Improving Traffic Safety Culture in the United States The Journey Forward Deaths on our Roads 40,000 1970 2005 Safety Culture What is it? 607 14th Street, NW, Suite 201 How can we measure it? Washington, DC 20005 800-993-7222 What can we do to change it? www.aaafoundation.org April 2007 About the Sponsor This compendium of papers was funded by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in Wash- ington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the AAA Foundation is a not-for-profit, publicly supported charitable research and education organization dedicated to saving lives by preventing traffic crashes and reducing injuries when crashes occur. Foundation funding is provided by voluntary contributions from AAA/CAA and their affiliated motor clubs, from individual members, from AAA-affiliated insurance companies, as well as from other organizations and sources. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety distributes this compendium at no charge, as a public service. It may not be resold or used for commercial purposes without the explicit permission of the Foundation. It may, however, be copied in whole or in part and distributed for free via any medium, provided the AAA Foundation and respective authors are given appropriate credit as the source of the material. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this compendium repre- sent the views of their respective authors and do not represent the views of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety nor of any organization or agency by which any of the authors is employed or with which any of the authors is affiliated. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety assumes no liability for the use or misuse of any information, opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommen- dations contained in these papers. If trade or manufacturers’ names are mentioned, it is only because they are considered essential to the object of the article, and their mention should not be construed as an endorsement. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety does not endorse products or manufacturers. © 2007 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety Table of Contents Preface J. Peter Kissinger................................................................................................................i Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................iii Introduction.............................................................................................................................v Finding the next cultural paradigm for road safety Lawrence P. Lonero...........................................................................................................1 Effecting a traffic safety culture: Lessons from cultural change initiatives Connie L. McNeely and Jonathan L. Gifford....................................................................21 Traffic safety in the context of public health and medicine David A. Sleet, T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, and Ann M. Dellinger.................................................41 The making of driving cultures Jane Moeckli and John D. Lee.........................................................................................59 Overcoming barriers to creating a well-functioning safety culture: A comparison of Australia and the United States Allan F. Williams and Narelle Haworth.............................................................................77 The role of public surveys in measuring program effectiveness and improving road safety Paul Allen and G. William Mercer.....................................................................................93 A review of safety culture theory and its potential application to traffic safety Douglas A. Wiegmann and Terry L. von Thaden, and Alyssa Mitchell Gibbons............113 Moving America towards evidence-based approaches to traffic safety Deborah C. Girasek........................................................................................................131 Addressing behavioral elements in traffic safety: A recommended approach Robert Foss....................................................................................................................149 The perceived legitimacy of intervention: A key feature for road safety Frank P. McKenna..........................................................................................................165 Creating a Total Safety Traffic Culture Chris S. Dula and E. Scott Geller...................................................................................177 A barrier to building a traffic safety culture in America: Understanding why drivers feel invulnerable and ambivalent when it comes to traffic safety Karen Smith and John W. Martin...................................................................................201 Supporting highway safety culture by addressing anonymity James W. Jenness.........................................................................................................213 Customized driver feedback and traffic-safety culture David W. Eby and C. Raymond Bingham......................................................................227 The culture of traffic safety in rural America Nicholas J. Ward............................................................................................................241 Changing America’s culture of speed on the roads Barbara Harsha and James Hedlund.............................................................................257 Aspects of meaning and relevance in news media coverage of motor vehicle accidents John W. Martin, Karen Smith, and Monica Worth..........................................................273 Road traffic in the Netherlands: Relatively safe but not safe enough! Fred Wegman.................................................................................................................281 Road safety culture development for substantial road trauma reduction: Can the experience of the state of Victoria, Australia, be applied to achieve road safety improvement in North America? Eric Howard and Peter Sweatman.................................................................................305 A case for evidence-based road-safety delivery Ezra Hauer.....................................................................................................................329 Development of an implementation infrastructure to support a traffic safety culture Barbara Thomas Harder.................................................................................................345 Is a strong safety culture taking root in our highway agencies? Geni Bahar and Nesta Morris.........................................................................................367 Preface J. Peter Kissinger As a traffic safety professional, I know that roughly 43,000 Americans are killed each year in traffic crashes, and that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for children, teens, and young adults in this country. It is quite simply what motivates me, and my associates, each and every day, to learn more about what can be done to reduce this public health crisis. Unfortu- nately, I do not believe the average motorist in this country appreciates the full implications of these tragedies. I know that over the past several decades the traffic safety community has been successful in substantially lowering the risks associated with motor vehicle travel. But, I also know that over the past decade progress has slowed, despite the fact that much research suggests that we could probably cut this toll in half or better if only we would implement a few proven lifesaving countermeasures that we already know about. So, why don’t we? That is the central question that emerged from a two-day workshop of nationally recognized traffic safety experts convened by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety to consider a long-term traffic safety research agenda. What we heard, over and over again from the group, was that we as individuals, and our society on the whole, are simply way too willing to accept the toll from these traffic crashes, apparently as an inevitable consequence of the mobility we enjoy. At the same time, contrast this apparent “complacency” with what has happened since September 11, 2001. Americans have accepted the expenditure of billions upon billions of dollars to combat terrorism, and have accepted innumerable inconveniences and intrusions into their privacy that previously would have been considered unacceptable. When we get “outraged” about something, our society can marshal the requisite resolve and resources to make a difference! Although the U.S. has improved traffic safety in many ways, we’re not doing as well as many other countries. Prior to the mid 1960s, the U.S. enjoyed the greatest level of traffic safety in the world by any measure; whereas today, the U.S. has fallen behind most of Western Europe in terms of fatalities per mile driven, and ranks near the bottom of the OECD in terms of traffic fatalities per capita. The evidence suggests that these countries have achieved—and are still achieving—greater safety gains than the United States. Experts believe this is because they are willing to set more ambitious safety performance goals than we are, and because they are willing to do more to achieve them. In this country, the official safety performance goal of the U.S. Department of Transportation is to reduce the motor vehicle fatality rate to one fatality per 100 million vehicle-miles of travel by the year 2008. The most recent statistics reveal