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Chapter 9: Partners Process Step 8 - Evaluating the Impact of the Intervention
Evaluating the impact of your intervention is an important function of any traffic safety intervention. There are a number of ways to evaluate your performance.
As part of the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety program, your community should conduct a pre- and post-index of seat belt usage in your community. This index produces a percent use of seat belts before and after your community intervention campaign. The seat belt survey is referred to as an “index” because a probability-based survey design is beyond the scope of this program. If conducted properly, however, it can provide a useful measure of change. Conducting this index survey requires the commitment of citizen volunteers in your community who are not part of your Community Partner Team. Your Community Partner Team has enough to do, and by bringing in more volunteers you are likely to find more and broader community support. These volunteers need to be neutral so that you obtain an honest assessment of your efforts. As Community Partner Team leader you will need to recruit and train these volunteers to conduct the survey safely and with efficiency. Listed below is information to help you recruit and then train the survey takers. Despite many opinions to the contrary, volunteerism in America remains at a high level. Studies of volunteers indicate that their willingness to participate is based on:
To help fulfill all these needs requires careful consideration and targeted recruitment of volunteers. Below are materials that will help you think about those in your community who might make the best fit for this effort. What is the job that needs to be done? You will need to conduct two index surveys on seat belt usage in your community — one before the start of your 30-day campaign activity, and the other directly following your campaign. Conducting the index will require at least 10 volunteers, paired up, if possible, at predetermined sites in the community, to observe and record seat belt use by vehicle drivers and front seat passengers. If the service area you are targeting for your campaign is rather large, for example, countywide, you may need to consider more sites to get a representative sample of the population. It is not so much the number of observational sites that is important as much as where they are, to give you the best data about those living in your community. The more observational sites you use, the more volunteers you will need, so keep it manageable. Someone from your county highway planning office can help you plan your observational site locations based on traffic volume, community demographics, and safe locations. Other tips for site selection are identified on the following page. A sample site plan grid and form also are provided in the Tools section of this chapter. It is important to plan your pre- and post-index so that both surveys are conducted at the same locations on the same day of the week and at the same hour of the day. That should provide a more accurate representation. Conducting the index will require recording data on 100 vehicles at each site, or for one hour at each site, whichever comes first. Although not required, it is recommended that volunteers be paired up at each site - one to observe the vehicle and the other to record. The observers can call out the information to the recorder, making it easier to mark the information on the form without having to look up and down. A survey form is provided in the Tools section that you can duplicate and give to your observers to record the seat belt use data. Observers will record seat belt use, for front seat vehicle occupants only, in passenger cars, pick-up trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans/minivans. Heavy-duty delivery vehicles, buses, tractor-trailer trucks, and farm implements should not be included in the survey. When in doubt, do not count the vehicle. Who is capable of doing the job? Safety and attentiveness are the two most important attributes of the volunteers needed for this task. Because the volunteers will be near traffic, this eliminates anyone not of high school age. People who are available during the day should be approached first. Good eyesight also should be a consideration. What is the time commitment? Volunteers will be needed for approximately 3 1/2 hours. One and one-half hours spent training and planning the activity, one hour spent conducting the pre-campaign index, and one hour spent conducting the post-campaign index. When will the job be conducted? The index survey requires that the 10 volunteers conduct the activity during different times of the day and on different days of the week (especially weekends versus weekdays). Further, the same volunteer should conduct the second index at the same location and at the same day of the week and at the same hour of the day. Keep in mind that in some areas of the nation winter is extremely cold and summer is extremely hot. Therefore, the volunteers should be able to stay comfortable and reschedule for another day if the weather is inclement. Who would want to do the job? Groups that exist in the community such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, service organizations, social clubs, religious groups, seniors citizens, etc., may want to accept the assignment as a group project. A multi-generational approach to building the volunteer team also may be appealing because of the weekend, weekday and time-of-day commitments. Why would they want to do the job—motivational needs? In your approach to potential volunteers, state the overall goal of the project, which is to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities in your community. Thus, the volunteers will be serving their families, friends, neighbors and the community as a whole. Point out that the job needs to be accomplished (see above). Describe the flexibility that volunteers have in terms of time commitment. They can conduct the index at a time that suits their schedule. Tell them their knowledge of the community will be used to design where and when the index will be conducted. Local knowledge is critical to success. They will be properly trained. Close the deal-ask for a commitment during the initial contact. Thank them for their consideration and remind them to use their seat belts.Tips on Selecting Sites to Conduct the Index
The location of the observation sites is an important consideration. You and your volunteers know your community best. During the volunteer training session, help them select when and where they are likely to encounter an appropriate volume of traffic in your community. There are some typical locations in every community that provide safety first; those are listed below with suggested times when traffic may be higher than normal. And because safety is the utmost concern, at the sites listed below vehicles typically move slowly or are stopping. Slow-moving or stopped vehicles are easier to observe than fast-moving vehicles. Remember, the intent is to determine if the driver and passenger of a vehicle are using seat belts and once observers monitor 100 vehicles, the task is complete. Sight lines are an important consideration in selecting a place to conduct the survey. The longer the person has to view the vehicle, the longer he or she has to determine if a seat belt is in use. This means that your goal is not to surprise anyone by hiding around a corner; that can be dangerous, as well. The driver who sees someone sitting on a corner or positioned along a road is more likely to slow down than one who is surprised by the presence of someone being where people are not normally situated. Stop Signs or Stoplights—Stop signs and stoplights on main roads in the community are good places to conduct the survey. Four-way stops are always good places. Typically, this index site can be conducted at any time, however, different times of the day will give you different sets of people and traffic volumes. Schools—In the morning at elementary schools can be a good time to conduct the survey. Cars are generally moving slowly and many schools have people drive in a line to a designated spot for drop-off. Entrances or exits to high school parking lots also are good places. Businesses—Shift changes at larger businesses or industrial plants provide a safe place with good volume as workers depart or enter an employee parking lot. Retail—Shopping plazas or shopping centers are a good place to conduct the survey during regular business hours. These sites can be productive during weekends, too, and offer a cross-mix of the community population. Places of Worship (Churches, Synagogues, etc.)—In many communities, churches, synagogues and other places of worship seem to be clustered together. Placing a survey taker in the general area can produce a good site for observations. Check with the local places of worship to determine dismissal and starting times. Post Office—People dropping off business mail tend to do so an hour before the last set of mail leaves your post office. If a drive-up mailbox is placed in front of your post office, make sure someone is there an hour before the last pick-up of the day. Ask your postmaster when is their busiest time of day. Conduct the index at that time. Farm Stores and Cooperatives—Weekends at these types of businesses tend to be busy in the mid-morning. These also are good sites for observing pick-up trucks. Fast Food Restaurants—Any drive-through food place will have heavier traffic during the mid-morning and early afternoon hours. Make certain the index taker is positioned in a place to observe the vehicle before its occupants place a food order. Once the food order is placed, the driver may have removed her or his seat belt to get her or his wallet. Banks—Friday afternoons near banks are good places to conduct the index. If the bank has drive-thru service, make certain that drivers are observed as they enter into the line, before they remove their seat belt to put their cash in a wallet. Conducting the Index
The index should be conducted one week before the 30-day intervention campaign and then again immediately following the campaign. The goal in developing your survey is to get as broad a sampling of your community as possible. An Index Utilization Plan Grid is provided in the Tools section of this chapter for use in selecting the times and places where the index will be conducted. Complete the Index Utilization Plan only after reading this chapter and reviewing safety tips. To conduct this index properly, different times of day and different days of the week should be selected in different locations in the community. This is because different types of people drive during different times of the day and week. You want to get as broad a sampling of your community as possible. When having your index-takers select sites, tell them you need a survey that involves different types of roads on each day of the week and at different hours of the day. When the grid is completed properly, there should be an index taken on each day, and at least two cells- the box where a row and a column meet-in each of the four time blocks should have been selected. Note that there are 28 cells—opportunities—from which to pick. You should only fill in the names and places of 10 of the possible sites. The same grid should be used for both the pre-campaign and post-campaign indexes. A sample grid completed by a community is provided for you to show what one may look like when completed properly. Scoring the Results
The calculation for scoring the index is easy. Simply add the 10 “drivers observed” totals and the “passengers observed” totals together. Then total the number for all the people, drivers and passengers, who were seen wearing seat belts. Divide the number of people wearing seat belts by the total number of drivers and passengers observed and you have the percentage of utilization estimate.
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