| Evaluation of Pueblo County, Colorado’s Smart Roads Project | ||||
1 - INTRODUCTION This document is the final report of a project titled “Evaluation of Pueblo County, Colorado’s Smart Roads Project.” The objectives of the project were to:
Drivers between the ages of 21 and 34 are more often involved in alcohol-related fatal crashes than are drivers of other ages. Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) indicates that in 2002, approximately 35 percent of drivers age 21 to 34 had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .01 or more, while only 21 percent of drivers of other ages had such a BAC2. Nevertheless, a 1994 report of the National Commission Against Drunk Driving3 stated that very few anti-impaired driving programs were specifically designed for drivers in this age group. Seeking to encourage States to develop programs targeted at this age group, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) of 1997 provided that a State may qualify for Federal grant money if, in addition to meeting other criteria, the State had developed a program that aims to reduce driving while under the influence of alcohol in the 21- to 34-year-old population. Furthermore, in December 1999, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an agency in the U.S. Department of Transportation, launched the “You Drink & Drive. You Lose.” impaired-driving prevention campaign. This campaign serves as the umbrella campaign for Federal impaired-driving initiatives. The campaign targets four high-risk populations; among them, the 21- to 34-year-old group. Despite these efforts, many States lack a comprehensive strategy for reaching their 21- to 34-year-old populations. Most enforcement and prevention programs use a two-tiered approach to combat impaired driving: One set of programs targets the under-21 population, and another set of programs focuses on the adult drunk driving population as a whole. Few studies have addressed the drinking and driving behavior of the 21- to 34-year-old age group, and the effectiveness of different approaches has not been well documented. It is clear that strategies targeted at this age group need to be defined, studied, and disseminated. This study is a step toward filling that gap by identifying one innovative and promising program, and estimating its effectiveness and potential for adoption by other communities. Our approach to the project started with the program-selection process which involved developing selection criteria, identifying potential programs that best meet those criteria, and recommending a program for NHTSA’s consideration. After selecting the study program (the Smart Roads program in Pueblo County, Colorado), we prepared a plan for collecting and analyzing the data needed for describing and evaluating the program. The evaluation focused on the impact of the program on alcohol-related crashes involving the target group of drivers 21 to 34 years old. Execution of the data collection and analysis plan followed, and the final technical report (this document) was prepared. Chapter 2 of this report describes the process that led to the selection of the study program. Included are summary descriptions of the more promising candidate programs. Chapter 3 provides a comprehensive description of the Smart Roads program, including:
Chapter 4 presents the results of evaluation of the Smart Roads program’s effect on alcohol-related crashes involving drivers age 21 to 34, and Chapter 5 presents our conclusions and recommendations. 2 These numbers are from our own analysis of FARS data using NHTSA’s new multiple imputation model. |
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