3 – PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

This section provides a comprehensive description of the Smart Roads program, including:

• site description;
• description of target group;
• key participants in the program;
• program objectives;
• duties and responsibilities of the staff;
• funding sources and amounts; and
• components of the program.

Information for this section is based on materials gathered by project staff as well as our discussions with Smart Roads personnel.

ORIGINS OF THE PROGRAM

In January 2000, Crossroads Managed Care System (“Crossroads”), a treatment and prevention facility based in Pueblo, was awarded a three-year grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation to develop a program to reduce drinking and driving among 21- to 34-year-olds. It should be noted, however, that even before the grant was awarded, the Pueblo community was very active in the area of DUI prevention and intervention, most notably through the activities of the Pueblo Drive Smart Coalition.

The grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) was one out-come of a multi-year project to market traffic safety to Colorado drivers. During the first year of this project, CDOT used market research to identify communities that were disproportionately home to drivers in alcohol-related crashes, young drivers involved in crashes, and areas where crashes tend to be more serious or fatal due to failure to wear a safety belt. BBC Research & Consulting of Denver was selected to lead this research effort. This targeted marketing approach allowed CDOT to effectively and efficiently at-tack selected problem behaviors by designing marketing campaigns and other programs to reach out to those who needed it the most. (See citations in Acknowledgments.)

Four specific behaviors were selected for analysis: drinking and driving, nonuse of safety belts, young-driver crashes, and aggressive driving. Using crash data and a commercially available market segmentation system, the study team led by BBC identified selected “market clusters” (based on geography, demographics, and economic factors) where each behavior was overrepresented. First, crash records were linked to home ad-dresses/neighborhoods of drivers. Then, geographic market clusters were identified where certain types of crashes were overrepresented. Clusters were identified separately for alcohol-related crashes, nonuse of safety belt crashes, and young-driver crashes. The findings from this analysis yielded three target communities: Montezuma County would be targeted for safety belt use; Douglas County for young drivers; and Pueblo County for drinking and driving.

PUEBLO

Located about 110 miles south of Denver and east of the Rocky Mountains, the city of Pueblo is 41 square miles and has a population of approximately 102,000 people. Pueblo is the seat of a county of the same name; Pueblo County has 141,000 people and covers an area of 2,389 square miles (according to the 2000 U.S. Census).

Pueblo was once Colorado’s second-largest city. During the late 1800s, the local steel and mining industries, led by Colorado Fuel and Iron, attracted thousands of job-seekers, including Hispanics, Native Americans, Italians, and Slovenians, among many other nationalities and ethnic groups. By 1888, four major railroads connected Pueblo to the rest of the Nation, and the city had become the smelting capital of the world, refining gold, zinc, lead, and silver. Many of the descendants of these mill and mining workers remain in Pueblo, contributing greatly to the city’s diversity.

Pueblo’s steel and mining-led economy declined rapidly after World War II, but economic vitality has started to return to the city. The city’s recent downtown restoration project and Pueblo’s rich diversity resulted in the city being designated as one of America’s “most livable communities” by the Partners for Livable Communities in September 2000. Today the major employers are in the areas of education, government, healthcare, retail, and distribution. According to the U.S. Census of 2000, the median household income in Pueblo was $29,112 and just over 18 percent of people in Pueblo County were living below the poverty line. The county has one four-year college (the University of Southern Colorado, enrollment 3,600) and one two-year college (Pueblo Community College, enrollment 3,230).

Pueblo ranks as number one in driving under the influence⁶ (DUI) arrests per capita among Colorado cities. Pueblo also has more bars and liquor licenses per capita than any other Colorado city. From 1996 through 1998, 8 percent of all drivers from Pueblo County involved in serious crashes were suspected of alcohol or drug use. Drivers from Pueblo County involved in serious crashes were 36 percent more likely than the average driver in Colorado to be suspected of drinking and driving. From 1995 through 1999, men between the ages of 21 and 35 were involved in more than one-third of the Pueblo Police Department’s DUI arrests.

CROSSROADS MANAGED CARE SYSTEMS

The Smart Roads program is administered by Crossroads Managed Care Systems. Crossroads has been working in the Pueblo community for over 20 years and is currently the only provider of both prevention and intervention services in the State of Colorado. Crossroads was an established addiction treatment center when it broadened its mission to include prevention services. Services include the following:

AAH (Addiction Among Homeless)	Specialized outpatient evaluation and treatment program designed to treat the needs of the homeless population in conjunction with the Pueblo Community Health Center.
SSIC (Strategies for Self Improvement and Change)	Intensive treatment curriculum developed and targeted toward people on parole.
AWAKEN (All Women Against Known Environmental Neglect)	Intensive residential treatment program for women, and women with dependent children.
SWS (Specialized Women’s Services)	Outpatient program that offers a variety of treatment needs for women, and women with dependent children.
“Don’t Even Go There”	Program designed to meet an array of adolescent substance use/abuse needs.
Reconnecting Youth	School-based prevention program for young people in grades 9 through 12 who show signs of poor school achievement and potential for dropping out of high school.
Life Skills	Program designed to address the most important factors leading adolescents to use one or more drugs by teaching a combination of health information, general life skills, and drug resistance skills.
JCP (Juvenile Court Project)	Program with the Pueblo Municipal Court for adolescent substance use/abuse offenders.
Methadone	Methadone treatment program designed to assist people who are addicted to heroin or other opiates.
TANK (Tobacco and Nicotine Kick)	Program designed to assist people in quitting tobacco use.
GAME (Gambling Addiction Motivational Enhancement)	Program designed to assist people who are compulsive gamblers.
Steps Program	Intermediate residential treatment program designed for people who needs the structure of a controlled environment.
Detoxification	Program for assisting people who are intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs to detoxify in a safe and healthy environment.

Prior to the CDOT grant, Crossroads had already initiated a “Smart Roads 2000” program with a slightly different focus: to educate young men and women between the ages of 16 and 30 on the negative effects associated with the use of alcohol, especially as it relates to drinking and driving. Program components included:

• Designated driver program: Promotes a positive image for designated drivers and provided an incentive program for the designated drivers (movie passes, free meal tickets, etc.)
  
  
• Alternative transportation program: Promoted the “Tipsy Taxi” program⁷ providing adult drinkers with alternative transportation.
  
  
• “Alive at 25” program: In partnership with the Colorado State Patrol, a defensive driving class offered to Pueblo area high school juniors and seniors.
  
  
• Assembly: Presented during prom and graduation season to help educate high school students about the dangers involved with riding in and driving motor vehicles while drinking.

When CDOT contacted Crossroads, the emphasis of the Smart Roads program was altered to target males 21 to 34 years old and incorporate the findings from BBC’s market research. The "Alive at 25" program and other activities targeting underage drinkers continue to be carried out with other sources of funding.

PROGRAM FUNDING AND STAFF

As mentioned previously, Smart Roads is primarily funded through a CDOT grant. For the 12-month period running from September 2000 through September 2001, Smart Roads received $75,000 from CDOT. The CDOT funding is intended to act as seed money, allowing the program to establish itself and grow into a self-sustaining entity. This is a model that CDOT has used successfully in the past for other Colorado community-based programs. The goal of attaining self-sustainability at the end of a specified period is an important one, to ensure program continuity should State funds become unavailable in future years, or should funding priorities change or be redirected to alternative activities.

Each year, in conjunction with the allocation of funds, CDOT and Crossroads (as the administrator of the Smart Roads program) agree on a strategic plan that includes a list of tasks to be accomplished. Accordingly, for fiscal year 2001, Crossroads was contracted to accomplish the following tasks:

• Develop and distribute information and material that address education and prevention messages about alcohol-related crashes among 21- to 34-year-old males.
  
  
• Conduct at least 20 “Buzzing and Tooling” presentations (workplace initiative described below).
  
  
• Develop and maintain a speakers’ bureau to address alcohol-abuse issues as they relate to driving.

Smart Roads has expressed an interest in increased funding to hire additional staff. Currently, the Smart Roads program has only one full-time employee. Ideally, Smart Roads would like to bring more employees into the program to train more certified “Buzzing and Tooling” instructors and expand the workplace initiative. Based at Crossroads’ office in downtown Pueblo, the program is able to share office space, meeting facilities, office supplies and equipment, as well as part-time help, with Crossroads. The program is also heavily dependent on volunteer work and donations. For example, Lamar Outdoor in Pueblo donated the outdoor advertising featured as part of the media campaign.

Note that the Smart Roads contract does not reflect any funds paid to BBC for its services; any funds used in the initial research and creative development of the media campaign are in addition to the $75,000 mentioned above.

MEDIA CAMPAIGN

In addition to its market clusters analysis, BBC was retained by CDOT to conduct a series of surveys and focus groups to understand the lifestyles, attitudes, and beliefs of drivers who exhibit unsafe driving behaviors. This research was used to identify potential themes or approaches for the development of appropriate driving safety initiatives and campaign materials. The findings from this survey also served as a benchmark against which one could evaluate progress toward stated goals. During the summer of 1999, BBC conducted 450 telephone surveys with male drivers in those Pueblo clusters disproportionately associated with drinking and driving crashes, gathering information on demographics, driving behavior, drinking behavior, and attitudes toward drinking and driving. Survey responses from men in the Pueblo clusters were compared with a sample of men statewide. A copy of BBC’s survey instrument can be found in the appendix of this report.

Subsequently, in July 2000 BBC conducted four focus groups to test concepts and material in support of an anti-drinking and driving campaign⁸. Letters were mailed to a list of Pueblo County households, inviting people to participate in a discussion group about driving in Pueblo County. The focus groups found that participants were surprised at the true cost of a DUI, calculated at $8,866, as the sum of increasing insurance costs, lawyer fees, fines, and other expenses⁹. The reaction of focus group participants to this figure suggested that an effective messaging campaign might emphasize the financial costs of a DUI.

Participants were also asked for their opinions regarding the storyboards of two public service announcement (PSA) concepts¹⁰. The winning concept, later turned into a television advertisement, shows the arm of a man playing back messages on his home answering machine. Each message demonstrated how the man’s life has been affected by a recent DUI violation. His employer tells him that he has lost his job, his mother and child call with their disappointment, his insurance agent calls with notice of the increase in rates, and his lawyer calls asking for payment of legal fees that are due. The ad ends with the tagline: “DUI, the $8,866 Hangover.” The overwhelming majority of focus group participants expressed a preference for this answering machine PSA concept; they liked how it emphasized the financial and family costs of a DUI.

The public media campaign, which ran from October 1999 through September 2000, and again in the summer of 2001, included the following components:

Television ads. A total of 595 television ads featuring the PSA described above were purchased, scheduled at 35 percent during prime time, 31 percent late fringe, 3 percent early news, 17 percent prime access and 13 percent early fringe.

Radio ads. The radio ads were based on the audio tracks of the TV ads with the tagline spoken. Three radio stations (including one Spanish-language station) were used to place a total of 698 spots.

Newspaper ads and billboards. Newspaper ads ran in the local publication with the largest circulation, the Pueblo Chieftain. The “$8,866 Hangover” theme was depicted as shown below.

Figure 3-1: Design of Newspaper Ad

Billboards and bus station ads featured the same design as the newspaper ad, as follows:

Figure 3-2: Designs of Bumper Stickers and Bus Station Banners

Other collateral material. Crossroads also printed paycheck inserts, table tents, posters and banners, all stressing the Smart Roads “$8,866.00 Hangover” theme depicted above (See appendix). Materials were placed with different businesses employing blue collar workers around Pueblo. Posters and banners were used in community event information booths. Table tents were distributed to local construction companies and bars.

In 2001, BBC conducted a post-campaign telephone survey and post-campaign focus groups to measure awareness of the campaign and to compare attitudes and perceptions of impaired driving with the pre-campaign benchmarks indicated above¹¹. Telephone survey participants were randomly selected using random digit dial methods in the Pueblo County census tracts classified as areas over-represented statewide in crashes involving impaired driving. A total of 450 surveys were completed. All respondents were men. Participants for the four focus groups were drawn from the telephone survey respondents.

BBC concluded that the campaign was successful in communicating the financial cost of a DUI. The most important indicator of this was that 50 percent of men age 21 to 34 reported that a DUI would cost them over $8,000, compared to a perceived cost of only $1,000 before the campaign. Statewide, most people believed the cost would be less than $1,000.

WORKPLACE INITIATIVE

“Buzzing and Tooling” is an educational program designed specifically to stimulate and challenge the thinking of blue-collar workers regarding their drinking and driving beliefs and practices. Sponsored by CDOT, and initially developed by the University of Northern Colorado, “Buzzing and Tooling” differs markedly from most DUI or other safety classes in that it is not based on a traditional information/lecture-type format. Instead, each of its three 50-minute sessions revolves around interactive activities, emphasizing issues of control, consequences, perceptions of norms, and behavioral beliefs. A description of each session is given in Table 3-1.

Only three people in the State of Colorado are trained to deliver the "Buzzing and Tooling" educational program; one of these instructors is a full-time staff member at Crossroads. As of the end of the evaluation period (December 31, 2001), Crossroads had offered to deliver "Buzzing and Tooling" at 60 Pueblo firms employing blue-collar workers. There is no cost to the employer: the sessions were originally designed to take place at the place of employment but were later given at the Crossroads Managed Care Systems offices in downtown Pueblo.

Potential advantages to companies that choose to participate were said to include increased safety in the workplace and a reduction in absenteeism. Employee participation in the program is absolutely voluntary. Consequently, the number of participants varies greatly from session to session, and very few individuals complete all three sessions. By the end of 2002, employees at only one local construction firm had completed all three sessions of the "Buzzing and Tooling" program. Expanding this workplace initiative was one of Smart Roads’ key objectives during the remaining years of its CDOT grant.

Table 3-1: “Buzzing and Tooling” Sessions

Session	Time	Activities	Description
Pre-session	20 minutes	•  Introduction •  Program overview •  Questionnaire on drinking and driving beliefs	Program introduction and measurement of drinking-driving beliefs and attitudes of participants.
Session I: “Untangling Who Said What”	50 minutes	•  Session overview •  String game •  They said…you said •  Definitions, terminology •  Reasons people drink & drive •  Written evaluation of session	String game : Two people tied together at their wrists – the goal is to find a solution to work together to unstring themselves; prizes to winners They said…you said : Comparison of participant responses on pre-session survey to larger peer group responses Definitions, terminology : differences between “drunk” and “impaired” driving, “crash” and “accident,” etc.
Session II: Puzzled About Drinking and Driving	50 minutes	•  Session overview •  Bee jigsaw puzzles •  FAQs •  Outrageous statements •  Sober slogans •  Written evaluation of session	Bee jigsaw puzzles: Work together on jigsaw puzzles; introduces “worker bee” as a recurring character; prizes to winners. FAQ: Information on topics like BAC levels, penalties for DUI, etc. Outrageous statements : Beliefs continuum along which participants stand according to how strongly they agree or disagree with statements read by the facilitator, e.g., “getting a DUI is just part of growing up.” Sober slogans : Participants compose prevention messages continuing on the “worker bee” theme.
Session III: Juggling Life	50 minutes	•  Session overview •  Group juggling •  About Tim	Group juggling : In small teams, groups try to keep as many objects in the air for one minute as they toss them to each other. Objects represent aspects of life, e.g., job, driving, money. Discussion follows. About Tim : Oral history with illustrations of a young man who has decision-making points in his life about behaviors such as drinking, partying, choice of friends, driving safely. To foster thinking about responsibility and consequences. Discussion follows the story.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Besides having been identified as a target community on the basis of the market cluster analysis described above, Pueblo County had a long history of organized community involvement in DUI prevention and intervention, primarily through the activities of the Pueblo Drive Smart Coalition. In 2001, the coalition had 44 members representing a wide variety of local public and private interests, including:

• Pueblo Licensed Beverage Association
• Pueblo Community Health Services
• City of Pueblo Municipal Court
• Crossroads Managed Care Systems, Inc.
• City Cab
• Allstate Insurance
• Farmers Insurance
• Parkview Medical Center (hospital)
• Standard Sales Co. (alcoholic beverages distributor)
• University of Southern Colorado
• Youth and Family Academy Charter School
• North Mesa Elementary School
• Budweiser
• Coors
• Pueblo City Police Department
• Pueblo Fire Department
• Colorado State Patrol
• Pueblo County Sheriffs’ Office
• Pueblo Youth Services Bureau
• Pueblo City/County Health Department

Although Crossroads is the lead organization charged with the administration of the Smart Roads program, involvement by other members of the Pueblo community was most important. Law enforcement, including the Pueblo Police Department and the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office, attend all Smart Roads meetings and send representatives to program activities. Education, medical, and insurance professionals are all represented in the coalition. Representatives from the hospitality industry, including two major beer companies, as well as local bars and taverns, also attend coalition meetings and cooperate with Crossroads in the distribution of table tents and other collateral materials.

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6 Colorado’s DUI law makes driving with a BAC of .10 or higher a violation in itself, and no other indicator of impairment is necessary to constitute a violation. Colorado passed a .08 law effective July 1, 2004, although the Smart Roads program was conducted when Colorado still had a .10 per se law.

7 Evaluated in Lacey, J.H., and Jones, R.K. (2000) Evaluation of a Full-Time Ride Service Program: As-pen, Colorado’s Tipsy Taxi Service. Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

8 See BBC Research and Consulting. (2000). Pueblo Focus Groups, Denver, CO: Author.

9 This cost will vary widely across States.

10 Cactus Marketing Communications of Denver, Colorado, prepared the marketing communications plan for this campaign.

11 See BBC Research and Consulting (2001). DUI: The $8,866 Hangover. Denver, CO: Author.