related fatalities from the
1996 rate of 2.8 fatalities per 100 million truck miles traveled to
1.65 fatalities per 100 million truck miles traveled by 2008.[Footnote
11] FMCSA programs are intended to contribute to this goal by
addressing safety in motor carrier operations through identifying and
enforcing safety regulations that target high-risk carriers and large
commercial truck drivers, improving safety information systems and
commercial motor vehicle technologies, strengthening commercial motor
vehicle equipment and operating standards, and increasing safety
awareness. According to agency officials, FMCSA coordinates its
programs with other federal, state, and local enforcement agencies, the
motor carrier industry, highway safety advocacy groups, and others.
The fiscal year 2003 funding for the Share the Road Safely program
represents less than 1 percent of FMCSA's total budget. From fiscal
year 1992 through 2003, about $6.8 million, or an average of $569,000
per year, was spent on the program.[Footnote 12] Figure 3 illustrates
the funding for the Share the Road Safely program since its inception
in fiscal year 1992.
Figure 3: Share the Road Safely Program Funding (Fiscal Year 1992 -
2003):
[See PDF for image]
Note: TEA-21 directed the Secretary of Transportation to obligate
$500,000 for each of fiscal years 1998 through 2003 for the Share the
Road program. However, the program did not receive these funds in
fiscal year 1998 because the funding had already been committed by the
time the act was passed in June 1998.
[End of figure]
According to FMCSA officials, the agency partners with public and
private organizations nationwide to promote the Share the Road Safely
program's mission, pool safety ideas and resources, and minimize the
duplication of efforts. For example, FMCSA works with a coalition that
includes such members as the American Association of Motor Vehicle
Administrators,[Footnote 13] AAA,[Footnote 14] and the American
Trucking Associations,[Footnote 15] and state and local agencies. The
coalition provides FMCSA with feedback on and assistance with the
program's goal. In addition to these efforts, most Share the Road
resources are used to hire contractors to develop and implement the
products and services (for example, maintaining a Web site and
developing educational materials) for the Share the Road Safely
program. The contracts for these products and services have ranged from
$25,000 to $300,000 since 2000 and are generally awarded for 1 year
periods, but they can be modified and extended with approval from
FMCSA. Since fiscal year 2000, FMCSA has awarded 13 contracts for
various products and services for the Share the Road Safely
program.[Footnote 16]
Many Share the Road Safely Program Initiatives Are Linked to the
Program's Goal but a Few Lack Clear Linkage:
Although a clear rationale exists for several Share the Road Safely
initiatives, a few initiatives are not clearly linked to the program's
safety goal. The program has begun to target specific driving behaviors
more likely to have a direct safety impact. Finally, public educational
approaches are generally considered more effective when combined with
other safety efforts, such as enhanced enforcement of traffic laws, and
FMCSA is beginning to combine these initiatives in the Share the Road
Safely program.
A Few Program Initiatives Are Not Clearly Linked to the Program's Goal:
Several of the initiatives in the Share the Road Safely program are
generally linked to the program's goal, as established in the
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, to educate
the public about sharing the road safely with large commercial
vehicles. Examples of clear links to the program goal includes (1)
targeting Share the Road Safely messages at specific groups, such as
new or problem drivers, pedestrians, or motorcyclists; (2) using radio
and print public service announcements as well as interactive CD-ROMs;
(3) developing and maintaining a Share the Road Safely Web site that
provides downloadable information suitable for specific audiences; and
(4) introducing more information about sharing the road with large
commercial trucks into state driver education manuals and driver
training curricula.
Yet not all the program's initiatives are directly linked to its goal.
For example, in recent years the program has awarded contracts for such
initiatives as educating school trip planners on using safe bus
companies for students' field trips and providing the Share the Road
Safely message to schoolchildren. According to FMCSA officials, these
initiatives accounted for about $255,000 for fiscal years 2001 through
2002, or approximately 20 percent of the program's budget for that
period. According to an FMCSA official, one of the Share the Road
Safely initiatives--Moving Kids Safely--educates school trip planners
about how to select safe bus companies to transport students on field
trips. According to this official, the initiative stresses the
importance of choosing a charter transportation company that has a
satisfactory safety record in order to reduce the risk of crashes,
injuries, and fatalities involving schoolchildren. FMCSA officials
pointed out that this can change the way bus companies are hired for
school trips and contribute to the goal of reducing school bus crashes.
However, it is not clear how the initiative contributes to the
program's goal of educating the public about sharing the road with
commercial motor vehicles.
Similarly, according to program officials, FMCSA joined the ongoing
"Trucker Buddy" initiative, a national program sponsored by the
trucking industry. The initiative's purpose was to test the
effectiveness of targeting students at various stages of the public
education system to determine how much the children had learned about
the safety issues concerning large commercial trucks, to improve their
knowledge of the truck driving profession, and to assess whether this
information was communicated to their parents. The initiative included
such activities as truckers visiting elementary school classrooms and
students establishing pen-pal relationships with truckers. While these
activities may prove to have some long-term effect on the children's
behavior when they become drivers, or may have affected their parents'
driving behaviors, the connection between the initiative and the goal
of educating the motoring public is indirect. According to FMCSA
officials, FMCSA's participation in this joint initiative ended in
March 2003.
Program Currently Targets More Specific Driver Behaviors than in
Earlier Phase:
Research conducted in the late 1990s enabled FMCSA to broaden the Share
the Road program beyond the No-Zone Campaign to include other
initiatives related to sharing the road with large commercial vehicles.
The driving behaviors targeted by the pre-2000 Share the Road program
were not sufficiently specific to allow drivers to take effective
actions to reduce crashes. Because police reports cited the behavior of
passenger vehicle drivers in crashes more frequently than the behavior
of large commercial truck drivers, Share the Road initially emphasized
its "no-zone" theme and focused its efforts on passenger vehicle
drivers. However, subsequent research sponsored by FHWA concluded that,
at most, only 35 percent of fatal passenger vehicle and large
commercial truck collisions are attributable to passenger vehicles
traveling in the no-zone. According to FMCSA officials, since 2000 the
Share the Road Safely program has recognized the need to shift its
focus from a "no-zone" approach to one that better addresses the causes
of passenger vehicle and large commercial truck collisions in order to
develop stronger links between Share the Road Safely program goal and
its initiatives. A 1999 FHWA report concluded that "more comprehensive
data on the causes of passenger vehicle and large commercial truck
crashes of all severities would enhance FHWA's ability to develop
effective countermeasures and prevent future crashes." Since then,
FMCSA and NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis have
begun a Large Truck Crash Causation Study to determine the causes and
associated factors contributing to serious large commercial truck
crashes so that agencies within DOT and others can implement effective
countermeasures to reduce the occurrence and severity of such crashes.
This is the first national study of its kind and is designed to code
all factors that might be crash related for later analysis. FMCSA
expects to release the study's database to the public early in 2005.
Successful Initiatives Combine Educational Outreach with Local
Enforcement Efforts:
Highway safety researchers and safety advocates we interviewed agreed
that attempts to modify the behavior of drivers are more effective when
educational approaches are combined with enforcement efforts. This
conclusion is supported by the evaluation of past educational efforts
to change driver behavior, in particular efforts to reduce drunk
driving or increase safety belt usage.[Footnote 17] For this reason,
according to a NHTSA official, NHTSA public information campaigns are
frequently combined with well-publicized local police activities to
enforce compliance with traffic ordinances prohibiting behaviors such
as driving while impaired or driving without a safety belt.
FMCSA recently began an initiative that would link educational outreach
with enforcement. It plans to pilot test the effectiveness of combining
Share the Road Safely messages with local outreach and enforcement
initiatives. The pilot test will include outreach material, such as
outdoor advertising and brochures, to educate and increase the
awareness of passenger vehicle drivers on roads that have a
disproportionately high number of large commercial truck crashes. The
primary emphasis will be on the inability of large trucks to stop as
quickly as cars and the hazard created when cars cut in front of trucks
on the highway. The pilot will also emphasize to large commercial truck
drivers the need for greater patience and defensive driving in these
high crash corridors. In June 2003, FMCSA plans to pilot test these
Share the Road Safely messages in conjunction with enhanced state-level
enforcement of traffic violations, such as aggressive driving and
tailgating in six corridors throughout the country that have a high
volume of large commercial truck crashes. According to a FMCSA
official, as part of this initiative, FMCSA will measure the relative
safety improvements in these high-volume, truck crash corridors in
order to identify effective safety strategies that could lead to the
development of community-based programs to reduce the number of crashes
between large commercial trucks and passenger vehicles.
Evaluations by FMCSA Provided Little Information on the Effectiveness
of the Share the Road Program:
A program's effectiveness can be determined by assessing how far a
program has progressed toward achieving its intended outcomes. FMCSA
has attempted to measure the effectiveness of some of the program's
initiatives, but these evaluations provide only limited information on
the program's success in changing driver behavior. FMCSA has not
attempted to evaluate the Share the Road Safely program since 2000;
however, it has taken steps that may help it improve its evaluations of
the program's effectiveness in the future. In addition, practices used
by other entities both within and outside DOT to evaluate information
dissemination programs illustrate strategies that FMCSA could use to
improve its evaluations.
Program Evaluation Uses Objective Measures to Examine the Effectiveness
of a Program's Contributions to Short-Term, Intermediate, or Long-Term
Outcomes:
A program evaluation is a systematic process that uses objective
measures to analyze how well a program is achieving its goals. In a
recent report,[Footnote 18] we noted that articulating the logic--or
strategy--of an information dissemination program like Share the Road
Safely could help the agency identify expected short-term,
intermediate, or long-term outcomes and how to measure them. A clearly
stated program strategy that articulates how a program's initiatives
are expected to achieve its desired goals enables the program's
managers to measure activities (for example, the number of TV
advertisements broadcast or workshops held); outputs (for example, the
portion of the target audience exposed to TV advertisements or
participating in workshops); and outcomes--the changes effected in the
target audience by the program. Many programs routinely track their
activities and outputs; however, an outcome program evaluation[Footnote
19] assesses actual changes in the audience's knowledge, attitude, and
behavior that lead to an improvement in the conditions the program was
designed to improve. Such an evaluation measures the extent to which a
program has achieved its intended short-term, intermediate, and long-
term outcomes.
For an information dissemination program, short-term outcomes would
typically include gains in the audience's knowledge and changes in its
attitude about the issue addressed by the program. For Share the Road
Safely, short-term outcomes would include positive changes in
motorists' or pedestrians' beliefs and positive reactions to the
program's safety messages. Intermediate outcomes would include positive
changes in the audience's behavior, such as not cutting in front of
large trucks or tailgating. Long-term outcomes represent the ultimate
objective of the program. For the Share the Road Safely program, a
long-term outcome would be contributing to a reduction in the number of
fatal collisions involving large commercial trucks and other vehicles
or pedestrians. Changes in this outcome, while easy to measure, can be
difficult to ascribe to the program because alternative explanations,
such as improvements in the design of trucks and other vehicles, safety
improvements in roadway design, or safety initiatives of other FMCSA
safety programs can also be credited with contributing toward any
progress.
We recently reviewed a number of federally sponsored information
dissemination programs, including efforts to enhance compliance with
environmental regulations and reduce youth drug use.[Footnote 20] We
identified several strategies that were used to improve the evaluations
of such programs. They included such practices as:
* developing common measures for national evaluations,
* comparing before-and-after reports to assess change,
* using statistical methods to limit external influences, and
* adjusting the wording of survey questions to reduce potential bias.
The programs we reviewed were substantially more costly efforts than
the initiatives conducted for Share the Road Safely program and
consequently their evaluations were correspondingly more extensive.
However, the strategies these programs developed to improve their
evaluations can be scaled appropriately to smaller initiatives like
those in the Share the Road Safely program.
Evaluations of the Share the Road Program Did Not Fully Measure the
Program's Outcomes:
FMCSA has issued three reports[Footnote 21] about the Share the Road
program's progress and initiatives. In 1997 and 1999, FMCSA reported on
the program's progress toward achieving its goal and concluded that the
program was effective in communicating the dangers inherent in large
commercial truck interaction with passenger vehicles and on providing
useful information on safe driving behaviors for the target audience.
FMCSA also reported that since 1994, the program has made significant
accomplishments in implementing its planned activities. For example,
Share the Road messages were seen and heard throughout the country on
billboards, radio, and television and in schools and driver education
classes.
In 2000, FMCSA issued a report that addressed changes in drivers'
knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors while driving in the vicinity of
large trucks as a result of its Share the Road initiatives to that
point. The agency surveyed 1,100 licensed drivers and found that 58
percent of the respondents had seen or heard the phrase "Share the
Road"; and 59 percent said they changed their behavior when they
learned about some of the special characteristics of large trucks, such
as longer braking distances and larger blind spots. However, FMCSA
could not directly link these behavior changes to the Share the Road
program. Only 13 percent of respondents had seen or heard the phrase
"No-Zone"--the major focus of the program's initiatives at that time.
Although these studies shed some light on the extent of the Share the
Road program's outputs, they did not fully measure the program's
outcomes. The studies provide some information on the initiatives the
program has sponsored and on drivers' familiarity with some concepts
and behaviors promoted by the program. They shed little light on the
short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes for three reasons.
First, FMCSA's evaluations relied heavily on self-reports of the target
audience's attitude and behavior change that were highly subject to
positively biased responses; that is, respondents are likely to provide
socially desirable responses.[Footnote 22] For example, when a
positive-sounding program such as "Share the Road" is mentioned,
respondents are likely to report being familiar with and heeding its
message.[Footnote 23] Second, because no baseline of driver knowledge
and behavior prior to the program had been established, FMCSA could not
determine the extent to which any changes in these intended short-term
outcomes actually occurred.[Footnote 24] Third, if changes did occur,
FMCSA had no way of knowing whether these changes were the result of
program activities or other influences.[Footnote 25]
Other Methods for Evaluating Information Dissemination Programs Exist:
There are other methods that can be used to assess the effectiveness of
information dissemination programs such as Share the Road Safely. For
example, the Office of National Drug Control Policy used a media
campaign to counteract images that were perceived as glamorizing or
condoning drug use. Under the direction of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, a contractor conducted a national evaluation of the
campaign. The evaluation surveyed households in the targeted markets to
assess advertisement awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior,
including drug use, in a representative sample of youths and their
parents or other caretakers. The evaluation could not compare its
sample with a control group that had not been exposed to the media
campaign because the campaign ran nationally. Therefore, the evaluation
used a "dose-response" design to measure the degree of respondents'
exposure to the campaign and assess whether adoption of the desired
attitudes and behaviors was positively correlated with their exposure.
The experiences of other administrations within DOT, such as NHTSA,
could also help FMCSA in its evaluations of the Share the Road Safely
program. FMCSA officials acknowledged that NHTSA possesses expertise in
developing and evaluating information dissemination programs aimed at
improving drivers' safety consciousness and driving behaviors. For
example, in May 2001, NHTSA conducted a regional "Click It or Ticket"
campaign in several southeastern states to increase safety belt use
through media outreach combined with intense state-level enforcement of
safety belt use laws. Evaluation of the campaign found an increase in
safety belt use that was correlated with the amount of advertisements
publicizing the campaign and consequent public awareness of the
heightened enforcement activities.
FMCSA Expects to Perform More Meaningful Evaluations of the Share the
Road Safely Program in the Future:
FMCSA officials told us that they have performed no evaluation of the
Share the Road Safely program since 2000. However, they also told us
that they recognize the need for improved evaluation of the program's
outcomes and that this was one factor considered in the refocus of the
program beginning in 2000. Prior evaluations had attempted to measure
the national penetration of the Share the Road program message,
particularly its no-zone message. Because their post-2000 strategy has
emphasized specific target groups or geographic areas, officials expect
that they will be better able to measure the effectiveness of focused
pilot tests and determine the relative effectiveness of different
initiatives before expanding them or offering them as models for state
or local emulation. FMCSA officials pointed to the combined education/
enforcement initiative planned for six corridors with high numbers of
truck crashes as a recent example of this more targeted approach that
they expect will allow them to make more meaningful evaluations of
changes in driver behavior and, ultimately, in car/truck crash
frequency. However, because none of the pilot initiatives undertaken
during the post-2000 Share the Road Safely program has been completed,
FMCSA has no outcome measures to assess the effectiveness of the
program.
Conclusion:
The Share the Road Safely program currently consists of a number of
relatively new pilot initiatives in various stages of implementation.
These initiatives are designed to contribute to FMCSA's goal of
reducing the fatality rate associated with large commercial vehicles;
however, we found that in some cases their link to the program's goal
of educating the public about driving safely around large commercial
vehicles was tenuous. Given that findings from DOT's research--which
may help identify specific behaviors contributing to car/truck crashes-
-will soon be available and that FMCSA's pilot initiatives are still
not fully implemented, FMCSA has an opportunity to ensure that the
initiatives are organized into a program strategy that explicitly links
them to the program's overall goal.
In addition, FMCSA has not evaluated the effectiveness of Share the
Road Safely since 2000. We recognize that the program's relatively
small budget demands that its evaluation activities be scaled
appropriately to the size of its initiatives. Yet it is important that
FMCSA incorporate the best evaluation practices that are available from
federal and other sources to the extent practicable to ensure that the
agency does not expend its limited resources on initiatives of
uncertain or unknown effectiveness. The program's shift to more limited
pilot initiatives offers the opportunity for appropriately scaled
evaluations. More rigorous evaluations than those conducted in the past
could be used to enhance FMCSA's ability to direct its resources to
more cost-effective initiatives that are clearly linked to the
program's goal.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To ensure that FMCSA's Share the Road Safely program initiatives
contribute to the agency's goal to reduce the number of collisions
between large commercial trucks and other highway users, we recommend
that the Secretary of Transportation direct the FMCSA administrator to:
* develop an explicit program strategy that clearly and directly links
FMCSA's Share the Road Safely program initiatives to its goal and uses
the results of the Large Truck Crash Causation Study as they become
available, as well as other relevant highway safety data, in order to
identify specific behaviors that contribute to passenger vehicle and
large commercial truck crashes, thus more effectively targeting the
limited resources of the Share the Road Safely program; and
* establish a systematic strategy for evaluating the Share the Road
Safely program's initiatives that makes greater use where practical of
DOT's experience in designing and evaluating information dissemination
programs to enhance highway safety.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
DOT officials reviewed a draft of this report and generally agreed with
our recommendations. They also made some technical comments that we
have incorporated into this report as appropriate.
We are sending copies of this report to congressional committees and
subcommittees with responsibilities for transportation and the
Secretary of Transportation. We will make copies available to others
upon request. In addition, the report will be available at no charge on
the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please
contact either Robert White at whitere@gao.gov or me at
siggerudk@gao.gov. Alternatively, we may be reached at (202) 512-2834.
Key contributors to this report were Sally Gilley, Brandon Haller,
Octavia Parks, Jason Schwartz, and Susan Michal-Smith.
Katherine Siggerud
Acting Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues:
Signed by Katherine Siggerud:
FOOTNOTES
[1] A large commercial truck is defined as a truck with gross weight
rating greater than 10,001 pounds.
[2] For the purpose of this report, we are using the term passenger
vehicle(s) to include cars, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles,
vans, and motorcycles. Passenger vehicles have a gross weight rating
less than 10,001 pounds.
[3] "Commercial motor vehicles" includes buses as well as trucks, but
nearly all the program's initiatives have addressed driving behavior
around trucks. In this report, we use the term "truck" unless buses are
explicitly included in a specific program initiative.
[4] Before 2000, the program was called "Share the Road." Since 2000,
FMCSA has used the term "Share the Road Safely" in part to indicate
this shift in strategy. In this report, we generally use the term
"Share the Road Safely," except where it is necessary to distinguish
the pre-2000 program from its successor program.
[5] H.R. Rep. No. 107-722, at 104 (2002).
[6] This figure includes passengers in cars, light trucks, large
commercial trucks, and on motorcycles, and nonmotorists but excludes
bus passengers and those fatalities classified by FMCSA as "other/
unknown."
[7] This figure includes passengers in cars and light trucks, and on
motorcycles but excludes bus passengers and those fatalities classified
by FMCSA as "other/unknown."
[8] This figure includes pedestrians and pedalcyclists but excludes
those fatalities classified by FMCSA as "other/unknown."
[9] In 1998, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-
21) included the same requirement to educate the motoring public on how
to share the road safely with commercial motor vehicles, but TEA-21
authorized at least $500,000 to be appropriated from the Highway Trust
Fund for fiscal years 1998 through 2003.
[10] Include pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers of commercial
vehicles, cars, motorcyclists, and recreational vehicles.
[11] In 1999, DOT had set a goal of reducing large commercial truck-
related fatalities by 50 percent, from 5,380 to 2,690, by the year
2010. According to FMCSA officials, the agency revised its goal to
better align it with the DOT Highway Safety performance goal and FHWA
and NHTSA measures.
[12] From fiscal year 1992 through fiscal year 1999, the program's
initiatives were funded primarily in the form of grants through the
Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program. However, since fiscal year
2000 the program's budget has come primarily as a $500,000 annual "pass
through" funding from NHTSA; other funding--about $125,000 annually--
comes through funding from the Research and Technology Office.
[13] The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators is a tax-
exempt, nonprofit organization that works to develop model programs in
motor vehicle administration, police traffic services, and highway
safety.
[14] AAA, formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a
not-for-profit, tax-paying federation of 77 motor clubs serving 46
million members in the United States and Canada.
[15] American Trucking Associations, Inc., is the national trade
association of the trucking industry.
[16] FMCSA officials told us that they did not have contract
information for fiscal years 1992 through 1999.
[17] U.S. General Accounting Office, Motor Vehicle Safety:
Comprehensive State Programs Offer Best Opportunity for Increasing Use
of Safety Belts, GAO/RCED 96-24 (Washington, D.C.: Jan 3, 1996); U.S.
General Accounting Office, Highway Safety: Effectiveness of State .08
Blood Alcohol Laws, GAO/RCED-99-179 (Washington, D.C.: June 23, 1999).
See also "Education Alone Won't Make Drivers Safer," Status Report:
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 36:5 (May 19, 2001); Adrian K.
Lund and Allan F. Williams, "A Review of the Literature Evaluating the
Defensive Driving Course," Accident Analysis and Prevention 17:6
(1985); Carolyn B. Liban et al., "The Canadian Drinking-Driving
Countermeasure Experience," Accident Analysis and Prevention 19:3
(1987); James B. Jacobs, Drunk Driving, An American Dilemma (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1989).
[18] U.S. General Accounting Office, Program Evaluation: Strategies for
Assessing How Information Dissemination Contributes to Agency Goals,
GAO-02-923 (Washington, D.C.: September 2002).
[19] U.S. General Accounting Office, Performance Measurement and
Evaluation: Definitions and Relationships, GAO/GGD-98-26 (Washington,
D.C.: April 1998).
[20] GAO-02-923.
[21] No-Zone Campaign Goals and Activities Summary Report (March 1997),
Share the Road Campaign Research Study Final Report (June 1999), U.S.
Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Office of
Motor Carrier and Highway Safety; and No-Zone Campaign Assessment
(October 2000) U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration.
[22] GAO-02-923.
[23] The fact that 58 percent of respondents reported being familiar
with "Share the Road," but only 13 percent were familiar with "No-
Zone"--the program's primary initiative--suggests the likely influence
of a positive bias.
[24] The Trucker Buddy program is a small exception. As part of the
program, elementary schoolchildren were tested on their knowledge of
trucks before and after instruction on the subject. They demonstrated a
21 percent improvement.
[25] Other similar programs, such as those sponsored by trucking
organizations, automobile associations, and insurance companies,
strive for goals similar to those in FMCSA's Share the Road Safely
program. These organizations and associations have programs that
specifically address the needs of passenger and commercial vehicle
drivers.
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