Evaluation of a high visibility enforcement project focused on passenger vehicles interacting with commercial vehicles.

INTRODUCTION: In 2004, Washington State applied NHTSA's High Visibility Enforcement model used in the Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign in an attempt to reduce unsafe driving behaviors around commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). The program was called Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT). This paper details the methods used to evaluate the program's effectiveness and the results of the evaluation.

METHOD: Four high-crash interstate highway corridors, each approximately 25 miles in length, were selected. Two of these corridors received TACT media messages and increased enforcement over an 18-month period while two comparison corridors did not receive any increased media or enforcement.

RESULTS: A total of 4,737 contacts were made with drivers during the two enforcement waves, and 72% of these contacts led to a citation. Drivers at the intervention sites who said they saw or heard any of the TACT messages increased from 17.7% in the pre period to a high of 67.3% in the post periods. Drivers at the intervention sites also reported increased exposure to the core message of leaving more space when passing trucks (14% pre to 40% post period). The percentage of drivers who said they leave more room when passing trucks than when passing cars rose from 16% in the pre period to 24% in the post period at the intervention sites, while comparison sites showed no change. Over 150 hours of video recorded by law enforcement officers in unmarked vehicles were utilized to examine violation rates and severity of violations before and after the intervention campaigns. Statistical analyses showed that violation rates were reduced significantly at the intervention sites (between 23% and 46%), while remaining constant at the comparison sites. Analyses of the video data also showed that the seriousness of the residual violations at the intervention sites decreased.

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the evaluation results provide a consistent picture of the effectiveness of the TACT pilot project. Success was demonstrated at every step - messages were received and understood, knowledge was changed in the intended direction, self reported driving behavior around large trucks improved, and observed driving behaviors confirmed the self reports.

IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: After this initial success in Washington State, the TACT model will continue to be implemented and evaluated by FMCSA in an attempt to validate the program. Based on the results of this study and the consistent positive results found for other sTEP projects, it is likely that TACT will show continued success in a variety of settings and will help reduce the number and severity of crashes involving CMVs. Future research should attempt to use many of the methods described here to further validate the methods for not only evaluations of TACT programs, but also for any other highway safety programs that require measurements of the program's effectiveness.