Congress directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to work together to “educate the motoring public on how to share the road safely with commercial motor vehicles” (CMVs) in 2004 and 2005. Washington State piloted this project because of its success in implementing other highway safety enforcement projects such as the Washington State Patrol (WSP) Step Up and R.I.D.E. program in Seattle. The local project put a trooper in a large truck to observe unsafe driving behaviors and radio other troopers ahead who then stopped and ticketed the driver. Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT) combined the Step Up and R.I.D.E. program with high visibility enforcement directed at unsafe driving by any vehicle around CMVs. The Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) chose four high crash interstate corridors, each approximately 25 miles in length. Two intervention corridors received TACT media and increased enforcement: I-5 near Bellingham, and I-5 near Olympia. Two comparison corridors received no TACT media or increased enforcement: I-5 near Kalama, and I-90 just west of Spokane. The evaluation provides 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 behavior improved, and observed behavior confirmed the self reports (Author/publisher)
Abstract