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STEPS TO SUCCESS IN HIGHWAY SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS

MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONSAND

OUTREACH DECISION SUPPORT TOOL

PLANNING WORKBOOK

for the

FHWA SAFETY PROGRAM

June 2007, Revised January 2009Prepared by Janet Ewing, Office of SafetyFHWA Safety Communications & Outreach Program

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1: STEPS FOR SUCCESSFUL PLANNING..........................................................................................1

1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................2

2 STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF A HIGHWAY SAFETY PRODUCT..................5

3 STEPS FOR PROMOTING INCREASED SUPPORT FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY

PROGRAMS......................................................................................................................23

4 STEPS FOR DEVELOPING ROADWAY USER AWARENESS AND EDUCATION

PROGRAMS......................................................................................................................35

PART 2: INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE...............................................................................................40

5 GUIDANCE ON MARKET PENETRATION GOALS FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY

PRODUCTS.......................................................................................................................41

6 GUIDANCE ON IDENTIFICATION OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES............43

7 GUIDANCE ON INFORMATION NEEDS OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES...47

8 GUIDANCE ON KEY ISSUES AND CONCERNS OF MAJOR HIGHWAY SAFETY

AUDIENCES.....................................................................................................................53

9 GUIDANCE ON KEY INFLUENCERS OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES..............................58

10 GUIDANCE ON HIGHWAY SAFETY ROLES OF DOT AGENCIES AND OFFICES............61

11 GUIDANCE ON MARKETING RESOURCES ASSESSMENT......................................................68

12 GUIDANCE ON SELECTION OF MARKET COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES..........................70

13 GUIDANCE ON KEY PUBLICATIONS FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES.............................78

14 GUIDANCE ON SELECTION OF MARKET COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS.........83

15 GUIDANCE ON SELECTION OF CUSTOMER FEEDBACK MECHANISMS..........85

Part 1: Steps for Successful Planning

FHWA SAFETYCOM PLAN JUNE 2007- REVISED JANUARY 2009 DECISION SUPPORT TOOL 1

1 INTRODUCTION

This workbook was designed for FHWA Safety Program staff, including the FHWA Office of Safety, the FHWA Office of Safety Research and Development, the FHWA Resource Center, and the FHWA Division Offices. The workbook is designed to help you:

Plan marketing, communications, and outreach activities at the project, product and program levels.

Think through planning decisions like a marketing and outreach professional.

Access knowledge and information relevant to FHWA safety marketing, communications and outreach.

If you don't have much time, do what you can. Your Plan does not have to be lengthy or overly formal. Checklist 1 lists the basic questions that you need to answer to ensure that you are using resources effectively.

FHWA SAFETYCOM PLAN JUNE 2007 – REVISED JANUARY 2009 DECISION SUPPORT TOOL 2

CHECKLIST 1. BASIC ELEMENTS OF MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH PLANS

What are the major benefits of my product or program for the customers or partners?

What are the major drawbacks (market barriers) for the customers or partners?

What's my message (how do I communicate the benefits and overcome the barriers?

Who are the customers or partners I must reach in order to effectively promote the product or program? How can I gain input from them? What are the most effective tools and techniques for reaching them?

What trade or professional organizations represent these customers? How can the FHWA work with them to promote this product or program?

Who are the product or program champions? How can they help?

What is the plan for distribution of marketing and outreach tools, once they are developed? What actions need to be taken? What's the schedule? How will distribution be tracked?

How will I know when I have succeeded in achieving my marketing, communications and outreach objective? What is my goal? How am I tracking progress?

In using the tool, please keep in mind:

The tool is intended to provide guidance and help.

Not all of the guidance or help will be applicable to your project, product or program.

Use what you can; there are no right or wrong answers.

The decision-making tools in Part I and the Information and Guidance in Part II have been designed to make it easier for agency-wide staff to work together to plan successful communications and outreach programs that will achieve our highway safety goals. The workbook is not just for engineers, or researchers, or planners or management ─ it is intended to help safety staff from all disciplines increase their skills and knowledge regarding communications and outreach. While the workbook was designed specifically for the FHWA Safety Program, much of the content is of use to anyone planning a highway safety-related communications and outreach activity or program. The guidance also may be useful for outreach and communications planning for other, non-safety FHWA programs.


STEP 1: IDENTIFY OBJECTIVEKEY QUESTION: What's my chief objective?

Which of the three objectives below most closely describes what you want to achieve? Based on your answer, turn to the appropriate section of the workbook. If none of these selections appear to apply to your objective, contact your Communications & Outreach specialist for assistance.

FHWA SAFETYCOM PLAN JUNE 2007 – REVISED JANUARY 2009 DECISION SUPPORT TOOL

Implementation of a Highway

Safety Product

GO TOTAB 2

What am I trying to achieve?

Increased Support for Roadway Safety

Programs

GO TOTAB 3

Roadway User BehaviorChange

GO TOTAB 4

4

2 STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF A HIGHWAY SAFETY PRODUCT

STEP 2: DEFINE TARGET MARKET(S)KEY QUESTION: Where do I want to implement this highway safety product?

If you want to implement a highway safety product –

It is important to define the major market sectors you want to reach. This will drive the scope of your marketing plan.

Major market sectors for highway safety products are (1) State DOTs; and (2) Local Transportation Agencies.

Clarify whether you are seeing to implement your highway safety product on state highways, local roadways, or both. Then fill in the blank in the box.

The market sector(s) I am targeting in my highway safety product marketing and outreach activities:

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________


STEP 3: DEFINE GOALSKEY QUESTION: How will I know when I have achieved my objective?

If you can, set quantitative goals for market penetration in each market sector.

Where practical, establish time frames for achievement of the market penetration goal or goals.

Setting performance goals will enable you to track progress and report the cost-effectiveness of your marketing and outreach activities.

Turn to Tab 5 for Guidance on Market Penetration Goals for Highway Safety Products. The guidance includes some examples of performance goals.

Now, fill in the blanks in the box.

The performance goal(s) that I have established for my marketing and outreach activities are:

___________________________________________________________________________

The time frame(s) for implementation of the goal(s):

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

STEP 4: DEFINE AUDIENCEKEY QUESTION: Who must be reached in order to achieve this objective?The next step in developing the marketing program for your highway safety product is to define the specific audience sectors and sub-sectors that must be reached in order to achieve the outcome you have defined. Doing a good job of audience analysis will enable you to:

Tailor the message appropriately, and

Determine the best communications channels (associations and publications) to work with and through to reach the user sub-sectors.

The major audience sectors for highway safety are:

State Transportation Policymakers

State Transportation Practitioners

Local Transportation Policymakers

Local Transportation Practitioners.


You must also identify the specific sub-sectors within these major sectors that will have the most influence on use of your product. One of the most common failings of marketing plans is failure to target the precise product user sub-sectors.

Tab 6, Guidance on Identification of Highway Safety Audiences lists the major sector and sub-sector audiences relevant to highway safety. If you are not certain whether some of these audiences are relevant to your project, see also Tab 7, Guidance on Information Needs of Highway Safety Audiences, which explains the role of each group in highway safety. If you are still having difficulty, ask for help from your Communications & Outreach Specialist.

If you are developing a plan for implementing a product within a specific State DOT, you will need to identify the person or persons responsible for safety at that State DOT. If you already have relationships with any of these persons, approach them first.

The specific audience sectors and sub-sectors that I must reach in order to achieve my product implementation goal are:

1. Audience:________________________________________________________________

a) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

b) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

c) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

d) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

2. Audience:________________________________________________________________

a) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

b) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

c) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

d) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

3. Audience:________________________________________________________________

a) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

b) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

c) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________

d) Sub-sector_________________________________________________________


STEP 5: IDENTIFY DESIRED AUDIENCE ACTION OUTCOMES

KEY QUESTION: What do you want them to do?

For each audience sub-sector, identify the desired action outcomes of your marketing activities. These should be linked to the specific goals you have set in Step 3. Use verbs. For example

Chief State DOT Maintenance Engineers will –

Budget for implementation of the new product.

Approve use of the product if proposed by their staff, and

Direct staff to use this product.

State DOT Safety Engineers will –

Propose use of this product

Propose budget for use of this product

Arrange training for use of this product

Install and maintain this product.

Tab 7, Guidance on Information Needs of Highway Safety Audiences, explains the role of each group in highway safety and should be helpful to you in identifying audience action outcomes.

The actions that each audience sub-sector needs to take in order for me to achieve the product implementation goal(s) I established in Step 3 are:

Audience Sub-sector: _______________________________ Actions:______________________________









STEP 6: IDENTIFY AUDIENCE INFORMATION NEEDSKEY QUESTION: What information do my customers need?

Now that you know what, specifically you want your target audience(s) to do, put yourself in their shoes. Imagine having their jobs.

Why might they hesitate to take the action steps you have just identified? Make a list of these typical resistance factors.

Develop a counter-argument for each resistance factor that you have listed. What information is needed to support the counter-strategy?

Suppose you know your target audience generally supports the product you are promoting, but must convince others in order to implement the product. What information do they need in order to convince others?

What information do they need in order to justify their decision if they do decide to implement your product?

Once they decide to implement, what information do they need in order to install, operate, and maintain the product?

For each action outcome you have identified in the previous step, make a list of the information your customers need in order to take that action. For example:

DESIRED ACTION INFORMATION NEEDEDBudget for implementation of this new product.

Arrange for training for use of this product.

Install and maintain this product.

What is the cost-effectiveness of this product?

Are there resources to support training?

Is the product easy to install and maintain? Is tech support available?


Tab 7, Guidance on Information Needs of Highway Safety Audiences, explains the basic information needs of each group in highway safety and should be helpful to you in identifying audience information needs. Remember the guidance is just a tool to get you started; it is much better if you think through these questions on your own, and consult some members of the audience sub-sectors you are targeting.

The actions that each audience sub-sector needs to take in order for me to achieve the product implementation goal(s) I established in Step 3 are:








STEP 7: DETERMINE AVAILABILITY OF MARKETING INFORMATION

KEY QUESTIONS: How much of the information my customers need is already available? Is the available information solid and usable? Is there are way to initiate or hasten the development of needed information?

Now that you have identified the information that the potential customers for this product will need, you need to do an inventory to find out how much of that information is readily available. For a relatively new product that has been field-tested and implemented by a few early adopters, you might create a chart that looks something like this:

Type of Information Available In Development Not Available

Cost of Product Documentation of Cost-Benefit of Product XSuccess Stories Training Technical Assistance Benefit comparison w/ competing products X


Examine the existing information and make an independent assessment about whether they are appropriate and sufficient to meet the needs of your potential customers. If some of the information that you will need is not yet available but is in development, check on the development timeline and see if it meets your needs. If not, is there a way to hasten the development of needed information. If some of the information you need is not available at all, part of your marketing plan should be to find a way to develop the needed marketing information.

My plans for developing marketing information for my product implementation program are:

Information Needed:________________________ Development Approach:_______________________________

Information Needed: ________________________ Development Approach:_______________________________




STEP 8: IDENTIFY KEY AUDIENCE INFLUENCERSKEY QUESTION: Who influences my target audience(s)?

Identifying the organizations and publications that have a strong influence on your audience(s) is very important to your marketing strategy. Influencers can help you:

Leverage resources for marketing and outreach;

Channel information to the target audience;

Gain credibility (the influencers often have more credibility with their constituents than the Government).

Ask questions such as:

What trade associations do they belong to?

Which committees and subcommittees have the most influence on my potential customers?

Which major conferences and meetings do my potential customers attend?

What trade and professional publications do my potential customers read?

Which Web sites do they use and trust?

How can I tap into their peer exchange networks?


Tab 9, Guidance on Key Influencers of Highway Safety Audiences provides relevant information, as does Tab 13, Guidance on Publications for Highway Safety Audiences.

The key organizations and publications that influence my audience(s) are:

Sub-sector:__________________________ Influencer(s) :___________________________________________






STEP 9: COORDINATE WITHIN DOT KEY QUESTION: What other FHWA and DOT offices and agencies work with my target audiences on related issues?

Don't forget to coordinate with other DOT offices and agencies that work with your potential customers on issues related to highway safety. DOT's highway safety customers expect DOT programs to be coordinated. The target audiences for highway safety are deluged with information overload and competing activities, and consequently they are not attending to, or retaining, much of the information that is sent to them. Working cooperatively with other FHWA and DOT offices and agencies provides an opportunity to deliver a more coordinated, concise, and powerful message, to leverage resources and to communicate to broader audiences.

Tab 10, Guidance on the Highway Safety Roles of DOT Agencies and Offices, provides relevant information.

Other DOT agencies and offices that I need to coordinate with to develop and implement my product marketing program are:

Agency or Office:________________________ Point of Contact (POC) :________________________________

Agency or Office:_______________________________________ POC :________________________________





STEP 10: ASSESS RESOURCES KEY QUESTION: What resources are available to support my product marketing activities?

The next step is to assess the resources that are available to support your product marketing activities. It's not all about money! Resources include:

Funds

Currently available

Available next fiscal year

Potentially available (be creative!)

Non-financial resources

FHWA/DOT staff resources

FHWA /DOT consultant resources

Partner organization resources (especially key influencers)

Communications media (professional and trade press; Web)

See Tab 11, Guidance on Highway Safety Marketing Resources Assessment.

The status of the resources I need for my product promotion is:

Type of Resource Currently Available Next Fiscal Year Potentially AvailableFunding

FHWA/DOT staff resources

FHWA consultant resources

Partner organization resources

Trade publications

Web publications

Other resources


STEP 11: SELECT MARKET COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES

KEY QUESTION: What market communications strategies are most appropriate given my target audience's information needs and preferences, the information I need to convey, and the resources available to me?

Now that you have analyzed exactly what you wish to communicate, you have identified your precise audience(s), and you have determined the marketing resources available to you, you are ready to select the market communications strategies that are most appropriate for marketing your highway safety product given:

Your target audience(s) information needs and preferences;

The information you need to convey; and

The resources available to you.

Consulting Tab 12, Guidance on Selection of Market Communications Strategies, and Tab 14, Guidance on Selection of Market Communications Channels, fill out the table below.

The marketing communications strategies that I have selected to reach my audience(s)

are:

Communications Strategy Audience Sub-sector(s) Reached


STEP 12: IDENTIFY CUSTOMER FEEDBACK MECHANISM

KEY QUESTION: How will I know whether the customers are satisfied with the product?

The final step is to identify a customer feedback mechanism. This will help you to:

Assess the usefulness of the product and the need for further product refinements.

Assess whether your marketing strategies are adequately addressing customer information needs.

The feedback mechanism should tie back to each of the performance goals that you established in Step 3. If the performance goal that you set is not achieved, the customer feedback mechanism should help you identify the pinpoint reasons.

For example, if you fell short of a target goal for a certain proportion of customers to receive the product or hear the message, the feedback mechanism needs to identify where the communications channel broke down, and how it can be corrected.

If your customers say the received a message but did not read it or understand it, you need to ask why. Was it considered too long, unattractive, or not important? The answers could provide useful information for re-writing, re-design or re-formatting.

If you miss a product implementation target, determine whether the problem is that they don't know about the product, don't need the product, don't have resources to implement the product, or don't have confidence in the product.

Schedule customer feedback activities so that you will be able to receive timely feedback during the implementation process that will enable you to make mid-course corrections based on the feedback that will enhance your potential for success.

Examples of feedback mechanisms include:

Inquiring during meetings with customers whether they are using the product. If they are not using it, find out why not. If they are using it, ask how well it is working and how it might be improved.

Web-based Community of Practice discussion groups (interactive).

E-mail / Web comment box.

Surveys (mail, telephone, at conferences).

Focus groups (one-time meetings to obtain user input and feedback).

User groups (ongoing group to share implementation information).


See Tab 15, Guidance on Selection of Feedback Mechanisms.

The customer feedback mechanisms that I will use to determine customer satisfaction with this product are:

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

STEP 13: CREATE YOUR PRODUCT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

KEY QUESTIONS: What specific tasks need to be accomplished to implement the product marketing plan? Who will be responsible for each task? What is the time frame?

Now that you have completed your preplanning, you are ready to create an action plan for achieving your product marketing goals. You will build the action plan from the framework that you have built already.

PRODUCT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FRAMEWORK

In Steps 2-12 of this workbook, you created the framework for your product implementation plan, as shown below.

Step 2. The market sector(s) I am targeting in my highway safety product marketing and outreach activities:

____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________


Step 3. The performance goal(s) that I have established for my marketing and outreach activities are:

_____________________________________________________________________

The time frame(s) for implementation of the goal(s):

_____________________________________________________________________

Step 4. The specific audience sectors and sub-sectors that I must reach in order to achieve my product implementation goal are

_____________________________________________________________________

Step 5. The actions that each audience sub-sector needs to take in order for me to achieve my product implementation goal are:

Audience Sub-sector: _______________ Actions:_________________________________




Step 6. The information needs that each audience sub-sector needs to take in order to take the desired actions are:

Audience Sub-sector Action: _______________ Information Needed:___________________




Step 7. The status of the information that is needed to develop a marketing program for this highway safety product is:

Type of Information Available In Development Not Available


My plans for developing marketing information for product implementation program are:

Information Needed:_______________ Development Approach:________________________



Step 8. The key organizations and publications that influence my audience(s) are:

Sub-sector:____________________ Influencer(s) :_________________________________




Step 9. Other DOT agencies and offices that I need to coordinate with to develop and implement my product marketing program are:

Agency or Office:_______________ Point of Contact (POC) :__________________________




Step 10. The status of the resources I need for my product promotion is:

Type of Resource Currently Available Next Fiscal Year Potentially Available


Step 11. The marketing communications strategies that I have selected to reach my audience(s) are:

Communications Strategy Audience Sub-sector(s) reached

Step 12. The customer feedback mechanisms that I will use to determine customer satisfaction with this product are:

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

BUILDING YOUR ACTION PLANLook back at each step above and list actions that need to be taken in relation to that planning step. For each action, assign a responsible party (a person or a group) and a time frame. Note where actions must be coordinated. The actions will vary according to the specifics of your product. A portion of an example action plan is shown below to get you started.

Step Actions Needed Responsible Party Time Frame Comments

Step 3: Performance Goals

How will performance be measured?

Performance Milestones drive the timeframe for the overall implementation plan.

How will performance data be collected?Who will collect and analyze performance data?

Step 7: Information Status

Initiate development of needed marketing info.

You will need the information to be available prior to development of your key marketing materials.

Consider partnering w/ influencers or other DOT/FHWA offices to develop marketing info.

Accelerate development of marketing info.



Step 8: Influencers Meet w/ influencers – Ask for input on

analysis of audience sub-sectors (Step 5)

– Ask for input on assessment of info needs (Step 6)

– Ask for input on info status (Step 7)

– Ask for resources for project (Step 10).

Identify the best person or group to approach each influencer group. Ask for help from the FHWA staff liaisons in identifying the approach.

Note that influencers can provide valuable input and resources during many steps in pre-planning; plan to consult them early.

Coordinate contacts with influencer organizations through appropriate channels and staff liaisons. Where appropriate, also coordinate through other DOT agencies and offices (Step 9).

Explore opportunities to partner.

Consider forming an advisory committee comprised of reps from influencer groups to guide the product marketing program.

Step 9: Other DOT Agencies & Offices

Meet w/ appropriate program/project managers. Learn about their related activities; solicit and attend to their input regarding your proposals and plans.

Seek input and resources during pre-planning; plan to consult them early.

Especially when dealing with influencer groups that are new to the FHWA safety program, other DOT agencies and offices can be very helpful in identifying helpful contacts and resources. Consider partnering; consider asking them to serve on advisory committees.

Step 10: Resources

Assessment of existing resources, both internal and external.

Thoroughly investigate resources within the FHWA safety programs, within other DOT agencies and offices, and among influencer organizations.

Action plan for getting resources from internal and external sources.

Timing of resource availability will drive what can be accomplished each fiscal year.

Step 11: Market Communications Strategies

Develop a work plan for each individual marketing tool. – What is the budget – What are the

subtasks? – What are the interim

and final deliverables?

– What is the work schedule?

– Who will review the deliverables?

Who is the FHWA person responsible for implementation of the marketing strategies? Are consultants involved? Define responsibilities down to the subtask levels, where appropriate.

If your marketing strategies include events and activities, create an outreach calendar. This calendar frequently will drive the delivery dates for many of the other marketing materials.

Consider establishing a marketing committee that includes reps from audience sectors and influencer groups to oversee development and review of marketing tools.



Step 12: Customer Feedback

For each customer feedback tactic you have identified, create an action plan.

Who will be responsible for gathering the customer feedback?

When will the customer feedback be available?

Your plan should say how the customer feedback will be incorporated into planning for future activities.

Begin building your own action plan using a template like this.


1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13



14

15

16


3 STEPS FOR PROMOTING INCREASED SUPPORT FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY PROGRAMS

STEP 2: DEFINE PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCE(S)KEY QUESTION: Who decides how great the resources will be for highway safety programs? Who decides how resources for highway safety programs are dispersed?If you want to increase funding and support for highway safety programs, you will need to determine who makes the decisions regarding support levels for the specific highway safety programs you are promoting. The decisions include both how big the pie will be that is, the share of total available resources that will be designated to highway safety programs; and how the highway safety pie is cut the share that goes for specific programs or jurisdictions. These decision-makers are the primary audience(s) for your outreach and communications program.

The major audience sectors that decide how resources for highway safety are dispersed include state and local transportation policymakers.

You also will need to define the specific audience sectors and sub-sectors that must be reached. Doing a good job of audience analysis will enable you to:

Tailor the message appropriately, and

Determine the best communications channels (associations and publications) to work with and through to reach the user sub-sectors.

Tab 6, Guidance on Identification of Highway Safety Audiences lists the major sector and sub-sector audiences relevant to highway safety. If you are not certain whether some of these audiences are relevant to your project, see also Tab 7, Guidance on Information Needs of Highway Safety Audiences, which explains the role of each group in highway safety. If you are still having difficulty, ask for help from your Communications and Outreach Specialist.

The primary audience sectors and sub-sectors that I must reach to influence resource levels for highway safety programs are:1. Audience____________________________________________________________

a) Sub-sector__________________________________________________________

b) Sub-sector__________________________________________________________

c) Sub-sector__________________________________________________________


STEP 3: IDENTIFY KEY AUDIENCE INFLUENCERSKEY QUESTION: Who influences the decision-makers?

Influencers are groups that provide information and/or exert constituent pressure on decision-makers. Generally, you need to reach both decision-makers and influencers to effectively promote increased resources for highway safety programs.

Influencers can help you:

Leverage resources for outreach and communication;

Channel information to the primary target audience;

Gain credibility (the influencers often have more credibility with their constituents than the Government).

Ask questions such as:

What trade associations do my primary audiences (the decision-makers) belong to?

What trade associations do their staff and constituents belong to?

Within these trade associations, which committees and subcommittees have the greatest influence on highway safety policy and programs?

Which major conferences and meetings do the decision-makers, their staff, and their constituents attend?

What trade and professional publications do the decision-makers and their influencers read?

Which Web sites do they use and trust?

How can I tap into their peer exchange networks?

See Tab 9, Guidance on Key Influencers of Highway Safety Audiences.

The key groups, organizations and publications that influence my audience(s) are:

Audience Sub-sector:_________________________ Influencer(s) :______________________________________









STEP 4: COORDINATE WITHIN DOT KEY QUESTION: What other FHWA and DOT offices and agencies work with my target audiences on related issues?

Don't forget to coordinate with other DOT offices and agencies that work with your potential customers on issues related to highway safety. DOT's highway safety customers expect DOT programs to be coordinated. The target audiences for highway safety are deluged with information overload and competing activities, and consequently they are not attending to, or retaining, much of the information that is sent to them. Working cooperatively with other FHWA and DOT offices and agencies provides an opportunity to deliver a more coordinated, concise, and powerful message, to leverage resources and to communicate to broader audiences.

See Tab 10, Guidance on the Highway Safety Roles of DOT Agencies and Offices.Other DOT agencies and offices that I need to coordinate with to develop and implement my communications and outreach program are:

Agency or Office:__________________________ Point of Contact (POC) :_______________________________

Agency or Office:__________________________ POC) :_____________________________________________





STEP 5: DEFINE PROGRAM BENEFITSKEY QUESTIONS: What outcomes does your highway safety program promise to achieve? Why is the proposed program strategy better than alternatives?

Before they vote for, or budget for, highway safety programs or program elements, decision-makers want to know the cost-benefits of highway safety investments. While we can safely assume that no one is against highway safety, the reality is that investment in the elements of highway safety programs must compete with other worthy pubic investment opportunities, including investments for highway construction and operations, as well as non-transportation investments. Decision-makers want to know specifics about how a proposed highway safety program or program element will improve highway safety in their jurisdiction. They also want to know why your proposed program strategy or technology is better than alternatives.

Ideally, you will be able to present cost/benefit data and analyses that document that the proposed resource expenditure will yield a solid return on the public investment, and a better return than other options. Success stories documenting how other state and local jurisdictions have benefited from similar programs also are very effective tools for reaching decision-makers.


My proposed highway safety program will improve highway safety in the state or local jurisdiction I am working with in these ways: _____________________________________________________________________

I will use the following evidence to support these benefit claims: _____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

STEP 6: IDENTIFY BENEFITS FOR INFLUENCERS KEY QUESTIONS: How do my program benefits relate to the agendas and concerns of the influencers?

An important principle of effective communication is to secure the audience's attention by shaping messages that relate to issues that are of major concern to the target audience. Tab 8, Guidance on Key Issues and Concerns of Major Highway Safety Audiences, presents the results of focus groups with representatives of major highway safety audiences where the relationship between their key concerns and current DOT highway safety programs were explored.

Take the time to learn how your program’s benefits and outcomes can serve the agendas and concerns of the groups and organizations that influence the decision-makers. Investigate the current action agenda of each organization or group that you listed in Step 3. Consider how your program benefits fit with these action agendas. Where there are strong synergies, those groups are potential partners and allies.

My program's benefits and outcomes will serve the agendas and concerns of influencers in these ways:

Influencer Group #1___________________________________________________________






STEP 7: IDENTIFY COMPETING ISSUES AND LEVERAGE ISSUE SYNERGIES

KEY QUESTIONS: What is my program competing with? How can I leverage the synergies among apparently competing issues?

Put yourself in the decision-maker’s shoes. They have to choose which programs receive resources, and there are not enough resources to support all of the worthwhile programs. Your job is to make it easy for them to justify allocating more resources to road safety.

Roadway safety generally is not at the top of the priority list for either state or local communities. (See Tab 8, Guidance on Key Issues and Concerns of Major Highway Safety Audiences.) Here are some strategies for leveraging issue synergies:

Leverage widespread concern about driver behavior issues to promote engineering solutions. Recognize that the driver behavior issues that are addressed within DOT by NHTSA (seat belt use, drunk driving, aggressive driving, cell phone use) are very strong issue priorities with key stakeholder groups, and there is much to be gained by promoting comprehensive roadway safety programs that will address improvement of both driver behavior and roadway infrastructure safety.

Leverage public safety issues to promote roadway safety improvements. At the local level, public safety (crime prevention and emergency services) ranks as one of the top priorities in every community. Encourage transportation to partner with public safety and push for roadway safety improvements to improve emergency response times. Law enforcement, fire and rescue, and emergency medical service (EMS) vehicles cannot respond to an emergency scene when they are stuck in traffic. By preventing traffic incidents, communities can prevent one-half of traffic delay and also reduce the number of incidents that emergency responders must handle.

Leverage congestion mitigation concerns to promote roadway safety improvements. Reducing roadway incidents is a very effective way to reduce congestion. Traffic incidents account for about one-quarter of all congestion on U.S. roadways. For every minute that an Interstate travel lane is blocked, four minutes of travel delay results. Incident-related delay causes more concern to motorists than recurring congestion because roadway users plan their trips with regular congestion in travel time calculations.

Leverage economic development concerns to promote roadway safety improvements. Safer roadways reduce travel delay, speed the delivery of people and goods, and improve a community’s quality of life.

Leverage school safety issues to promote safer community mobility. At the local level, leverage the concern for education and school safety by partnering with the educational community on campaigns for safe travel to school (school bus safety, pedestrian safety).

Particularly at the local level, roadway safety programs often compete for scarce resources with more pressing public concerns, such as congestion, crime (public safety), and education. If this is the case in your jurisdiction, make a table like the one below to show how roadway safety initiatives can contribute to addressing the competing public priorities. For example:


Priority Issues in My Jurisdiction How Issue Relates to Roadway Safety Programs

Congestion Highway safety programs reduce the frequency and severity of traffic incidents, which account for about one-quarter of all congestion on U.S. roadways.

Public Health Crashes cost society more than $150 billion a year and consume a greater share of the nation's health care costs than any other cause of illness or injury. Reducing the frequency and severity of crashes will free medical resources for other health needs.

Public Safety Reducing the number and severity of crashes frees law enforcement, fire, and EMS resources to attend to other types of incidents. More congestion-free roadways increase the access of emergency responders to incident scenes.

Education Safe Routes to School promotes student health and reduces school transportation costs. School Bus Safety programs reduce student injuries and death.

STEP 8: PLAN YOUR APPROACH KEY QUESTION: How am I going to approach the decision-makers?

Armed with the information you have gathered so far, you are ready to plan your approach to building support for your highway safety program. You have identified the key decision-makers. How will you approach them? Approach strategies are listed below. You may decide to use one or more of them, sequentially or simultaneously:

Directly: Make a list of decision-makers to visit, call, or invite to an event or meeting. Approach those you already know first, to obtain their suggestions about how to approach others. If you know some of the decision-makers are very resistant to change, your job is to figure out a way to address their concerns, and enlist the help of other decision-makers and key influencers in overcoming the resistance.

Through Influencers: In Step 3 you made a list of influencer groups to approach for support. Talk to someone who knows that group and determine the best way to engage them: the appropriate person to contact; whether to invite them to an event or meeting, request an appointment with them, call them, or write them a letter. Once you have them on board, seek their advice and help in reaching the decision-makers.

Through Champions: Within the group of decision-makers or influencers, are there any individuals who are already strong supporters of your program? By all means use them! Decision-makers and influencers generally place more credibility on peers than other sources of information; wherever possible have champions promote your program to their peers. If you have no champion, consider ways to create one.

Through publications and presentations: Article placements in magazines, newsletters, and on Web sites that the decision-makers read are usually effective in promoting programs. Presentations at key industry and professional meetings also can build support if the presentations are effectively targeted toward the concerns of the audience. Tab 14, Guidance on Selection of Market Communications Channels, lists the publications and meetings that are most effective for reaching various highway safety audiences.

Make a list of the approaches you plan to use for each decision-maker group you are targeting.

Decision-Maker Group Approach


STEP 9: DEVELOP OUTREACH MATERIALSKEY QUESTION: What outreach materials are most appropriate given my target audience's information needs and preferences, the information I need to convey, and the resources available to me?

Now that you know exactly what your audiences will be and the context within which you will be presenting your information, you need to decide what materials you will want to support your outreach program. Materials often used to promote programs include:

Briefing points – a list of key points for use in preparing for meetings with decision-makers or influencers, or when preparing presentations.

Prepared remarks – presentation text. Ideally these should be geared specifically for the audience. (See Tab 7: Guidance on Information Needs of Highway Safety Audiences.)

Slide shows with text – these should also be tailored specifically for each audience.

Brochures.

Exhibits.

Articles and Web content (In Step 8 you may have already decided to promote your program through article placements).


Tab 12: Guidance on Selection of Market Communications Strategies will help you select the most appropriate outreach materials. Tab 14: Guidance on Selection of Market Communications Channels, gives further guidance on the most effective strategies for reaching key audiences. After consulting these, fill out a table like this one.

The outreach materials that I need to reach my audience(s) are:

Outreach Materials Targeted Audience Sub-sector(s)

STEP 10: DEVELOP A COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH PLAN

KEY QUESTIONS: What specific actions will be needed to implement the communications and outreach strategies you have identified? Who will be responsible for each action? What is the timeframe? Now you are ready to develop your communications and outreach plan, which will be a specific list of actions, responsible parties, and time frames. You will build the action plan from the framework that you have built already.

OUTREACH PLAN FRAMEWORK

In Steps 1-7, you created the framework for your communications and outreach plan, as shown below.

Step 2. The primary audience sectors and sub-sectors that I must reach in order to influence resource levels for highway safety programs are:

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________


Step 3. The key groups, organizations and publications that influence my audience(s) are:

Audience Sub-sector:_______________ Influencer(s) :______________________________





Step 4. Other DOT agencies and offices that I need to coordinate with to develop and implement my product marketing program are:


Agency or Office:_______________ POC:_________________________________________




Step 5. My proposed highway safety program will improve highway safety in my state or local jurisdiction in these ways:

____________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

I will use the following evidence to support these benefit claims:

____________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Step 6. The following groups are potential partners and allies in my efforts to promote additional resources for highway safety:

____________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________


Step 7. Roadway safety initiatives can contribute to addressing the following issues in my jurisdiction:

Priority Issue How Issue Relates to Roadway Safety Programs

Step 8. The approaches I will use to reach each decision-maker group are:

Decision-Maker Group Approach

Step 9. The outreach materials I need are:

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

BUILDING YOUR ACTION PLAN

Look back at each step above and list actions that need to be taken in relation to that planning step. For each action, assign a responsible party (a person or a group) and a time frame. Note where actions must be coordinated. A portion of an example action plan is shown below to get you started.


Step Actions Needed Responsible Party Time Frame CommentsStep 4: Other DOT Agencies & Offices

Meet w/ appropriate program/project managers. Learn about their related activities; solicit and attend to their input regarding your proposals and plans.

Seek input and resources during preplanning; plan to consult them early.

Especially when dealing with influencer groups that are new to the FHWA safety program, other DOT agencies and offices can be very helpful in identifying helpful contacts and resources. Consider partnering; consider asking them to serve on advisory committees.

Step 5. Program Benefits

Gather data to support benefit claimsDevelop success stories

Step 7. Relationship of Benefits to Priority Public Issues

Develop talking points and presentations

Step 8: Approaches for outreach to decision-makers

Meet w/ influencers – Seek advice and help in reaching decision-makers

Ask for resources for project. Identify the best person or group to approach each influencer group. Ask for help from the FHWA staff liaisons in identifying the approach.

Note that influencers can provide valuable input and resources during many steps in pre-planning; plan to consult them early.

Coordinate contacts with influencer organizations through appropriate channels and staff liaisons. Where appropriate, also coordinate through other DOT agencies and offices (Step 4).Explore opportunities to partner.

Consider forming an advisory committee comprised of reps from influencer groups to guide the communications and outreach program.

Determine specifically which meetings and conferences will be attended

Assign a person to preparing for the meeting or conference. For major conferences, a team may be needed, with tasks assigned to several different people.

Develop checklists detailing all of the tasks necessary for preparation for major conferences, with a deadline for completing each task.

Determine what presentations will be given, where.

Assign a person responsible for giving the presentation.

Get deadlines for calls for papers for major conferences.

Determine which publications (print, Web) will be targeted for article placement attempts.

Assign responsibility for writing articles, for reviewing them, and for placing them.

Determine lead time for article placements in the targeted Web sites or publications.

Develop Communications & Outreach Calendar listing all meetings, presentations, and publications deadlines.

Circulate the master calendar to the entire project team.

Consolidated calendar will reflect all interim milestones and deadlines.


Step Actions Needed Responsible Party Time Frame CommentsStep 9: Outreach materials

Determine whether any of the needed outreach materials already exist, or are in development.

Assign a person responsible for surveying existing outreach materials.

Review existing outreach materials and determine whether they meet your needs, or need to be revised.

If revision is necessary, assign person responsible.

Develop a work plan for developing each new outreach tool. – What is the budget – What are the

subtasks?

What are the interim and final deliverables?What is the work schedule?

Who will review the deliverables? Who is the FHWA person responsible for managing development of the outreach materials? Are consultants involved? Define responsibilities down to the subtask levels, where appropriate.

The outreach calendar (see Step 8) frequently will drive the delivery dates for the outreach materials.Consider establishing a communications and outreach committee that includes reps from audience sectors and influencer groups to oversee development and review of outreach tools.


4 STEPS FOR DEVELOPING ROADWAY USER AWARENESS AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The “4 E’s” of highway safety – engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency medical services – are the elements of a comprehensive approach to highway safety. The FHWA’s safety mission focuses primarily on highway safety engineering. This workbook is designed for FHWA safety staff and their customers, and so focuses primarily on marketing and outreach for highway safety engineering products and programs.

This section on awareness and education programs is included because the FHWA often partners with other organizations in the highway safety education efforts. The FHWA Office of Safety's bicycle and pedestrian safety programs, for example, include community awareness and education components. In developing and implementing community awareness and education programs, the FHWA coordinates closely with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the lead DOT agency for highway safety education and enforcement issues, with a record of successful public information campaigns to increase seat belt use and discourage drunk driving.

It's a whole different ballgame: The audiences for roadway user awareness and education programs are broader than the audiences for the other types of FHWA safety marketing, outreach, and communications programs. Here we are targeting various sectors of the general public, rather than groups of decision-makers and practitioners involved in the funding, management, and operations of transportation agencies.

Because the audiences are so much broader, highway safety public awareness campaigns use mass marketing strategies (advertising, media campaigns, mass mailings) which the FHWA safety programs generally do not use for communications and outreach to trade and professional audiences. Highway user education programs involve development of curricula for particular sub-sectors (students at various grade levels, adults, older drivers, commercial drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians), and devising methods for disseminating the educational materials and encouraging their use.

For both awareness and education programs, the need must be considered to bring highway safety messages to the multiplicity of language and cultural groups within the U.S. population. These generally require publishing outreach materials in multiple languages and partnering with language and cultural organizations that can assist with their dissemination. Because they need to reach broader audiences, public awareness and education programs generally require more resources to achieve meaningful progress. The involvement of professional public relations and advertising talent is generally (but not always) needed for public awareness campaigns, and professional educators and curriculum developers are usually needed for public education programs.

The suggested steps that follow assume that you are working with partner organizations and focus on questions that can help you focus efforts, broaden partnerships and leverage resources to achieve greater results from highway safety awareness and education campaigns.


STEP 2: SEEK AND CONVENE PARTNERSKEY QUESTIONS: What organizations share an interest in this highway user awareness and education issue? How can we motivate them to provide resources and work jointly on highway user public awareness and education activities? How can we convene partnership meetings and support partnership activities?

As an FHWA safety staff member, you may not be able to bring major resources for public awareness and education campaigns to the table. What you can do, however, is equally, or perhaps more important. You can organize and convene a broad range of partners to work together on highway safety awareness and education campaigns. Partnerships are especially helpful in assisting with broad-scale information dissemination, which is one of the major challenges in public awareness and education programs.

For example, a safety engineer in the FHWA New Jersey Division Office organized a “12 Months of Traffic Safety” public outreach campaign, which highlights a different traffic safety issue each month of the year using New Jersey-specific brochures and posters.

The FHWA staffer brought together representatives from the New Jersey DOT, the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, the New Jersey Department of Education, the Insurance Council of New Jersey, and the AAA Club of New Jersey to plan and implement the campaign. The campaign is funded by a public-private partnership. No FHWA funds were used.

An average of 20,000 brochures is distributed each month. Distribution channels include state police, local police departments, MVC inspection stations and regional offices, legislators, driving schools, driver education programs, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, insurance companies, AAA offices, NJDOT community relations, metropolitan planning organizations, New Jersey Transit, local traffic safety advocacy groups, and transportation management associations.

Cast a broad net in searching for potential partners. Tab 9, Guidance on Key Influencers of Highway Safety Audiences, lists many of the major associations that are involved with highway safety issues. However, this list is primarily geared toward issues related to highway safety engineering. Take the time to talk to people outside the highway safety engineering community to learn about potential partners who do not traditionally work with the FHWA safety programs.

Convening a committee or working group with representation from all of the partners is an excellent way to manage a public awareness or public education campaign.


STEP 3: REACH OUT TO OTHER DOT AGENCIES AND OFFICES

KEY QUESTION: Who else within DOT has experience in managing highway safety awareness and education programs similar to the one I am planning?

Take the time, early on, to talk with contacts at other DOT agencies and offices that have experience in highway safety public awareness and education programs. Tab 10: Guidance on the Highway Safety Roles of DOT Agencies and Offices, will help you determine whom to contact. The DOT staff contacts will be able to tell you about campaigns DOT has sponsored, and to identify additional public interest groups, trade and professional associations, industry groups and coalitions that may have previous experience in campaigns similar to the one you are considering.

STEP 4: DEFINE PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCE(S)KEY QUESTIONS: Who are we trying to reach? Why? Where do they live? What do we know about them?

Are you trying to reach all highway users? Just drivers? Just pedestrians? Just bicyclists? Older drivers, younger drivers? Students? Nationwide – or just some regions? Just a state? Just a city? If it's a nationwide campaign, are you focusing on cities, suburbs, or rural areas?

What are the demographics of the geographic areas you are targeting? Are non-English speakers a substantial portion of the population?

Do the crash statistics back up your audience choices? For example, if data show that older drivers are disproportionately involved in pedestrian crashes in your state, you may want to consider targeting them as a distinct audience sub-sector in your statewide pedestrian safety awareness campaign.

Keep in mind that if you don't have a lot of resources, you may still be able to make progress by implementing a modest campaign targeted at a relatively small but strategic audience, especially if you create a broad partnership to assist with information dissemination. The New Jersey example cited above (see "Step 2: Seek and Convene Partners") is a good example of a low-cost campaign that leverages the resources of many partners.


STEP 5: DO YOUR HOMEWORKKEY QUESTIONS: Who has conducted similar campaigns in the past? What strategies did they use? How successful were they? What were the lessons learned? Are there any outreach or education materials already available that could be used or adapted for use in the current campaign?

Take the time to do your homework. Often it is possible to use or adapt outreach materials (brochures, posters, advertisements, slogans, public service announcements) from previous campaigns, which will save both time and money.

Researching previous campaigns can start with a Web search (including consulting the Office of Safety's Web content for public awareness and education programs). Call the organizations that have published highway safety awareness and education materials and ask for information about how they managed these campaigns, what the outcomes were, and lessons learned.

STEP 6: ESTABLISH CAMPAIGN GOAL(S)KEY QUESTIONS: What behavior change are we seeking from the target audience(s) of highway users? How will we measure the behavior change? How much change are we trying to achieve? During which time frame(s)?

Establishing clear quantitative goals for public awareness and education programs will enable you to track the cost-effectiveness of resource expenditures for your public awareness and education campaigns. Having done your homework, you will be aware of the outcomes of similar programs that have been conducted in the past. This knowledge will help you set realistic and achievable goals for your program.

STEP 7: SEEK TARGET AUDIENCE INPUTKEY QUESTIONS: How do members of the target audience(s) perceive the highway safety concerns we are dealing with? What outreach strategies work best for these audiences? What messages are most effective?

Before developing outreach materials, take the time to learn more about each target audience. Focus groups are often used for this purpose, because they provide an opportunity to probe more deeply into issues as they are raised by participants. Opinion surveys also are used, but they tend to be more static and results can be more difficult to interpret; another problem is that the answers can only be as good as the questions asked, and it can be difficult to phrase effective questions without good knowledge of the audience. Other options are talking to the staffs of trade associations or publications that address this audience, consulting community leaders.


The purpose of learning about the target audience is to determine their baseline attitudes about the highway safety behavior that is the subject of your campaign. Knowing how they currently think about the behavior will enable you to craft messages for changing the current attitude and the behavior. Another purpose is to test the effectiveness of various message options.

Finally, you can learn what outreach strategies will work best for the specific target audience(s): Public service announcements? Community meetings? Brochures? Bus or train ads? For example, in one immigrant community the parish priest was very helpful in recommending a community meeting after Mass on Sunday morning, with babysitting provided, as the most effective way to gather input from his community, where pedestrian and bicycle safety was a major concern. Most of the community members don't read, even in their native languages, and were unlikely to come out to meetings during the week because they worked long hours, relied on public transportation, and generally did not have babysitting options.

STEP 8: TEST DRAFT OUTREACH AND EDUCATION MATERIALS

KEY QUESTION: How do members of the target audience(s) react to the draft materials? What suggestions do they have for improvements?

Continue to seek input from members of the target audience(s) as you develop the campaign. Ask representatives of the target audience(s) to review any draft outreach and education materials. Listen to the input and make modifications necessary to assure that the materials have the greatest possible impact.


Part 2: Information and Guidance

FHWA SAFETYCOM PLAN JUNE 2007DECISION SUPPORT TOOL 40

5 GUIDANCE ON MARKET PENETRATION GOALS FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY PRODUCTS

The first step in setting goals for your product implementation plan is to determine the current status of product implementation. As the figure below illustrates, products in the highway industry tend to be adopted in a cycle that resembles a bell curve. The first product customers are "early adopters," willing to take the risks involved in using the new product either because the product promises a solution to one of their pressing needs, or they are especially enthusiastic champions of the new product. In the usual course of events, the average customers wait and see how things turn out for the early adopters before they commit. Late adopters may have many different reasons for waiting: they may be very conservative and risk-adverse, simply less progressive in general, or perhaps they had difficulty finding the resources to implement the new product, or just did not need it.

FHWA SAFETYCOM PLAN JUNE 2007DECISION SUPPORT TOOL 41

Figure 1. Trend line of product implementation by highway industry.

If you are marketing a product that already has been adopted by 25 of the 50 states, clearly your product has hit the top of the bell curve. If your product was successfully field tested but hasn't been used anywhere beyond that, you are at the far left, before the beginning of the "early adopter" stage.

Having determined your starting point, you now need to determine where you want to go, and how fast. While the answers to those questions will depend on many factors, here are a few helpful pointers:

The development of product performance goals should be coordinated among all members of the safety team: the FHWA Office of Safety R&D; the FWHA Office of Safety; and the FHWA Resource Center. Each member of the team brings an important perspective to the issue of market penetration goals and time frames.

It is very unusual to achieve 100 percent utilization of any product among state highway agencies. Seventy-five to 80 percent utilization is a reasonable ultimate target for many product implementation plans.

FHWA SAFETYCOM PLAN JUNE 2007 – REVISED JANUARY 2009 DECISION SUPPORT TOOL

Early Adopters

Average Adopters Late

Adopters

Num

ber o

f Ado

pter

s

Time

42

The early adopter phase is the most critical part of the implementation process. If your product is in the very early stages, set an initial goal of utilization by 5 or 10 percent of users within an initial time period; then goals for increasing utilization over subsequent time periods, until you have successfully launched the product into the "average adopter" phase.

Initiatives to encourage early adopters and promote peer exchange among them (such as Lead State, Focus State, or Opportunity State initiatives) are often used to jump-start implementation.

Three metrics for establishing goals and associated performance measure that can be considered for any type of marketing campaigns are:

The portion or percentage of the target audience that received the product, or heard the message

The portion or percentage pf the target audience that read and understood the product or message

The portion or percentage of the target audience that began using the product, or applying the message, as a result of the marketing campaign.

Examples of useful performance goals are:

Product is used by 25 percent of state DOTs within 3 years

Product is used by 80 percent of state DOTs within 5 years.

These goals are useful because they are measurable, specific, and specify a time frame. An example of a performance goal that is not as useful is:

Widespread adoption of the product by state DOTs.

What is "widespread?" How will it be measured? Over what time period will adoption be achieved?


6 GUIDANCE ON IDENTIFICATION OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES

One of the most important steps in developing an effective outreach and communications strategy is to accurately identify the precise audience sub-sectors that you are trying to reach.

Doing a thorough job of audience analysis will enable you to:

Tailor the message appropriately (see Tab 7: Guidance on Information Needs of Safety Audiences), and

Determine the best communications channels (associations and publications) to work with and through to reach these sub-sectors (see Tab 9: Information on Key Influencers of Highway Safety Audiences).

Major Sectors

The principal audiences for FHWA Safety Program messages, services, and products are four major stakeholder sectors:

State transportation policymakers

State transportation practitioners

Local transportation policymakers

Local transportation practitioners

Major Sub-sectors

Within each major sector are distinct sub-sectors, many of which are represented by trade or professional associations. Here is a list of the major sub-sector groups that are involved in highway safety. In some cases, there are subspecialties within the sectors; it is important to drill down to the lowest level when doing an initial audience analysis.

State Transportation Policymaker Sub-sectors

State Transportation Agency CEOs

State Highway Agency CEOs

Chief Highway Engineers

State Legislators

State Governors' Offices

State Law Enforcement Policymakers


State Transportation Practitioner Sub-sectors

State Transportation / Highway Engineers

– State Chief Engineers– State District Engineers– State Transportation Safety Engineers

- Department heads - Staff

– State Highway Operations Engineers - Department heads - Staff

– State Highway Maintenance Engineers - Department heads - Staff

– State Transportation Design Engineers - Department Heads - Staff

– State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinators

State Highway Safety Specialists

State Transportation Planners

- Department Heads - Staff

State Transportation Researchers

- Department Heads - Staff

State Highway Patrol

- Chiefs - Patrol Officers

Local Transportation Policymaker Sub-sectors

Transportation / Public Works Directors

City, County and Regional Elected and Appointed Officials

– Mayors – City Managers – County Executives – County Board Members – Town Board Members – City Council Members – Regional Council Members / Transportation Planning Board Members – Planning Board Members

Local Law Enforcement Policymakers


Local Transportation Practitioner Sub-sectors

In urban and suburban jurisdictions, the following types of professionals may have responsibility for various aspects of highway safety issues:

Local transportation and public works directors

Local traffic engineers

Local transportation safety engineers

Local traffic operations engineers

Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinators

Local planners

In rural jurisdictions, roadway safety audiences include:

Local (county, town, or village) highway supervisors

Local (county, town, or village) highway maintenance engineers

Local (county, town or village) highway maintenance workers

Local law enforcement

How do I determine which audience sectors and sub-sectors I need to address?

Here are some general rules of thumb.

If you are implementing a highway safety product, generally your main audience is highway transportation practitioners, rather than decision-makers. The specific type of practitioner will depend on the product, of course. In general, within any sub-specialty, your goal will be to reach the department heads (for example, chief maintenance engineers) with a more general marketing message about the safety product benefits, and the rank-and-file practitioners with the general marketing benefits message, plus more detailed technical information.

If you want to increase support for roadway safety programs, decision-makers are a primary audience, but practitioners, particularly the department and agency heads, are equally important because they have a strong influence on decision-makers. Many influencer groups also are primary audiences for support of roadway safety programs.

If you want to influence roadway user behavior, your audience is, of course, the roadway user. Roadway users are not one of the principal audiences for the FHWA Safety Program, so they have not been discussed here.

Why isn't the research community listed as a principal audience? The FHWA Safety Program focuses principally on the safety of the roadway infrastructure. Research, demonstration, and technology transfer programs to support development and implementation of new safety products and techniques are a major component of the FHWA Safety Program. The transportation research community is one of the FHWA's major safety partners. The research community is not, however, considered to be a "major audience" for the FHWA Safety Program because researchers do not own or manage highway infrastructure. The principal audiences of state and local transportation decision-makers and practitioners have been chosen as "principal" because they are in the position to implement safety solutions on the nation's


roadway system. Note that the research directors and staff at state transportation agencies are listed among the state practitioner sub-sectors.

The research community is an extremely important influencer in the highway safety community. The Tab 9 Guidance on Key Influencers of Highway Safety Audiences lists the Transportation Research Board and its key Research Advisory Committee, and the university transportation centers. The research community has major influence on the agenda for development and implementation of new highway safety technologies, and is a major channel for disseminating information about safety problems and solutions. When you work with the planning tools, you will be prompted to consider how to reach out to influencer groups.


7 GUIDANCE ON INFORMATION NEEDS OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES

Unless you tailor marketing and technology transfer activities to meet the specific information needs and information-gathering preferences of your target audience(s), success is unlikely.

The table below presents basic information about the FHWA's primary highway safety audiences – why you need to reach them, what they need to know, and how they like to get their information.

Audience How does this audience impact highway safety?

What does this audience need to know in order to take action on highway safety issues?

How do they like to get their information?

State Transportation PolicymakersState Transportation Agency CEOs

Develops and implements agency-wide program to address statewide transportation priorities and to implement the governor's transportation agenda.

Responsible for state compliance with core federal highway programs, including HSIP.

Why highway safety should be an important statewide priority: i.e. public health and safety, economic & congestion impacts of highway incidents.

Public opinion about highway safety and about state highway safety programs.

Quantitative data on the cost-benefits of key, state-specific strategies for improving highway safety.

Resources (federal and other) for meeting safety goals and requirements.

From their staff: Very succinct presentations and briefing papers.

From experts (including FHWA reps).Very succinct presentations and briefing papers.

From peers: AASHTO Board of Directors.

At meetings: AASHTO annual meeting, AASHTO Spring Meeting.

Highway Agency CEOS

Head of highway agency responsible for implementing state highway programs and policies and administering SHA. Supports transportation agency CEO in issues related to highway policy.Responsible for state implementation of core federal highway programs, including HSIP

Same as above, plus:

– Quantitative information about how state is performing in hwy safety.

– Budgetary info & recommendations – how can the state best leverage available resources for improving highway safety? Why?

Same as above.

Highway Agency Chief Engineers

Manages implementation of state highway program, including: highway design, construction, maintenance,

Same as above, plus: – Specific cost/benefit

information on new hwy safety products,

From their staff: Presentations and briefing papers.

From peers: AASHTO Standing





operations, standards, traffic devices, safety, and materials.

Approves budget for safety program, including any new safety product, technology, service, or strategy.

technologies, services & strategies.

– Product features and benefits compared to other options for addressing the same function.

– History of successful product use by other highway agencies (testimonials especially effective).

Committee on Highways (SCOH).

At meetings: AASHTO annual meeting, AASHTO spring meeting, TRB annual meeting, ITE annual meeting.

From technical papers and publications: NCHRP, TRB, ITE Journal, AASHTO Journal, Public Roads.

State Legislators Approve state highway funding.

Approve state law enforcement funding.

Write highway safety laws.

Public opinion about highway safety and about state highway safety programs.Why highway safety should be an important statewide priority: i.e. public health and safety, economic & congestion impacts of highway incidents. Specific legislative strategies for improving highway safety.Quantitative data on the cost-benefits of key, state-specific strategies for improving highway safety.

Peers: National Council of State Legislatures Transportation Committee.

Constituents: Letters, Visits, Meetings.

Staff: Very succinct presentations and briefing papers.

State Governors' Offices

Establishes statewide transportation priorities and the governor's transportation agenda.

Key constituency for federal funding for core federal highway programs, including HSIP.

Why highway safety should be an important statewide priority – i.e. public health and safety, economic & congestion impacts of highway incidents. Public opinion about highway safety issues and programs.Quantitative data on the cost-benefits of key, state-specific strategies for improving highway safety.

Peers: National Governors Association Economic Development & Commerce Committee's Transportation Subcommittee.

State Law Enforcement Policymakers

Key partner for highway safety enforcement and education initiatives. Key partner for improving highway safety data. Budgets for state highway safety patrols.

How comprehensive statewide highway safety improvement programs can increase highway safety.How engineering strategies contribute to achievement of fatality reduction goals and responder safety.

Peers: International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) – State and Provincial Section – Law Enforcement Stops and

Safety (LESS) Committee.

State Transportation PractitionersState Chief Engineers Manages implementation of

state highway program, including: highway design,

– Specific cost/benefit information on new hwy safety products,

From their staff: Presentations and briefing papers.





construction, maintenance, operations, standards, traffic devices, safety, and materials.

Approves budget for safety program, including any new safety product, technology, service, or strategy.

technologies, services & strategies.

– Product features and benefits compared to other options for addressing the same function.

– History of successful product, service, or strategy use by other highway agencies (testimonials especially effective).

From peers: AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways (SCOH).

At meetings: AASHTO annual meeting, AASHTO spring meeting, TRB annual meeting, ITE annual meeting.

From technical papers and publications: NCHRP, TRB, ITE Journal, AASHTO Journal, Public Roads.

State District Engineers

Responsible for managing highway program in District.

Same as above. Same as above.

Traffic Operations Engineers

Generally responsible for traffic signals, speed limits, traffic volumes, signs and markings, traffic management, ITS systems, incident management at TMCs

Same as above, plus more detailed information on product deployment, implementation, training and maintenance.

Meetings, peer networks, tech transfer publications, technical papers, demonstrations, training courses.

Transportation Safety Engineers

Generally responsible for Safety Planning, Traffic Safety Records, Work Zone Safety, Motorcycle Safety, Railroad Crossing Safety, Impaired Driving, Seat Belts, Child Safety


Meetings, peer networks, tech transfer publications, technical papers, training courses.

State Highway Maintenance Engineers

Generally responsible for maintenance of roadway assets but may have safety and on-scene operations-related duties, including traffic incident management. In some states, maintenance depts. do it all.



State Transportation Design Engineers

Technical support for traffic and safety engineering: HSIP and RR Crossing safety improvement programs; geometric features, signing, pavement marking, electrical and highway safety improvement projects; and traffic and safety engineering investigations.

Guidance and best practices for improving the safety design of transportation facilities.


State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinators

Responsible for bicycle and pedestrian planning, design, traffic engineering, construction, operation, maintenance, and safety.

Guidance and best practices for improving bicycle and pedestrian planning, design, engineering, maintenance and safety.

Meetings, peer networks, bike/pedestrian newsletters, Web sites, tech transfer publications, technical papers, training courses.

Governors Highway Safety Representatives

Develop and implement state highway safety programs. The programs are funded

Motorcycle, school bus, pedestrian and bicycle safety, traffic records,

Governors Highway Safety Association.





through the "402" program – proportional federal grants created in Section 402 of Highway Safety Act of 1966.

occupant protection, impaired driving and speed enforcement.How comprehensive statewide highway safety improvement programs can increase highway safety.How engineering strategies contribute to achievement of fatality reduction goals and responder safety.

State Transportation Planners

Developing and implementing a comprehensive, multi-modal statewide transportation planning process and plan, and for providing technical assistance to counties and regional planning organizations in fulfilling their respective roles in the process.

Principles of safety planning. Meetings, peer networks, tech transfer publications, technical papers, training courses.

American Planning Association.

State Transportation Researchers

Developing research programs and conducting research on issues of concern to their State DOT.

Safety research needs and priorities of State and local transportation agencies.

Research papers, conferences, research publications.

State Highway Patrol Enforcement of motor vehicle laws on state highways; response to and investigation of traffic incidents on state highways.

Public awareness and education tools; responder safety information and technologies.

Peers, meetings and conferences, law enforcement publications.

Local Transportation PolicymakersTransportation / Public Works Directors

The Director is responsible for management of the local roadway system. Transportation is often part of the public works department in local jurisdictions.

Most cost-effective ways to decrease injuries and fatalities on local roadways.

Peers, meetings and conferences, APWA.

City, County and Regional Elected and Appointed Officials – Mayors – City Managers – County Executives – County Board

Members – Town Board

Members – City Council

Members – Regional Council

Members / Transportation Planning Board Members

Elected and appointed officials are responsible for developing and implementing local and regional plans, policies, laws and regulations pertaining to roadway safety.


Peers, meetings and conferences.

Governing magazine.





– Land Use Planning Board Members

Local Law Enforcement Policymakers

Responsible for implementing local laws pertaining to roadway safety.

Most cost-effective ways to decrease injuries and fatalities on local roadways, including emergency responder deaths.


Local Transportation PractitionersUrban and SuburbanLocal Transportation and Public Works Directors

The Director is responsible for management of the local roadway system. Transportation is often part of the public works department in urban local jurisdictions, where the Director is more likely to be a transportation engineering professional.


Peers, meetings and conferences, PTI.

Local Traffic Operations Engineers

Generally responsible for traffic signals, speed limits, traffic volumes, traffic management, ITS systems (major metro), incident management at TMCs (major metro)

Tools, techniques and training for improving local traffic operations.

Peers, meetings and conferences, ITE.

Local Transportation Safety Engineers

Safety Planning, Traffic Safety Records, Work Zone Safety, Motorcycle Safety, Railroad Crossing Safety, Impaired Driving, Seat Belts and Child Safety

Information about the comprehensive highway safety planning process.


Local Highway Maintenance Engineers

Maintenance of local roadway assets, including winter weather operations.

Tools, techniques and training for improving highway maintenance.


Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinators

Responsible for bicycle and pedestrian planning, traffic engineering, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and safety.

Bicycle and pedestrian safety issues and tools.

Meetings, peer networks, bike/pedestrian newsletters, Web sites, tech transfer publications, technical papers, training courses.

Local Planners Responsible for developing and implementing local or regional transportation and land use planning processes and plans.

Information about safety-conscious planning and the comprehensive highway safety planning process.

Peers, meetings, American Planning Assn, Assoc. of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, National Assn of Regional Councils.

RuralLocal (county, town, or village) highway supervisors

In rural areas the highway supervisor may have a highway maintenance worker background.


Peers, meetings, APWA, NACo, LTAP, APWA.

Local (county, town, or village) highway maintenance engineers

Maintenance of local roadway assets including winter weather operations.

Same as above, plus practical information on how to apply new technologies.

Peers, meetings, training courses, LTAP, APWA.





Local law enforcement

Responsible for enforcing highway safety laws and, with EMS and transportation, for response to traffic incidents.

Public information and education to improve roadway user behavior.



8 GUIDANCE ON KEY ISSUES AND CONCERNS OF MAJOR HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES

The FHWA held focus groups with key highway safety stakeholder groups to learn about how they viewed highway safety issues. Focus group sessions were held with:

Local Decision-Makers National Association of Counties (NACo) Transportation Steering Committee (includes local elected and appointed officials, principally representing rural areas);

Local Practitioners Public Technology Institute (PTI) Transportation Council (includes transportation agency directors from major metropolitan areas; and

State Policymakers & Practitioners American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety (SCOHTS).

An important objective of the focus groups was to obtain unbiased baseline information about the issues that the stakeholders associate with roadway safety, and determine issue priorities within each stakeholder group.

AREAS OF CONSENSUS AMONG KEY STAKEHOLDERS

Some important themes were repeated in all of the focus groups, and represent areas of strong consensus among key stakeholder groups.

Need to Reduce Fatalities: Stakeholders agree that reducing the Nation’s highway death toll is important. State highway agencies reported that emphasis on roadway safety has increased in their agencies in recent years.

Need for Comprehensive Planning and Focused Goals: Stakeholders want to agree upon roadway safety priorities, and create a coordinated, comprehensive National plan for achieving common objectives. They want to shift funding resources toward the top priorities and reduce support for programs and countermeasures that address safety concerns that are not associated with large numbers of fatalities. Work zone safety and highway/rail grade safety were frequently cited as areas where resources seem to be greater than the associated fatality numbers would seem to support.

Need for Broad Partnerships to Develop and Implement National Plan: Stakeholders agreed that the organizations that impact roadway safety tend to be too fragmented. Stakeholders frequently called on DOT to provide better coordination of FHWA, NHTSA, and FMCSA toward common goals, and also cited the need for associations such as AASHTO, ITE, GHSA, NACo and PTI to work together more effectively.

There was broad consensus that the FHWA should expand its outreach to the local roadway safety community. Especially noteworthy is the input from the AASHTO SCOHTS calling on the FHWA to increase outreach activity targeting local stakeholders.


The need for stronger partnerships with public safety – particularly with law enforcement, but with other first responders as well – was cited frequently. These partnerships are needed at the National, State and local levels.

Need for Reliable, Uniform, Timely Roadway Safety Data: There was very strong consensus among all of the stakeholder groups that participated in the focus groups that improving the reliability, uniformity and timeliness of data about roadway incidents is a major priority. The availability of accurate and up-to-date data is fundamental to roadway safety program planning. Stakeholders agree that the law enforcement community needs greater resources to support incident data reporting. Stakeholders also want uniform standards for incident data to support comparison of data across communities.

Rural Road Safety: Both state and local transportation officials (policymakers and practitioners) recognize that improving rural road safety is essential to reducing the National death toll, because the majority of deaths occur on rural roadways. Stakeholders also frequently cite the fact that two-lane roadways are especially hazardous. While transportation officials from urban areas understandably see this as less of a priority than their more rural counterparts, state transportation officials fully support increased focus on the safety of rural roadways, and call for an increase in federal funding for this purpose.

Safety Conscious Planning: Transportation officials from urban localities and state agencies embrace safety conscious planning, recognizing that it is easier to plan ahead to build communities that provide safe mobility, than to retrofit safety features into existing infrastructure to try to correct inherently unsafe conditions. Note that the implementation of safety conscious planning often involves stakeholders such as elected officials, the business community (both retail and builder/developers), as well as community residents. Effective communication with these stakeholders is essential.

Lane Departure: Both local elected officials and state transportation officials are seeking ways to reduce lane departure collisions.

Public Awareness and Education: Mention roadway safety, and stakeholders immediately call for public awareness and education programs to increase public support for roadway safety programs, and to reduce hazardous driver behaviors. Public apathy about highway deaths is frequently cited as a major concern, as is driver behavior (seatbelt, aggressive driving, cell phone, etc.), and the need for more enforcement activity.

ROADWAY SAFETY CONCERNS OF KEY STAKEHOLDER GROUPS

The stakeholders reported the following issues as priority roadway safety concerns. The concerns are divided into three categories (1) issues directly relevant to the FHWA's Safety Program's core mission; (2) issues relevant to DOT's highway safety mission; and (3) issues that would require broad-scale partnerships to address:


Priority Roadway Safety Concerns of Key Stakeholders that Relate Directly to the FHWA's Safety Mission Need to lower fatality rates (NACo and AASHTO)

Rural road safety (NACo, AASHTO)

2-lane safety improvements

Funding of roadway safety

need for dedicated and sustained rural road safety funding (NACo, AASHTO)financing safety improvements and comprehensive roadway safety programs

(NACo, PTI)

Pedestrian safety (all stakeholder groups)

Lane departure collisions (NACo and AASHTO)

Need to include local roads in road safety planning (NACo)

Roadway design (NACo, AASHTO)

Nighttime visibility (PTI)

Inform elected officials of results of roadway safety audits so they can move resources to address needs

Priority Roadway Safety Concerns of Key Stakeholders Relevant to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Highway Safety Mission Driver behavior (NHTSA) (all stakeholder groups)

speedingaggressive drivingcell phone usered light runningteen seat belt use

Crash data (NHTSA/FHWA) (all stakeholder groups)

need for accurate dataneed for standardizationresources for law enforcement to produce better accident reporting

Tort liability of local transportation agencies for failure to meet highway standards (FHWA) (NACo, PTI)

Driver training (rural 2-lane) (NHTSA) (NACo)

National Forest Service and National Park Service environmental policies restrict clearing sight lines on right-of-way (opportunity for FHWA or DOT to work with federal interagency partners to resolve conflicts between environmental and safety concerns) (NACo)


Stakeholder Roadway Safety Concerns and Issues Requiring Broad-based action at the Federal, State and Local Levels Establishing stakeholder consensus and focus on highway safety priorities (AASHTO, PTI)

Need for guidance on how to build community partnerships

Public awareness (NACo, AASHTO

Increased resources for traffic enforcement (PTI)

Motorcycle safety licensing and training (AASHTO)

Driver education (NACo)

Local jurisdiction acceptance of photo enforcement (NACo)

WHERE ROADWAY SAFETY STANDS RELEVANT TO OTHER ISSUES

The FHWA Safety Program and its partners seek to influence state and local policymakers to significantly increase resources and attention toward roadway safety.

In order for the highway safety community to persuade state and local policymakers to shift resources toward roadway safety, roadway safety messages must present a convincing argument demonstrating that roadway safety issues are of equal or greater concern to the other issues competing for the policymakers' commitment and attention.

Analysis of competing issues reveals opportunities to partner and leverage roadway safety with competing, but related, issues. For example, roadway safety is strongly linked to congestion mitigation because more than one-quarter all travel delay on roadways is caused by traffic incidents.

Roadway safety ranks relatively low among state transportation agency priorities, behind new construction, system preservation, and congestion mitigation. Only traffic operations ranks lower. Table 1 shows the results from the AASHTO SCOHTS focus group, where participants were asked to indicate where roadway safety ranks among competing transportation priorities in their state (1 = highest priority, 5 = lowest priority).

1. New Construction

2. System Preservation

3. Congestion Mitigation

4. Roadway Safety

5. Traffic Operations

Table 1: AASHTO SCOHTS Ranking of Where Roadway Safety Ranks Among Competing State Transportation Priorities (1 = highest priority, 5 = lowest priority).


In rural localities, roadway safety is a relatively important issue, behind only budgets, public safety, and schools and education. Table 2 shows results from the NACo focus group, where participants were asked to indicate where roadway safety ranks among competing jurisdiction-wide priorities. Most NACo participants were elected officials from non-urban areas.

1. Budgets (Capital and Operating)

2. Public Safety (Emergency Response, Fire, Law Enforcement)

3. Schools/Education

4. Roadway Safety

5. Traffic Congestion

6. Economic Development

7. Public Works (Trash Collection, Snow Removal, Facilities Maintenance, Water and Sewer)

8. Health and Human Services

9. Homeland Security

Table 2: Where Roadway Safety Ranks Among Competing Non-Urban Local Priorities (Naco)

In urban localities, roadway safety is near the bottom of the priority list, behind public safety, budgets, economic development, schools/education, public works, and traffic congestion. Table 3 shows results from the PTI focus group, where participants were asked to indicate where roadway safety ranks among competing jurisdiction-wide priorities. PTI participants were policymakers and practitioners from urban areas.

1. Public Safety

2. Budgets

3. Economic Development

4. Schools/Education

5. Public Works

6. Traffic Congestion

7. Roadway Safety

8. Health and Human Services

9. Homeland Security

Table 3: Where Roadway Safety Ranks Among Competing Urban Local Priorities (PTI)


9 GUIDANCE ON KEY INFLUENCERS OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES

The table below provides basic information about organizations that influence highway safety audiences. Almost all of the organizations have a Web presence. By searching by organization name, you can learn more about the organization's missions, goals, activities, meetings and publications.

The FHWA has a designated staff liaison for many of these organizations. In order to better coordinate agency-wide highway safety outreach activities, recommended practice is to discuss your needs and goals with the designated FHWA liaisons for each organization. The staff liaison assignments are listed on the Web page at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/about/contactinfo.htm. When you talk to the liaison, find out what the FHWA already is doing with that organization, and how your project might fit in. It is always easier to get your message across when it fits in with key messages or key activities that are already underway.

Organization Principal ConstituencyAAA Foundation for Highway Safety Non-profit dedicated to producing research and educational materials on

highway safetyAssociation of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO)

Urban and transportation planners

American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA)

State motor vehicle administrators

AASHTO-General State highway and transportation officials. CEOs and chief engineers attend annual meeting.

AASHTO-Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety (SCOHTS)

State highway safety engineers participate in SCOHTS.

AASHTO SCOHTSStrategic Highway Safety Plan (Lead States)

State highway safety engineers

AASHTO Standing Committee on Planning

State transportation planners

AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways (SCOH) Subcommittee on Maintenance

State maintenance engineers

AASHTO SCOH Subcommittee on Construction

State highway construction engineers

AASHTO Standing Committee on Rail TransportationRailroad Safety Task Force

State transportation officials

AASHTO SCOH Subcommittee on Traffic Engineering

State traffic engineers

American Highway Users Alliance (AHUA) Nonprofit advocacy organization promoting safe, uncongested highways and enhanced freedom of mobility.


Organization Principal ConstituencyAmerican Public Works Association (APWA)

Local transportation professionals, especially cities but also other local jurisdictions.

American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA)

Road construction contractors

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

Professional Society for Civil Engineers

American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA)

Manufacturers and suppliers of traffic safety equipmentSuppliers of traffic safety services.

Associated General Contractors (AGC) Construction contractors Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Association of State, Provincial, and Federal officials responsible for the

administration and enforcement of motor carrier safety laws in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)

Governors' highway safety representatives

Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Traffic safety engineers employed by state or local agencies, or in private practice.

Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Transportation Safety Council

Transportation safety engineers and researchers

International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)

Law enforcement officials engaged in highway safety activities

IACP State and Provincial (S&P) Section- Senior administrators of State and Provincial Law Enforcement agenciesIACP Highway Safety Committee (HSC) Law enforcement officials engaged in highway safety activitiesInsurance Institute for Highway Safety Nonprofit research and communications organization funded by auto

industryLaw Enforcement Safe Stops (LESS) Subcommittee of HSC


IACP ETATS subcommittee, which establishes uniform standards for automated enforcement equip.


ITS America ITS users, manufacturers, designers and researchers.Lifesavers Diverse public and private-sector highway safety stakeholders

Lifesavers is the premier national highway safety meeting. Over 2000 participants in 2006.

Local Transportation Assistance Program (LTAP) &Tribal Transportation Assistance Program (TTAP)

Transportation and maintenance practitioners who work for county, city, town and village agencies.

National Association of County Engineers (NACE)

County highway engineers (emphasis is on rural and outer suburban – urban county engineers are represented more by APWA).

National Association of Regional Councils (NARC)

Regional urban and transportation planning officials

National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices

Highway traffic control engineers and others with traffic control responsibilities

National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances

Includes reps of law enforcement, state DOTs (AASHTO),FHWA, NHTSA, GHSA, RSF and Independent Insurers.

National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP)

State highway agency-funded highway research

National League of Cities City elected and appointed officialsNational Safety Council (NSC) Traffic The annual Traffic Records Forum brings together professionals who are


Organization Principal ConstituencyRecords Forum involved in all aspects of collecting, managing, and using highway safety

data. Each year, the Traffic Records Program is developed by Association of Traffic Safety Information Professionals (ATSIP).

National Sheriff's AssociationTraffic Safety Committee

Local law enforcement / sheriffs

Network of Employers for Transportation Safety

Employers of all sizes who are engaged in promoting traffic safety in the workplace

Operation Lifesaver, Inc. DriversRoadway Safety Foundation (RSF) The Roadway Safety Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable and

educational organization dedicated to reducing the frequency and severity of motor vehicle crashes by improving the safety of America's roadways.

Transportation Research Board (TRB) International highway safety community, principally researchers, but also decision-makers and practitioners

TRB Research Advisory Committee (RAC) State Research DirectorsUniversity-based Transportation Research Centers

University-based highway researchers


10 GUIDANCE ON HIGHWAY SAFETY ROLES OF DOT AGENCIES AND OFFICES

FHWA Office of Safety

The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA's) Office of Safety provides engineering leadership for the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT's) highway safety mission. The Office of Safety's key mission is to promote safer roadways – particularly safer roadway engineering. The Office of Safety partners with stakeholders to develop and implement technologies and procedures to make the roadways safer.

The Office of Safety staff at the FHWA headquarters building in Washington DC is organized into three program area units, as detailed below.

Office of Safety Design: The Office of Safety Design focuses on highway engineering and construction issues related to safety. Program areas include intersections, geometric design, road safety audits, roadside hardware , road departure (including rumble strips ), railroad crossings , nighttime visibility, and work zones. The Office of Safety Design produces life-saving tools and technologies for improving roadway infrastructure safety.

Office of Safety Programs: The Office of Safety Programs houses cross-cutting programs that address roadway user behavior, including pedestrian/bicyclists, human factors, speed management, and older drivers. The Office of Safety Programs also has staff that provides customer assistance for local programs; and support for state programs, including policy and guidelines assistance. The Office of Safety Programs produces a wide range of tools and technologies and community resources for improving roadway user safety.

Office of Program Integration and Delivery: The Office of Program Integration and Delivery provides many services to support our customers' program management, training, communications, and outreach needs. Services include safety training and education; facts, statistics/data; outreach and communications tools; and other safety tools and technology. The Office of Program Integration and Delivery staff supports the FHWA safety performance measurement, strategic planning, and safety legislation programs. It coordinates with the FHWA Joint Program Office in promoting safety applications of intelligent transportation systems. It supports the safety research program at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, and coordinates with the FHWA Resource Center in transferring research results to our customers.

The principal audiences for the Office of Safety's messages are policymakers and practitioners, rather than the general public. The Office of Safety has strong stakeholder relationships with roadway owners and operators, especially state highway agencies, and with professional associations representing highway and traffic engineers. The Office of Safety's principal products are engineering guidance and implementation tools.

Although the general public is not considered a priority audience at present, the FHWA Office of Safety supports some programs and products geared toward the general public. In the 1990s the Office of Safety created a Read Your Road roadway safety guide for the general public, as


http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/safety.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/tools/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/facts/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/facts/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/training/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/com_resources.htm



http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/policy.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/policy.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/state_program/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/local_program/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/older_driver/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speed_manage/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speed_manage/index.htm


http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/wz/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadway_dept/retro/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/xings/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/xings/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadway_dept/rumble/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadway_dept/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadway_dept/road_hardware/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/state_program/rsa/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/geometric/index.htm

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersections/index.htm

well as an interactive driver education CD, Moving Safely Across America. The Office of Safety Web site also contains some general tips and information for the general public on selected roadway safety topics.

In addition, the Office of Safety supports "National Work Zone Awareness Week" and "Put the Brakes of Fatalities Day," both public outreach campaigns aimed at raising awareness and changing behavior. The Office of Safety's Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety program area also has produced public education materials.

The FHWA Office of Safety's Web site includes a list of staff contacts by subject area at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/about/contactinfo.htm.

Office of Safety Research and Developmentat the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center

The Office of Safety Research and Development (R&D) works closely with stakeholders to identify priority research needs and develop responsive research agendas. The close collaboration continues to ensure that the research is managed to yield usable products and technologies for practitioners, which are carefully field tested and refined to ensure that they are market-ready prior to implementation. Product evaluation completes the product development cycle. Figure 1 illustrates this process.

The Office of Safety R&D has a central database that tracks all of the information about research products in one place: Project status, deliverable milestones, champions, outreach and implementation activities, communications planning, and so forth. TFHRC also maintains extensive mailing list databases. At trade shows, booth visitors are asked to submit their business cards, to choose their fields of interest, and to select which way they prefer to receive information (mail, e-mail, Web, etc.). All of this information is entered into databases that permit development of customized lists for each subject area. Figure 1, below, depicts the research product development process and its relationship to the overall DOT / FHWA strategic planning and performance monitoring processes. Note that input from customers is a key input into program planning as well as product development and evaluation. Customer acceptance is depicted as preceding the initiation of technology transfer – that is, the goal is to confirm that the product is commercially viable and competitive prior to marketing.


http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/about/contactinfo.htm

Annual FHWA Performance Plan & MeasuresAnnual DOT Performance Plan

DOT Strategic PlanFHWA Strategic Plan

Identify & DevelopMulti-year R&TProgram Plans

(CBU/RD&T/Field)

RD&T OfficeProductionCompletion

Acceptance byCustomer

Product Evaluation(Right & Effective

Product)

Meet FHWAPerformance Objectives(Safety, Mobility, etc.)

Safety Mobility Productivity H&NEnvironment

NationalSecurity

OrganizationalExcellence

RD&TMeasurementFramework

CBU

Field

Development

Pilot Studies

Evaluation

T2

ProperCustomer Use

AdjustPlans

AdjustCourse

Based onResults




(CBU/RD&T/Field)




Product)



NationalSecurity



CBU

Field

Development

Pilot Studies

Evaluation

T2

ProperCustomer Use

AdjustPlans

AdjustCourse

Based onResults






(CBU/RD&T/Field)




Product)



NationalSecurity

OrganizationalExcellenceSafety Mobility Productivity H&N

EnvironmentNationalSecurity







CBU

Field

CBU

Field

Development

Pilot Studies

Evaluation

Development

Pilot Studies

Evaluation

T2

ProperCustomer Use

AdjustPlans

AdjustCourse

Based onResults

Figure 2. FHWA's Research Product Development Process, and its Relationship to the Overall DOT / FHWA Strategic Planning and Performance Monitoring Processes.

The FHWA Office of Safety Research & Development (R&D) currently is conducting highway research in the following priority areas:

Intersections

Pedestrian and bicyclist safety

Roadside Safety

Run-off-road safety

Speed Management.


http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#Speed%23Speed

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#Road%23Road

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#Roadside%23Roadside

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#Bicyclist%23Bicyclist

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#Intersections%23Intersections

Additional research is conducted in the following supporting areas:

Evaluations of low cost safety improvements

Geometric design laboratory

Photometric and visibility laboratory

Human centered systems studies

Safety management assessments

Highway safety information system (HSIS).

The Office of Safety R&D Web site includes a list of staff by area of responsibility at http://www.tfhrc.gov/about/orgdirectory/safety.htm.

FHWA Resource Center

The role of the FHWA Resource Center is to advance transportation technologies and solutions through training, technical assistance, technology deployment, and partnerships. The Resource Center advances FHWA's strategic goals and objectives by:

Providing expert technical assistance to FHWA division offices and their partners.

Assisting headquarters program offices in disseminating new policies, technologies, and techniques.

Taking the lead in deployment of leading edge market ready technologies that will assist FHWA in advancing its strategic goals.

The Resource Center is an integral part of FHWA in delivering the federal-aid program and achieving agency strategic goals. The Center's key business sub-processes of technology deployment, interagency/intermodal coordination, technical assistance, and training support the FHWA key business processes of technology deployment, national policy leadership, technical assistance, and program delivery.

Resource Center Customers: Internally, the Resource Center customers are the FHWA division offices and headquarters offices. Externally, the Resource Center customers are the transportation agencies partnering with FHWA (such as state departments of transportation) for the advancement of the nation's transportation system. As service is provided to external customers, the Resource Center works through division offices or headquarters offices, to represent FHWA as a single organization meeting customer needs and accomplishing agency strategic goals and objectives.

Safety Design Technical Service Team at the FHWA Resource Center: This team of 15 Resource Center safety experts works from various locations throughout the control to provide assistance to transportation agencies in safety-related activities. For a list of team members, see http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenter/teams/safety/index.cfm .

Resource Center team members have first-hand experience dealing with the FHWA's customers regarding safety issues. They are an important part of the planning and implementation team for safety marketing, communications and outreach plans.


http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenter/teams/safety/index.cfm

http://www.tfhrc.gov/about/orgdirectory/safety.htm

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#hsis%23hsis

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#Safety%23Safety

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#Human%23Human

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#PVL%23PVL

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/index.htm#Geometric%23Geometric

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/evaluations/index.htm

FHWA Division Offices

The FHWA Division offices are the field offices in each state responsible for working with the state DOTs and other partners. As the "front line," of field personnel, FHWA division office personnel are bombarded with information and policies from every division of the FHWA that they are expected to promote to their state customers.

In division offices, the person assigned to handle safety issues typically has many other issues they also have to deal with. More than anything, FHWA division offices need concise information that explains the information they have received, and provides guidance on how best to use it. They need relevant information about opportunities available for the division office, together with state and local partners, to improve intersection safety. Division office staff needs to know who to contact for highway safety information, technical assistance, research needs, etc.

Division office safety engineers have first-hand experience dealing with the FHWA's customers regarding safety issues. They are the experts about what is happening "on the ground" across the country in implementing the products of the FHWA's safety programs. Wherever possible, they should be consulted and involved in developing and implementing marketing, communications and outreach plans.

FHWA Office of Planning, Environment and Realty

The Planning Division of the FHWA Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty's Safety Program provides guidance on the statewide and metropolitan transportation planning processes, which are governed by federal law and applicable state and local laws if federal highway or transit funds are used for transportation investment.

The FHWA's safety programs have for many years worked closely with the FHWA's Office of Planning to outreach to planners on bicycle and pedestrian safety issues. Now, the partnership is broadening. Safety-LU requires metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to incorporate safety into the planning process, as elements of state transportation plans (STPs), by creating a state highway safety plan (SHSP).

FHWA Office of Public Affairs

The FHWA's Office of Public Affairs is the agency’s point of contact for mass media and consumer media affairs. The Office of Public Affairs is responsible for all interaction with the national media. Field offices are permitted to respond directly to local media inquiries on project- or state-specific requests, and files follow-up reports on these interactions to the Office of Public Affairs. However, if a field office receives questions about broader policy or program issues or questions about major project(s) from a major newspaper in their state, they are required to refer the caller to the Office of Public Affairs.

The Office of Public Affairs also issues press releases, plans media events, and initiates ("pitches") article ideas to encourage reporters who work for national newspapers and magazines to write articles about highway-related topics. The Office of Public Affairs supports FHWA Safety staff in planning and executing the annual press event for National Work Zone Awareness Week. FHWA Safety staff is encouraged to suggest article ideas on topics related to roadway safety that might be pitched to national newspapers or consumer magazines, and also


is encouraged to suggest ideas for media events. The Office of Public Affairs needs information to be presented succinctly, with emphasis on the relevance to the general public.

Examples of the types of roadway safety information or events that may be of interest to the FHWA Office of Public Affairs are:

Information about the economic impact of highway crashes, fatalities and injuries.

Work zone safety articles for family magazines, women's magazines.

Driving tips for roadway safety.

What can roadway safety technology offer consumers? What does it really mean to them?

One good media event a year: a purely media event, with a compelling visual for TV.

Roadway safety for older drivers.

Retroreflectivity, but with a non-technical spin for consumer audiences.

Red light running is a topic with appeal for mass audiences.

Piggybacking on newsworthy things that states are doing, and press events. For example, if a state launches a new pedestrian safety campaign supported by federal funds, we can use that event as a "hook" for coverage to build support for increased highway safety spending.

The Office of Public Affairs also provides initial and final clearance approvals for all publications – even if the publication will be published only electronically or on the Internet. This includes CD-ROMs, multimedia documents, and Internet-only publications. The only exception to this is RD&T reports, which must go through a separate editorial process that is spelled out in the Communications Reference Guide available on-line through the TFHRC Web site.

FHWA Office of Administration, Office of Information and Management Services

This is the office that is responsible for implementing FHWA policy on publications and printing. All FHWA publications must comply with the Publications and Printing Handbook (H1710.4), first published in 1987 and available on line. The policy covers publication development, design, printing and reproduction, sale, ordering, clearance, funding, and reporting. It includes guidelines for preparing FHWA publications, including copyright requirements, assignment of a publication number, rules for credit lines and bylines, advertisement policy, style manuals, acceptable format and layout, instructions for preparing artwork and photographs, page number, preparation of camera-ready copy for printing, and special format guidance for particular types of publications.

Requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which apply to all communications products published by FHWA, also must be met.

FHWA Office of Operations Traffic Incident Management Program

The FHWA Office of Operations' Traffic Incident Management (TIM) program supports research, development, implementation, and outreach activities to promote better traffic incident management practices at state and local highway agencies. Goals are to relieve incident-related congestion through quicker clearance of traffic incidents, to prevent secondary incidents, and to promote emergency responder safety by reducing injuries and deaths caused by "struck by" incidents. The TIM program funds the National Traffic Incident Management Coalition (NTIMC), a forum where national organizations representing transportation, law enforcement, fire and


rescue, emergency medical service, towing and recovery, and 9-1-1 work together to promote improved traffic incident management policies and practices.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)

FMCSA's principal safety mission is to reduce bus- and truck-related crashes. FMCSA's safety education and outreach programs are aimed at all highway users, including passenger car drivers, truck drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. FMCSA's safety programs are mostly driver/behavior and equipment/inspection oriented and generally not related to the roadways themselves. One exception is a sub-program within the speed management safety program that deals with variable speed limits in work zones. The FHWA's safety program supports the FMCSA's safety education and outreach programs to reduce crashes involving commercial motor vehicles.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

NHTSA focuses on passenger and pedestrian safety, including vehicle safety and road user behavior. NHTSA's principal education and outreach efforts focus on road user behavior change: increasing seat belt use and decreasing impaired driving. Outreach efforts are targeted at the general public as well as at key professional stakeholder groups in the emergency medical services, emergency response, and law enforcement communities. The FHWA's safety programs partner with NHTSA on pedestrian and bicycle safety outreach activities and support NHTSA's public education and outreach efforts to increase seat belt use and decrease impaired driving.

DOT Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) apply information and communications technology to transportation applications. The ITS Joint Program Office supports research, development, testing and implementation of ITS roadway safety vehicles and technologies. The Office of Safety and the Office of Safety R&D coordinate with the ITS JPO in development and implementation of ITS safety technologies.


11 GUIDANCE ON MARKETING RESOURCES ASSESSMENT

Be resourceful and creative when you think about marketing resources. Don't take a defeatist attitude and assume that you can undertake only limited activities because funds are limited. If you develop a sound plan that documents why resources are needed, you can obtain support for your marketing, outreach or public education program through the FHWA and partner organizations.

Funding is only part of the picture, and in some ways, it is the least important. Providing leadership in the leveraging of both the financial and the non-financial resources of safety partners is one of the most important ways that FHWA safety program staff can contribute.

Developing a well-thought-out communications plan is the first step in obtaining resources. Partner organizations often are able to bring resources to the table; working collaboratively with them to develop the plan is more effective than going to them to solicit support after the plan is already developed. In many cases a multi-year, phased communications program will work well, with an initial phase consisting of convening partners to develop consensus on a program plan, and a subsequent phase of implementing the plan.

FHWA/DOT staff resources. Tab 10, Guidance on Highway Safety Roles of DOT Agencies and Offices, provides a quick overview of agencies and offices where you may find supporting resources for your project or program. Other FHWA/DOT staff can contribute many different types of resources – for example, field outreach and implementation support, outreach and communications expertise, subject area and target audience information and expertise, mailing lists, referrals, time, outreach materials, meeting facilities, media relations support, and access to decision-makers and influencers. Unless you try, you will never know what resources may be available.

FWHA /DOT consultant resources. Reaching out to other FHWA /DOT staff also may provide a path to obtaining consultant resources to support your marketing, communications, or public education program. Consultant support may include meeting coordination, facilitation, writing and publications support, graphic design services, development of outreach materials, market research, and many other services.


Partner organization resources (especially key influencers). Partner organizations sometimes are in a position to contribute funding, but more often they are looking to FHWA and DOT for funding. Their non-financial resources are extremely valuable, however, and you should actively solicit these non-financial resources from partners at every appropriate opportunity:

Article placements or special safety editions or sections in partner organization magazines, newsletters, and Web sites.

Co-sponsorship of conferences and meetings (which is effective in increasing attendance).

Joint publication of documents (which lends credibility).

Complementary space at their annual meeting trade shows.

Sessions and presentation opportunities at their annual meetings and key committee meetings.

Publication mailings.

Distribution of publications at meetings.


12 GUIDANCE ON SELECTION OF MARKET COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES

The steps in this workbook walk you through the analysis necessary to decide which of the many communications strategies available to you will be the best way to reach the audiences you need to reach in order to accelerate the acceptance and use of your new highway safety product, or encourage support of your highway safety program.

A very common marketing mistake is to choose the marketing strategy "out of the blue." Having decided that they need to market their highway safety product, many program managers will conclude that they need "a brochure" or "a video." Asked what their audience is, they may reply, "State DOTs." Instead, your choice of market communications strategy should depend upon:

Your target audience(s) information needs and preferences

The information you need to convey, and

The resources available to you.

Communications Strategy$ Low Cost < $2K$$ Moderate Cost $2 -10 K$$$ High Cost > $10 K

Best for Conveying This Type of Information

Good for Reaching These Audiences

Resources Needed Comments

Marketing Materials$ Brochures (tri-fold) Increasing

awareness;highlighting benefits; promoting a product, program, or event.

Decision-makers, practitioners, general public. Favored format because of brevity.

Need writer, graphic designer, and printing (laser printing, color copying, or offset printing.)

Consider posting on line so partners can also print and distribute. Feasible to laser print small quantities on demand from PDF file. For larger quantities, arrange for copying or printing. Quantity of 500 is breakpoint where printing is less expensive than copying.

$ Fliers (1 page, single-or double-sided)

Increasing awareness;highlighting benefits; promoting a product, program, or event.

Decision-makers, practitioners, general public. Favored format because of brevity.

Printing (laser printing, color copying, or offset printing) absolutely essential. Graphic designer & writer are desirable.

Same as above.

$$ Brochures (longer) Marketing information w/ more detail about product or program features and benefits, technical and implementation info.

Practitioners Need writer, graphic designer, and offset printing.Writing, design and printing costs will be higher than for tri-fold format.

Consider forming a team to provide input and review text and draft design. Where possible, include members of target audience on team.This format is good for more complex or controversial products and programs where you just can't convey the full message in a tri-fold format.

$$ Tech Briefs Product information with emphasis on technical benefits

Practitioners, Researchers

Need technical writer, graphic designer, and offset

Input and review team highly recommended. Include marketing experts, technical






and implementation information

printing. experts, and members of target audience.

$ - $$ White Papers Research problems – particularly complex ones.

Researchers Technical expert or expert panel; technical writer / editor.

Input and review team highly recommended. Include technical experts who are influential in the topic. A good editor can greatly enhance quality of final product, but only if they understand the topic.

$$ Case Studies / Success Stories

Conveys the benefits that customers accrued from implementation. Especially useful when other user benefits documentation is not available.

Decision-makers, practitioners, general public. Peers have more credibility than the Government or news media.

Need technical writer, graphic designer, and offset printing.

Provide writer w/ contact info for cooperative case study subjects. Usually several subjects are selected to provide balanced representation from different regions and show a variety of implementation approaches.

$$ Lessons Learned Conveys both positive and negative customer/user experiences, and suggests ways to overcome the negative. May combine information gleaned from multiple workshops or case studies.

Practitioners Need technical writer, graphic designer, and offset printing.Need to provide writer w/ contact info for cooperative subjects willing to be interviewed, to provide information, and participate in review process.

Especially useful when the implementation process is complex and when new information has become available on how to overcome previous barriers.

$$$ Videos / CDs / DVDs All types of info – marketing, technical, training.A strong advantage of this format is that it counters the information overload problem – in general, people do not attend as well to written communications as they do to audio/visual.

All audiences – but for decision-makers, keep it short < 5 min)For audiences that seek information mostly from peer experiences, video (DVD/CD) to be shown at conferences, workshops, meetings, and Webinars can be very effective. Decision-makers, prefer peer information, as do local transportation practitioners.

Director, scriptwriter, camera crew & equipment, B-roll (optional), video editor & editing equip.; narrator (optional), post-production editor & equip, duplication, distribution. Consider forming a team to provide input and review of script, storyboard, and rough cuts. Where possible, include members of target audience on team.

Costs for multi-media products vary widely depending on many factors, including the length of the production, number of camera shoots involved, prior availability of footage, and degree of polish needed in the final product.

Keep costs down by focusing early on key messages and adhering to a disciplined review process for interim deliverables (script, storyboard, rough cuts).

Don't get hung up on whether it is a video, DVD or CD – produce it on media that can be duplicated in all formats.

$$User Manuals More complex products often require user manuals to ensure trouble-free implementation and maintenance.

Product users (practitioners)

Technical writer, graphic artist. Duplication or printing costs are option if it is posted on-line

Good user manuals are an important element of a product marketing strategy because lack of user information can create implementation problems that limit the success of the product. Include product users in review team.






$$ - $$$Guidance Documents

How to implement more complex programs or deal with more broad-ranging safety issues.

Practitioners; occasionally also decision-makers (when the subject is policy-oriented)

Technical experts; technical writers; graphic designer; offset printing.

Guidance documents are especially useful when dealing with new audiences or with a new subject area, where little information available for practitioners. Also useful when there is a need to increase awareness of practitioners that the state-of-the-art has changed.

$$-$$$Newsletters, print(annual costs)

Increasing awareness of new products or programs; disseminating products, publications, and implementation tools.

Practitioners Technical writer/ editor(s); graphic designer; offset printing, mailing lists, and list management, mailing house, postage.

"Information overload" leads to declining readership of print publications.

Costs depend on circulation, frequency of publication, size. By definition, newsletters are periodicals – published regularly.

$$Newsletters, electronic(annual costs)

Same as above Practitioners Technical writer/editor(s); e-mail list, list management service. (Consider using on-line advice bureau where subscribers and opt-in and opt-out on their own).

Electronic newsletters are increasingly preferred because users can store them, consult when needed, and have live links to further information.

$$$Web Sites

Promote highway safety programs; enhance organizational/program image; disseminate products and information; publicize events.A good Web site is an incredibly powerful tool.

State-level practitioners, and, to a lesser extent, decision-makers.Local audiences tend to use the Web less.

Technical Web writer/editor, Web designer, Web programmer, Web hosting service, site promotion service. Efficient process for internal review and approval of draft content.

One of the biggest challenges is site maintenance and updating. Don't launch a site if you do not have resources and a process for maintaining it, because it will reflect negatively on the credibility of the program you are promoting.

$Web Content Placement

(Placing Web content on existing Web sites sponsored by the FHWA, DOT, or partner organizations.)

Promote highway safety products and programs; disseminate products and information; publicize events.

State-level practitioners, and, to a lesser extent, decision-makers.Local audiences tend to use the Web less.

Technical Web writer/editor to write the content and contact Web editors to request placement.

The low-cost solution to using the Web to promote your product or program: write content for insertion on existing sites. For best results, need sufficient resources for an ongoing Web placement activity. However, unlike launching a Web site, there is no harm done if this is occasional or scattershot activity.

Print Article Placements(magazines, newsletters) $ Single article$$ Article Placement Campaign

Same as above.

Practitioners. Article Placement Campaigns are great ways to reach multiple audience sub-sectors – the article is re-written for publications appealing to each sub-sector.

Technical writer/editor to write the article and contact publication editors to request placement.

A relatively low-cost strategy that should not be overlooked. Although print media is declining, most publications also are posted on the Web where readers search and retrieve articles long after the initial publication date.

Outreach Tools






$$Exhibit (exhibit design & fabrication)

$$$Exhibit Program (includes all resources needed for full exhibit program)

Increasing awareness of a program or product; disseminating information or products.Especially effective when reaching out to new audiences or when promoting new programs, products or concepts to any audience.

Practitioners are more likely to spend time at trade show exhibits than decision-makers, but having a presence at exhibits attended by decision-makers helps enhance your credibility and offers networking opportunities.

Exhibit designer, exhibit fabricator, exhibit storage service, exhibit coordinator, trade show exhibitor fees (sometimes negotiated as complementary), exhibit furniture and utilities, shipping costs, booth staff, booth staff travel costs, collateral materials shipping.

Effective trade show exhibit programs can produce priceless results in accelerating awareness and acceptance of new programs, products and concepts. But don't get into trade show exhibits unless you can commit fully to sending the right staff, with the right collateral materials, to the right venues. The objective should be to create a presence at the show where you can make new networking connections as well as distribute information. Booth staff must be conversant in the subject matter and able to effectively network on behalf of the program.

$Tabletop Displays

Same as above, but can be used in many more casual settings.

All Exhibit designer, exhibit fabricator, display carrying case.

Lower-cost and more flexible version of an exhibit that can be used at meetings and workshops, stored at the office and transported by staff.

$Briefing Papers

High-level policy issues; high-level recommendations and guidance.

Decision-makers

Often prepared as the "leaving piece" for distribution at meetings with decision-makers, or at issues workshops.

Writer

Distribution Method

Briefing papers are a low-cost and sometimes very effective way to convince high-level decision-makers and their staffs of the need to take action on highway safety issues.

$Talking Points

High-level policy issues; high-level recommendations and guidance.

Decision-makers

These are bullet points used to frame presentations at meetings and in speeches.

Writer

Distribution Method

Promotion Method

Talking points enable all the members of an organization to deliver a succinct and unified message. A common stumbling block s that talking points are developed but not effectively disseminated, and their use is not promoted, so they are not used.

$Standard Slide Shows w/ text)

Any subject matter. Visual communication reinforces verbal.

Any audiences, but especially recommended for larger audiences ( > 20)

Writer w/ PowerPoint Skills

Distribution MethodPromotion Method

Standard slide shows w/ text have the same advantages as talking points (above), and the same drawbacks. Effective distribution and promotion are essential.

Posters

$ Poster Design$$-$$$Poster Design, Printing & Distribution

Issue awarenessBehavior change

Roadway users (i.e. general public), particularly posters for use in motor vehicle agencies, driver education classrooms, other classrooms

WriterGraphic DesignerPromotion

Optional:Printing, Distribution

Consider posting poster design on the Web, where partner organizations can download, print, and distribute. Again, effective promotion is essential – if you design a poster and no one knows it existing, it will not be effective.

Print Advertisements – (publications)

$ Ad Design

$$ Ad Placement

Issue awarenessBehavior changeProduct Promotion

Roadway users WriterGraphic Designer

Ad placement fees (optional)

Consider posting print ad designs on the Web, where partner organizations can download and place in local publications, either as paid advertisements or as public






service ads. Again, effective promotion is essential.

Billboards, bus and train ads$ Ad Design$$ Ad Placement

Same as above Roadway users, bus and train riders

Same as above Same as above

$$-$$$Public Service Announcements (TV)


Roadway users See Videos / CDs / DVDsDistribution & Promotion Method

This can be very cost-effective, but, again, promotion and distribution are critical.

$Public Service Announcements (Radio)


Roadway users Writer;Promotion & Distribution Method

Very low-cost method. Radio PSAs can be posted on the Web and promoted through Web placements & newsletters.

$Press Kits

Issue awarenessBehavior changeProduct Promotion.Generally includes press release(s), talking points, brochures and/or briefing papers.

News Reporters (and through them, the general public)

Writer (usually the FHWA PIO, but also could be a consultant under direction of PIO);

Promotion and Distribution Method

Development of press campaigns and press kits must be coordinated through the FHWA Office of Public Affairs. If this is a strategy that you would like to use, consult the FHWA Public Information Officer (PIO) assigned to safety issues.

$Trade Show Give-Aways

Attracting traffic to a trade show booth.

Audiences unfamiliar with your agency, program, product or service.

Funds for purchase and shipping.

Consider carefully whether these are really needed to attract visitors to your booth, and whether your booth staff can deliver your message effectively enough to pay back the investment in give-aways.

Events and Activities$$$Conferences (sponsoring a conference)

Promoting a major program initiative, particularly a new one or one that involve non-traditional audiences; generating stakeholder input or consensus.

Decision-makers or practitioners (but generally not both at once)

Conference coordinator; travel; facilities rental; promotional publications; program development committee; post-conference publications and publicity.

While relatively expensive, conferences can be very effective in reaching new audiences or in generating awareness and enthusiasm about new issues, policy or program initiatives. Explore partnering to leverage resources for conference support.

$$Conferences (presenting at existing conferences)

Increasing awareness of issues;promoting policy;promoting programs;promoting products.

Presentation MUST BE tailored to the audience's concerns and needs.

All audiences (depending on conference).

Particularly effective for reaching local decision-makers and practitioners, who prefer to learn about new information at meetings and through peers

Effective speaker; travel funds; assistance of writer/outreach coordinator w/ PowerPoint skills is recommended to tailor remarks to the audience and to assist in submission of paper / presentation proposals.

An effective conference presentation program requires considerable lead time because the deadlines for calls for papers for major conferences generally close months ahead of time. It is very helpful to have the support of an outreach coordinator/writer who keeps a calendar of the call for papers deadlines.The success of this technique depends on the effectiveness of the speaker.

$$Workshops

Sharing information; providing input.

Practitioners

A very effective method for helping practitioners to learn from their peers and

Workshop leader, coordinator, note taker or writer, facility, participant travel funds, supporting

The skill of the workshop leader or facilitator is crucial to success. If you want to capture the discussion and publish a workshop summary document, you need a skilled writer with






for gathering input to guide FHWA safety programs.

materials knowledge of the subject area (rather than a note taker).

$-$$Equipment Rodeos

(multi-state regional gatherings where new equipment is demonstrated)

Accelerating implementation of new highway safety equipment.

Safety and maintenance practitioners. Provides a forum for peer exchange and hands-on learning about new equipment.

Equipment (vendors will loan), facility (usually provided by a host agency), event planner, event publicity.

Equipment rodeos are highly recommended by experienced FHWA technology transfer experts.

$Meetings, presentations at (esp. key trade association, committees, or advisory groups)

Raising awareness; seeking support – particularly for new policies and programs.

All audiences (depending on meeting)

Appropriate presenter (someone w/ credibility within this group); travel funds; remarks tailored to the audience.

Presentations at key association committee meetings are a frequently overlooked, low-cost method of building support for new policies and programs.

$Web Conferences

Sharing information; providing input. Ads a visual element to teleconferences so everyone can view a document or presentation together.

Practitioner audiences.

Local audiences tend to use the Web less.

Web service provider. Web conference coordinator. Agenda developer. Conference leader/facilitator. "Help" line participants can call if they have trouble logging in.

The Web conference will be only as good as the planning and promotion that goes into it.

$Podcasts

Raising awareness; seeking support – particularly for new policies and programs.

All audiences – particularly younger or more technologically forward sub-sectors.

Audiotape of persuasive speech or discussion, ideally involving well-known speakers or participants. Host Web site. Podcast promotion.

A low-cost way to reach under-35 audiences.

$Video Teleconferences

Promoting coordination and collaboration; information-sharing; seeking input; problem-solving; information dissemination.

Internal coordination of FHWA safety programs (field, HQ); user groups; focus groups; lead states, etc.

Video teleconference facility. Agenda, video conference leader, video conference coordinator. Note taker.

The video conference requires participants to gather at a video conferencing facility, where they will link with other participant groups. A good way to link groups in various regions of the country. Solves the problem common with teleconferences, which is that participants are distracted.

$Teleconferences

Same as above. Same as above. Teleconference bridge, agenda, leader, coordinator, note taker.

Participants frequently log in to teleconferences but are distracted by work at their desks. Tight agendas and active leadership are key to overcoming these barriers to effective teleconferences.

$-$$User Groups

Sharing product implementation experience. Identifying barriers to market

Highway product users. Vendors and researchers sometimes also participate.

User group coordinator, leader, note taker. Travel funds, unless groups are

Create mechanisms for the input from the user groups to be channeled back into decisions on resource utilization for product development and






acceptance and developing strategies for overcoming them. Generating case studies and lessons learned. Providing tech. assistance to new users.

convened by teleconference.

implementation.

$$$Community of Practice Web Sites

Discussions of policies, issues, practices, products, programs among an entire professional community.

Practitioners Web designer; programmer; ISP; discussion leader & monitor, content supervisor (w/ subject area technical knowledge); Web writer/editor for site development and ongoing maintenance. Promotion strategy.

Web discussion groups need to be promoted and the content needs to be monitored and maintained. Before creating a Web discussion forum, consider these issues carefully.

TrainingClassroom Training Courses$$Curriculum development$$Instructional Materials$$$Full Training Program (includes items above, plus instructor, facility, etc.)

Technical information; Hands-on practical information. For implementation of more complex products and programs, training may be essential.

Users of new highway safety products and services; practitioners needing updated information and/or new skills.

Training curriculum; instructional materials; instructor; training facility; travel expenses for participants

Consider developing the training curriculum and instructional materials for on-line distribution; then running train-the-trainer courses.

$$On-Line Training Courses

Subject matter that does not require hands-on training.

Same as above. Local practitioners are less likely to use the Web.

Training curriculum; instructional materials; host Web site.

On-line training is increasingly popular, but will not reach all audiences.

$$Training Courses at (in conjunction with) Conferences

Technical information; Hands-on practical information.

Practitioners who attend their disciplines' conferences. Particularly effective for reaching non-traditional audiences.

Training curriculum; instructional materials; instructor.

Explore the possibility of partnering with a professional or trade association to offer a training course at their annual conference. This will save facility expense, and participant travel cost.

$-$$Webinars

Subject matter that does not require hands-on training.

Users of new highway safety products and services; practitioners needing updated information and/or new skills. Local practitioners are less likely to use the Web.

Training curriculum; instructional materials; instructor.Webinar agendas may include a speaker or speakers instead of, or in addition to, instructional format.

Engaging well-known instructors or speakers will help draw participants in the Webinar. Adequate advance promotion is essential to success. Consider partnering with a professional or trade association that represents your target audience.

$$$Training Videos, CDs or DVDs

Videos add a visual and audio element to instructional materials. A good option for training in manual skills when it is not possible to

All audiences generally retain more information when it is presented visually and orally, as opposed to only orally, or in writing. (Consequently

See "Videos / CDs / DVDs," above.

May also require instructional writers and technical experts, depending

Multimedia products require equipment to access; audiences that generally do not have access to Video/CD/DVD players will not use these products.Multimedia products are often used as elements of training






offer in-person instruction. Videos, CDs and DVDs offer opportunities for individual, on-demand self-instruction.

videos are effective with all audiences.)

CDs and DVDs are simply distribution media – content may include any combination of text, graphics, sound and/or video.

on subject matter and audience.

courses and educational events, so that they will be shown as part of the larger educational activity.Be sure you have an effective distribution plan for your multimedia products. Offering them on line for download is a cost-effective strategy but requires promotional activity (otherwise no one will know the materials are available).


13 GUIDANCE ON KEY PUBLICATIONS FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY AUDIENCES

THE SAFETY COMPASS

The Safety Compass is the new quarterly electronic FHWA safety newsletter supporting all FHWA safety offices and programs. It covers safety technology transfer, research, training, regulations and legislation. The newsletter also provides resources for implementation and networking.

Submitted content is considered based on timelessness, priority, relevance and overall safety program objectives. Therefore, every story/article submitted may not be published during the approaching issue cycle, but possibly in a later issue. To help the audience of the Safety Compass capture the essence of your submittals, the editorial staff encourages potential authors to communicate through a balance of text and visual elements: photographs, charts, graphs, and other illustrations with proper captions. Authors are asked to submit only high-quality photographs and illustrations.

Recognizing that the newsletter's readership – federal, state, local, academia, international transportation community and the transportation industry at large – has very little time for discretionary reading, it is extremely important that the Safety Compass provide interesting and useful articles with some distinct life-saving relevance. Therefore, a major emphasis of your article should be on the significance of your project or subject, results of research and/or lessons learned, and the applicability of these lessons learned to other states, agencies, etc. Use a balance of technical and everyday English as much as possible. In order to maximize outreach, your message must be clear and simple for effectiveness. Not all readers are experts in your field, and if they come across several terms they don’t understand, they are likely to stop reading your article.

The Safety Compass is distributed electronically, by e-mail, and is posted on the FHWA Office of Safety Web site. Occasionally, special issues are printed for additional outreach. The newsletter is distributed the second week of March, June, September and December. The deadline for stories/articles is two months prior: on or about January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1, respectively. A complete article should consist of:

Title with the author’s (or authors’) name and professional title.

Employer, organization, office, state, etc.

The article/story itself (length 500 to 3000 words).

Contact information: mailing address, telephone and fax number, and e-mail address.

Reference dates, time and place of subject matter.

Supporting visuals. Clearly label supporting visual elements, description and photographer’s name, if appropriate.


If the article has been previously published or presented publicly, provide the publication or forum in which the information has been presented, and the date of publication or presentation.

To submit an article, provide an electronic copy in Windows-compatible Microsoft Word on CD, or e-mail electronic version to:

Janet EwingCommunications & Outreach Program ManagerFederal Highway AdministrationOffice of Safety – HSST, E71-1051200 New Jersey Avenue, SEWashington, DC [email protected]

The newsletter editors generally retain all supporting visuals; however, they will return materials upon request.

Support visual formats preferred: JPG, EPS, or TIF.

Do not embed graphics, tables, or figures in the text file. Save graphics, tables, and figures on a disk or as separate electronic files.

Avoid trademarks and brand names in the text unless such mention is required to ensure the proper understanding of the text. The newsletter neither endorses nor wants to appear to be endorsing specific products, manufacturers, or contractors.

Provide a list of all photographs, tables, figures, and other illustrations with a complete caption for each. Cite all tables and figures in the text in the same sequence in which they appear. Do not substantially repeat in the text any information that is clearly represented in the table or figure. Do not use footnotes or endnotes.

Articles/stories submitted by authors employed by Federal, state, or local government agencies must include a letter of transmittal from the author's supervisor, endorsing the publication of the article. The applicable office director must also endorse articles by authors within the Department of Transportation.

Assistance is available from them in writing the stories; all articles will be edited as necessary. Therefore, before you consume a great deal of time developing and writing an article, contact the editor to discuss the concept and scope of the article.

PUBLIC ROADS

Public Roads is the bimonthly magazine of the FHWA. The magazine covers advances and innovations in highway/traffic research and technology, critical national transportation issues, important activities and achievements of the FHWA and others in the highway community, specific FHWA program areas, and subjects of interest to highway industry professionals. Public Roads contains a news section, a calendar of events, and course listings, as well as feature articles. The editorial staff is housed at Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC). The TFHRC Web site contains information about publication frequency, circulation, and instructions for authors on how to submit articles. The Web site also contains the following statement describing the criteria for evaluating article submissions:


mailto:[email protected]

"Recognizing that our readership – federal, state, municipal, and international transportation officials, planners, and researchers; transportation industry officials; association leaders; engineering professors and students; members of Congress; etc. – have very little time for discretionary reading, Public Roads seeks to provide interesting and useful articles with some distinct professional relevance. In other words, we can't simply entertain; we must inform, but conversely, the presentation must be attractive, intriguing, and easy to comprehend. Therefore, a major emphasis of your article should be on the significance of this project or subject, results of research and lessons learned, and the applicability of these lessons to other states, agencies, etc."

FOCUS

Focus is a monthly newsletter published at TFHRC to promote and market FHWA infrastructure programs and projects. Focus covers infrastructure-related developments in the larger highway community, including state highway agencies, industry, Transportation Research Board, AASHTO, local governments, regional Superpave Centers, international organizations, and academia. Focus targets an audience that wants to know primarily about technologies and products that they can use, rather than reading articles about policies or bureaucratic procedures. More information about Focus is available on the TFHRC Web site.

AASHTO JOURNAL

The AASHTO Journal is the weekly newsletter of AASHTO. It carries short articles about newsworthy transportation issues and events, and is distributed mainly through e-mail and download. The AASHTO Journal is an extremely effective way to reach decision-makers at state DOTs, but unless your item is really newsworthy and significant to decision-makers, the editors won't consider it. Go to AASHTO's Web site for more information on how to submit. To inquire about whether your topic might be suitable for an AASHTO Journal article, contact Shane Artim, Communications Specialist, (202) 624-3626, [email protected].

DAILY TRANSPORTATION UPDATE

In 2005, AASHTO launched the Daily Transportation Update e-newsletter with on-line links to transportation-related news stories on the Internet. If you want to increase exposure from a newsy article placement that is posted somewhere on the Web, consider trying to get the item published here.

The AASHTO Daily Transportation Update is compiled by Bernie Wagenblast; a longtime transportation journalist whose daily newsletter dedicated to communications issues in transportation has gained a strong following in recent years. It is published Monday-Friday. Contact Jennifer Gavin at [email protected] or Bernie Wagenblast at [email protected].

ITE JOURNAL

ITE Journal is the monthly journal of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). The journal is written by and for transportation engineers, transportation planners and others responsible for the safe and efficient movement of people and goods on our surface transportation systems.


ITE Journal and ITE Journal on the Web cover recent work and research in transportation planning, geometric design, traffic operations, goods movement, signs and markings, parking, safety, ridesharing, tort liability, traffic studies, transit, intelligent transportation systems, and other areas of interest to transportation professionals.

All manuscripts submitted to ITE Journal undergo a peer review. After acknowledgment and in-house review by ITE staff, each manuscript selected for peer review is sent to five transportation professionals considered experts in the manuscript’s topic area. The purpose of this careful review is to identify manuscripts that address topics of current interest and relevance to readers of ITE Journal, and to assist the author by pointing out any needed clarification, revision, or amplification in the manuscript. The review process takes approximately 3 months, at which time you will be notified of the decision regarding your manuscript. Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, it is scheduled in the next available issue of ITE Journal (in general, an issue dated three to six months from the date of acceptance). All manuscripts are then edited by ITE Journal staff for clarity, sense, grammar and style. If your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to submit additional items needed for publication.

ITE JOURNAL ON THE WEB

ITE Journal on the Web is located on ITE’s Web site at www.ite.org. This electronic version of ITE Journal includes all articles published in the print version since 1970, plus additional articles that have appeared exclusively on the Web since 1998. Access to full text articles, published since 1970, is provided only to ITE members.

ITE Journal on the Web includes manuscripts of interest to the industry that ITE cannot include in the print version due to space constraints, as well as manuscripts that may be of interest to a smaller group of readers or a smaller industry subset. By being published in ITE Journal on the Web, manuscripts become part of ITE’s professional transportation literature that will be fully indexed (using the new transportation research thesaurus), searchable, and included in the ITE Digital Library on CD-ROM. Manuscripts appear in their entirety with all figures, tables and references. This parallel publication allows readers access to a body of knowledge that otherwise would not be available through ITE. ITE publishes the abstracts for articles in ITE Journal on the Web in ITE Journal’s table of contents. Please note that whenever ITE Journal is mentioned in these guidelines, this reference includes ITE Journal and ITE Journal on the Web.

ROADS AND BRIDGES and ROADSBRIDGES.COM

Roads and Bridges is a monthly trade press magazine published by Scranton-Gillette Communications, and http://www.roadsbridges.com is its companion Web site. Placing a news or feature article here is particularly effective if you want to reach the private sector. To place an article you generally need to convince the editorial staff of newsworthiness. They will likely assign a reporter to the article if it is a topic worthy of a feature article. If it is a news item (for example, promoting an upcoming event or conference), simply submit the information and they will edit it for publication. Contact information for the editorial staff is available on the Web site. Before you call, be prepared to state how your topic fits within the editorial mission of the magazine and Web site. The editorial mission of Roads and Bridges is to provide engineers, contractors and government officials with the latest advancements in the road and bridge industry, timely news coverage, and important information on products beneficial to the job site


http://www.ite.org/

or office. Roads and Bridges is targeted to the transportation infrastructure specifying / buying teams who design, build and maintain the nation’s roads, highways, tunnels, viaducts and bridges. Lead time for news items published in the magazine is generally two months. Feature placements take longer.

TRB PUBLICATIONS

The Transportation Research E-Newsletter is a free weekly electronic service designed to keep individuals up-to-date on TRB activities and to highlight selected transportation research-related activities taking place at the Federal and state levels, and within the academic and international transportation communities. Placing a short item in this e-newsletter is a great way to reach a lot of people fast. More than 25,000 people from around the world receive the e-newsletter. Contact Russell Houston, editor: [email protected] .

TR News is the bimonthly magazine published by TRB. The magazine publishes feature articles on innovative and timely research and development activities in all modes of transportation. Brief news items of interest to the transportation community also are included, along with profiles of transportation professionals, meeting announcements, summaries of new publications, and news of TRB activities. The "Research Pays Off" column is a good place to highlight a cost-effective research product. Remember you have to plan ahead to have a placement in a bi-monthly magazine – lead time is a minimum of two months. For best results, ask for the annual editorial calendar and pitch your article to fit the theme for a particular issue. Contact Javy Awan, editor and publications director: [email protected]; 202 334-2972.


mailto:[email protected]

14 GUIDANCE ON SELECTION OF MARKET COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS

The FHWA asked focus groups representing key highway safety stakeholder groups how they preferred to obtain new information. Focus group sessions were held with:

Local Decision makers – National Association of Counties (NACo) Transportation Steering Committee (includes local elected and appointed officials, principally representing rural areas),

Local Practitioners – Public Technology Institute (PTI) Transportation Council (includes transportation agency directors from major metropolitan areas), and

State Policymakers & Practitioners – American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety (SCOHTS).

Information Channel Preferences of Local Decision-makers and Practitioners

The local stakeholders showed a strong preference for receiving information in one-on-one or small group discussions – from trusted colleagues (staff or peers), through the national associations that they trust, or by attending conferences and workshops. The Internet was not a preferred source of information for local stakeholders. Table 1 below shows how NACo ranked information sources; Table 2 shows results from the PTI Transportation Council.

1. Staff

2. Peers - Other elected officials

3. Conferences/Workshops

4. National Associations

5. State and Federal Officials

6. Constituents

7. Internet

8. News Media

1. Peers

2. Staff

3. National Associations

4. Conferences/workshops

5. Internet

6. Constituents

7. News Media

NACo Preferred Sources of Information PTI Preferred Sources of Information


Information Channel Preferences of State Decision-makers and Practitioners

The state transportation officials who participated in the SCOHTS focus group engaged in an open discussion about effective communications. This group also indicated a preference for receiving information from peers, or through conferences, workshops and published materials from trusted associations such as ITE, TRB and AASHTO. Some also said they like to receive "timely and up-to-date information from FHWA" and "direct e-mail from FHWA safety officials (division and national)."

"There is too much information out there and it gets thrown at you all the time. One of the most effective things is talking with people directly," write one of the SCOHTS participants. "One-on-one or small group discussions are the best. We can focus more."


15 GUIDANCE ON SELECTION OF CUSTOMER FEEDBACK MECHANISMS

Informal Customer Feedback

Customer feedback does not always have to be a formal mechanism. If you make it a habit to solicit information from the users or your products or the customers of your programs, you can obtain free and very useful information. The trick is to actually listen to the feedback and to address user concerns whenever possible. For example, one program manager carries his program's engineering guidance and technology transfer documents with him when he visits states or attends meetings. At an appropriate juncture, he holds up each document and simply asks:

Who has seen the document?

Who has used it?

Was it useful?

Another informal feedback mechanism is the one-on-one conversation with users. Over lunch, or in some other non-threatening situation, bring the topic up casually. Often the best feedback is given in such settings, where people feel freer to express their true opinions.

Formal Customer Feedback Mechanisms

Web-based Community of Practice discussion groups (interactive). Particularly for technical products, it is sometimes possible to seed questions into on-line discussion groups that will elicit useful user feedback. If the on-line group is representative of users, this can be a low-cost and effective way to gain some feedback from a broad group of users from across the country.

E-mail / Web comment box. This doesn't cost much, but it generally won't elicit a lot of input, and the input is unlikely to be broadly representative of your user or customer group. Still, you might learn something.

Surveys (mail, telephone, at conferences). Surveys are only as good as the survey sample (the group surveyed needs to be a statistically significant sample of the universe surveyed); the survey instrument (survey questions); the professionalism of the survey team; and the skill of the survey analysts.

For broad policy and public issues involving mass national audiences, professionally conducted surveys are a good way to obtain data. For example, the FHWA periodically conducts a national customer survey that yields very valuable information. More often, surveys are haphazard collections of data from a relatively small subset of respondents who will take the time to respond. If you can't do a proper survey, doing a straw poll will perhaps provide some information, but be honest about the statistical significance of and subjective nature of the results you have obtained.


If you can, involve professional market researchers, but be sure that you also have people on the team who can guide the development of the survey instrument (survey questions) so that they elicit the results you want. Poorly worded questions yield meaningless answers, and professional survey teams often propose poorly worded questions because they do not understand the subject matter. For the same reason, you need someone involved in analyzing results who understands the subject area very well. Finally, keep a close eye on how they select the survey participants; again, without knowledge of the subject area, mistakes can be made.

Focus groups (one-time meetings to obtain user input and feedback). Focus groups gather more subjective input from a group of representative customers or product users, but have the great advantage of enabling you to ask follow-up questions to delve more deeply into issues. They don't have to cost a lot of money and they don't have to take a lot of time. Key factors include how representative and articulate the focus group participants are, the skill and subject knowledge of the facilitator, the preparation for the session, the skill and knowledge of the session recorder, and the skill and knowledge that go into analysis of the results. As with surveys, if you work with professional market researchers, be sure that you have people on the team who understand the subject area well and will guide the process to yield usable results.

User groups (ongoing groups to share implementation information). User groups are great channels for obtaining user feedback. They are likely to provide detailed information on all matter of implementation problems and barriers, along with suggestions for overcoming them. One pitfall, however, is that those who participate actively in user groups may represent the "bleeding edge" or "early adopter" phases and be ahead of more typical users. If you rely on user groups for feedback, be sure to also solicit input from users who do not participate in user groups.
