U.S. Department of Transportation

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590

TRAFFIC TECH

Technology Transfer Series

Number 397 October 2010

Public Awareness Survey Recommendations of 

The NHTSA-GHSA Working Group

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Governors Highway Safety Association

(GHSA) developed a set of survey questions about seat

belt use, impaired driving, and speeding. Using the

same core questions in all data collection efforts allows

States to track trends and evaluate the efficacy of their

countermeasures over time.

The working group summarized public awareness surveys that measure behaviors, media, and enforcement

conducted by 38 States, NHTSA, and other organizations since 2004 on traffic safety issues such as alcohol,

seat belts, and speeding. Some questionnaires provide

survey questions on young drivers, graduated driver

licensing (GDL), child passenger safety, aggressive

driving, and motorcycles. Some were one-time surveys

conducted for a specific purpose, some gauge public opinion on potential law or policy changes such as

GDL or seat belt upgrades, and some evaluated programs or recent high-visibility enforcement campaigns.

The report includes complete NHTSA telephone and

driver licensing office (DMV) survey questions on alcohol, seat belts, and speeding.

Survey Design

The sample must be representative of the population

of interest, including accurate proportions of males and

females, races and ethnicities, and age groups. A sample size of 500 generally provides an acceptable accuracy of +/- 5 percentage points for a single question for

the State’s population.

With DMV surveys, questionnaires are handed out to

people requesting new or renewed licenses, so they

reach the driving population and have lower refusal

rates. However, there is little opportunity to ask openended questions or follow-up questions. Telephone

surveys tend to be more flexible in the types and

amount of questions they ask but are more costly to

administer and tend to have high refusalrates. Further,

certain segments of the driving population (e.g., young

males) can be difficult to reach by telephone, especially

using landline sampling procedures. The report details

the benefits, limitations, and costs associated with

each design.

Core Questions

The initial set of public awareness survey questions

includes ten core questions:

Impaired Driving

A-1

In the past 30 days, how many times have you driven 

a motor vehicle within 2 hours after drinking alcoholic 

beverages?

A-2

In the past 30 days, have you read, seen or heard anything about alcohol impaired driving (or drunk driving) 

enforcement by police?

A-3 What do you think the chances are of someone getting 

arrested if they drive after drinking?

Belt Use

B-1 How often do you use safety belts when you drive or ride 

in a car, van, sport utility vehicle or pick up?

B-2 In the past 30 days, have you read, seen or heard anything about seat belt law enforcement by police?

B-3 What do you think the chances are of getting a ticket if 

you don’t wear your safety belt?

Speed

S-1a

On a local road with a speed limit of 20 mph, how often 

do you drive faster than 35 mph- most of the time, half 

the time, rarely, never?

S-1b

On a road with a speed limit of 65 mph, how often do 

you drive faster than 70 mph- most of the time, half the 

time, rarely, never?

S-2 In the past 30 days, have you read, seen or heard anything about speed enforcement by police?

S-3 What do you think the chances are of getting a ticket if 

you drive over the speed limit?
TRAFFIC TECH is a publication to disseminate information about

traffic safety programs, including evaluations, innovative programs, and new publications. Feel free to copy it as you wish. If you

would like to receive a copy, contact Angela H. Eichelberger, Ph.D.,

Editor, fax 202-366-7394, e-mail: angela.eichelberger@dot.gov.

1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., NTI-132

Washington, DC 20590

Standard Question Types

There are three standard question types: quantify,

change, and detail. Questions that quantify attempt to

measure the frequency and/orintensity of the behavior

or media they are asking about. Change questions ask

how the respondent’s answer compares to that of a previous period. Detail questions give more information

for an answer of “yes.”

When creating core questions the only type that is relevant is quantifying questions. Questions of change

are unnecessary because change can be measured by

comparing annual surveys as long as they have the

same questions. This type of question may not provide accurate information because, although it is easy

to recall recent events, the recall of events six months

to a year earlier may be difficult. Detail questions are

important to track specific media messages or enforcement activities. However, these messages or activities

will most likely differfrom State to State or yearto year,

so they are not appropriate for a core set of questions to

be asked by all States each year. This type of question

would be helpful to ask on an individual State survey.

Demographic Questions

In addition to the core questions, NHTSA and GHSA

recommend that States include basic demographic

questions to help categorize the information when

making comparisons in later years. Age (in categories) and sex are asked almost always. Other common

demographic questions include the respondent’s ethnicity, residential ZIP Code, annual driving mileage,

and type of vehicle driven most frequently. States will

wish to add appropriate demographic questions to the

core subject-matter questions.

Suggested Survey Schedule

Surveys that monitor media or enforcement awareness

are conducted in conjunction with media and enforcement campaigns, sometimes both before and after the

campaign to estimate the campaign’s effect. NHTSA

and GHSA found that the best time for a single survey that addresses all three subject areas is July. A July

survey would be close enough to the May Click it or 

Ticket mobilization for reasonable recall and would fit

with summer speeding and aggressive driving campaigns. If States include impaired-driving messages or

enforcement in their Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or

summer campaigns, a July survey would capture them

as well. While the obvious disadvantage of a July survey is that it would not capture the effects of a Labor

Day or December impaired-driving campaign, it is the

best compromise.

An alternative is for States to conduct two surveys, one

in June or July concentrating on seat belts and one in

September concentrating on alcohol, with speeding

questions in either or both. This would increase costs

but would provide more timely information on campaign media and enforcement awareness.

Conclusions

The NHTSA-GHSAworking group identified a core set

of survey questions that should be used by traffic safety

researchers to measure trends in key attitudes, perceptions, and driving behaviors. Including questions

about a State’s particular traffic safety programs allows

respondents to give feedback about specific campaigns.

The full report provides what surveys were used, the

rationale behind the questions, and the breakdown of

the States’ survey histories.

How to Order

For a copy of Public Awareness Survey Recommendations 

of the NHTSA-GHSA Working Group (17 pages plus

appendices), prepared by Preusser Research Group,

Inc., write to the Office of Behavioral Safety Research,

NHTSA, NTI-130, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,

Washington DC, 20590, send a fax to 202-366-7394, or

download from www.nhtsa.gov.