Report to Congressional Committees 

United States General Accounting Office 

GAO 

May 2003 TRUCK SAFETY 

Share the Road Safely 

Program Needs Better 

Evaluation of Its 

Initiatives 

GAO-03-680 
The Share the Road Safely program’s goal is designed to educate the 

motoring public on how to share the road safely with commercial motor 

vehicles. To accomplish this goal, the program has undertaken a number 

of public education and information dissemination initiatives including a 

series of new initiatives beginning in 2000. Some initiatives, such as 

incorporating the program’s messages into state driver education 

manuals or developing share the road messages specifically targeted to 

certain types of drivers, pedestrians or motorcyclists, are clearly linked 

to the program’s goal. However, for a few other initiatives, such as 

directing program messages to elementary schoolchildren, the linkage is 

less clear. Research currently under way in the Department of 

Transportation may enable the program to link its initiatives to the most 

significant causes of truck/car crashes. Many highway safety experts agree 

that public education efforts to increase safe driving around large trucks 

are more likely to produce substantial changes in drivers’ behaviors if 

they are combined with other safety initiatives, such as local law 

enforcement programs. Share the Road Safely has recently begun to 

pilot test such a program. 

FMCSA evaluations of the Share the Road Safely program have provided 

some information about the program but have not convincingly 

demonstrated accomplishment of the program’s intended outcomes: 

changes in drivers’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. FMCSA has the 

opportunity to adopt a new evaluation strategy for its recent initiatives, 

for example, by using evaluation practices adopted by other federally 

sponsored information dissemination programs to improve its evaluation 

of the program. 

Collision Involving Passenger Vehicles and Large Commercial Trucks 

From 1992 through 2001, more than 

50,000 people were killed in 

crashes involving large commercial 

trucks. Although more than 6,800 

of these fatalities were truck 

occupants, approximately 40,000 

were passengers in other vehicles 

and more than 4,000 were 

nonmotorists. The Department of 

Transportation’s Federal Motor 

Carrier Safety Administration 

(FMCSA) conducts a number of 

truck safety programs, including 

the Share the Road Safely program, 

whose goal is to educate the public 

about driving safely around large 

trucks. GAO examined (1) whether 

the program’s initiatives are linked 

to this goal and (2) how FMCSA 

evaluates its Share the Road Safely 

program. 

GAO recommends that the 

Department of Transportation 

(DOT) ensure that the Share the 

Road Safely program initiatives are 

directly linked to the program’s 

goal and establish a systematic 

process for evaluating the 

effectiveness of the program. DOT 

generally agreed with our 

recommendations. 

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-680.

To view the full report, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact Kate Siggerud 

(202)512-2834 or siggerudk@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-03-680, a report to 

Congressional Committees 

May 2003

TRUCK SAFETY 

Share the Road Safely Program Needs 

Better Evaluation of Its Initiatives 
Page i GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

Letter 1

Results in Brief 3

Background 4

Many Share the Road Safely Program Initiatives Are Linked to the 

Program’s Goal but a Few Lack Clear Linkage 10

Evaluations by FMCSA Provided Little Information on the 

Effectiveness of the Share the Road Program 13

Conclusion 18

Recommendations for Executive Action 18

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 19

Figures 

Figure 1: Number of Vehicle Occupants Killed in Large Truck 

Crashes by Vehicle Type (1992 - 2001) 5

Figure 2: No-Zones, or Blind Spots, around a Large Commercial 

Truck 7

Figure 3: Share the Road Safely Program Funding (Fiscal Year 1992 

– 2003) 9

Abbreviations 

DOT Department of Transportation 

FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration 

FHWA Federal Highway Administration 

NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 

TEA-21 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century 

Contents 

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the 

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Page 1 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

May 30, 2003 

The Honorable Ernest Istook, Jr. 

Chairman 

The Honorable John W. Olver 

Ranking Minority Member 

Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, 

 and Independent Agencies 

Committee on Appropriations 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Richard Shelby 

Chairman 

The Honorable Patty Murray 

Ranking Minority Member 

Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, 

 and General Government 

Committee on Appropriations 

United States Senate 

In 2001, there were 42,116 people killed on our nation’s roads, and 

3,033,000 people were injured. About 12 percent (5,082) of the fatalities 

and 4 percent (131,000) of the injuries occurred in collisions involving 

large commercial trucks.1

 The majority of these crashes were collisions 

between passenger vehicles2

 and large commercial trucks; and, in such 

crashes, the occupants of passenger vehicles are more than 15 times more 

likely to be killed than truck occupants. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration (FMCSA) recently set a goal to cut the fatality rate in large 

truck-related crashes by more than 40 percent, from its 1996 level by 2008. 

FMCSA’s Share the Road Safely program is designed to assist this effort by 

educating the motoring public on how to share the road safely with 

 1

A large commercial truck is defined as a truck with gross weight rating greater than 10,001 

pounds. 

2

For the purpose of this report, we are using the term passenger vehicle(s) to include cars, 

pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, vans, and motorcycles. Passenger vehicles have a 

gross weight rating less than 10,001 pounds. 

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548 
Page 2 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

commercial motor vehicles.3 The program, established in 1994, initially 

attempted to publicize the dangers of driving unsafely around large trucks 

to the general public. In 2000, the program refocused its efforts toward all 

highways users with more specific messages for targeted audiences 

including car and truck drivers, senior drivers, and new or problem 

drivers.4

The House report accompanying the Department of Transportation and 

Related Agencies Appropriations bill for 2003 directed us to evaluate the 

effectiveness of the Share the Road Safely program and submit the study 

to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.5

 We examined (1) 

whether the program’s initiatives are linked to its goal to educate the 

public about driving safely in and around large commercial trucks and (2) 

how FMCSA evaluates the program’s effectiveness. 

To determine whether the program’s initiatives are linked to its goal, we 

obtained information from FMCSA officials, including representatives 

from Safety Action Programs, the office responsible for Share the Road 

Safely, and other relevant FMCSA offices. We interviewed officials from 

the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as well as 

various external stakeholders and highway safety researchers. We 

reviewed program documents, including budget allocations from 1992 

through 2003, for the Share the Road Safely program and other FMCSA 

safety programs. To determine how FMCSA evaluates its Share the Road 

Safely program, we reviewed evaluations performed by FMCSA as well as 

publications from NHTSA and GAO that describe evaluation criteria 

appropriate for use in evaluating public information dissemination 

programs such as the Share the Road Safely program. We conducted our 

review from January 2003 through May 2003 in accordance with generally 

accepted government audit standards. 

 3

“Commercial motor vehicles” includes buses as well as trucks, but nearly all the program’s 

initiatives have addressed driving behavior around trucks. In this report, we use the term 

“truck” unless buses are explicitly included in a specific program initiative. 

4

Before 2000, the program was called “Share the Road.” Since 2000, FMCSA has used the 

term “Share the Road Safely” in part to indicate this shift in strategy. In this report, we 

generally use the term “Share the Road Safely,” except where it is necessary to distinguish 

the pre-2000 program from its successor program. 

5

H.R. Rep. No. 107-722, at 104 (2002). 
Page 3 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

Several of the Share the Road Safely program’s initiatives, such as 

incorporating Share the Road Safely messages into state driver education 

manuals and directing its messages to specific audiences, like pedestrians 

or motorcyclists, appear to be directly linked to the program’s goal, as 

established in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 

1991, of educating the motoring public on how to share the road safely 

with commercial motor vehicles. However, the linkage between the 

program goal and a few other program initiatives, such as providing the 

Share the Road Safely message to schoolchildren, is not as clear and 

direct. Research currently under way in the Department of Transportation 

(DOT) may enable FMCSA to direct program initiatives to ensure its 

initiatives are linked to the most significant causes of truck/car crashes, 

such as speeding or unsafe lane changes. Many highway safety officials 

and researchers agree that public education efforts alone are unlikely to 

produce substantial changes in drivers’ behaviors unless they are coupled 

with other safety initiatives, such as local enforcement programs to 

increase compliance with traffic laws. According to a FMCSA official, 

although the agency has not combined education and enforcement efforts 

in the past, it recently began a pilot of such a combined effort. For 

example, in keeping with this new approach, FMCSA has recently targeted 

six high-crash highway corridors to pilot an initiative that will combine 

local outreach through radio, television, and outdoor advertising, safety 

partnerships with local authorities and brochures with targeted police 

activity to deter unsafe driving in and around large trucks. 

FMCSA has not evaluated the effectiveness of initiatives implemented 

since 2000, and its evaluations of earlier program initiatives provide only 

limited information. FMCSA has issued three reports about the program’s 

earlier initiatives that attempted to measure changes in the general 

public’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about driving around large 

commercial trucks. These evaluations provide some information on the 

program’s activities and on how familiar drivers were with some concepts 

and behaviors promoted by the program, such as avoiding driving in large 

trucks’ “blind spots.” However, these evaluations could not determine the 

program’s effectiveness for the following reasons: 

• The evaluations relied heavily on self-reports of attitude and behavior 

change that are subject to biased responses. 

• Because FMCSA did not have a baseline of driver knowledge and behavior 

before program initiatives were implemented, it could not determine the 

extent to which intended changes in behavior occurred. 

Results in Brief 
Page 4 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

• FMCSA could not determine whether any changes in driving behavior or 

the frequency of car/truck crashes were attributable to program initiatives 

or to other influences. 

FMCSA believes that funding pilot program initiatives that are directed at 

specific target audiences (for example, senior citizens) in smaller 

geographic areas will enable FMCSA to more accurately measure the 

initiative’s effects on drivers’ knowledge, attitude, and behaviors and 

determine whether the program has contributed to reducing the number of 

car/truck crashes. Other federally sponsored information dissemination 

programs similar to the Share the Road Safely program, including some 

sponsored by other parts of DOT, have used various strategies to improve 

their evaluations—such as measuring targeted knowledge, attitude, and 

behavior changes before and after program exposure to assess change. 

FMCSA could use these or similar strategies to enhance future evaluations 

of Share the Road Safely. 

We are recommending that the Secretary of Transportation direct FMCSA 

to improve its strategic approach to the Share the Road Safely program by 

linking its activities more directly to its goals and establishing a systematic 

process for evaluating the effectiveness of the program. DOT officials 

commented on a draft of this report and generally agreed with our 

recommendations. 

Although fatalities resulting from crashes involving large commercial 

trucks have decreased in recent years (see fig. 1), this improvement may 

be difficult to sustain as more people and goods are moved throughout the 

nation. From 1992 through 2001, there were 50,3756 people killed in large 

truck crashes. Of this total, 6,811 were large truck occupants while 39,5167

were people in other types of vehicles, and 4,0488

 were nonmotorists. 

Figure 1 shows the number of passenger vehicle and large truck occupants 

 6

This figure includes passengers in cars, light trucks, large commercial trucks, and on 

motorcycles, and nonmotorists but excludes bus passengers and those fatalities classified 

by FMCSA as “other/unknown.” 

7

This figure includes passengers in cars and light trucks, and on motorcycles but excludes 

bus passengers and those fatalities classified by FMCSA as “other/unknown.” 

8

This figure includes pedestrians and pedalcyclists but excludes those fatalities classified 

by FMCSA as “other/unknown.” 

Background 
Page 5 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

killed in passenger vehicle and large truck collisions from 1992 through 

2001. 

Figure 1: Number of Vehicle Occupants Killed in Large Truck Crashes by Vehicle 

Type (1992 - 2001) 

Concerned with the number of crashes between passenger vehicles and 

large commercial trucks, Congress recognized the need to educate the 

general motoring public about certain characteristics of large commercial 

trucks and their operation. With the enactment of the Intermodal Surface 

Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, Congress directed the Secretary of 

Transportation to educate the motoring public about how to share the 
Page 6 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

road safely with large commercial trucks and authorized at least $350,000 

for fiscal years 1992 through 1997 for this purpose.9

Through public outreach and education, in the early 1990s, Federal 

Highway Administration (FHWA) began exploring ways to decrease the 

number of passenger vehicle and large commercial truck crashes and 

ultimately reduce injuries and fatalities. FHWA sponsored focus group 

studies conducted with passenger vehicle drivers, the highway safety 

community, and trucking industry officials to determine the concerns of 

the public about large commercial truck safety. Passenger vehicle drivers 

who participated in these group discussions mentioned the size and 

weight of heavy trucks, truck drivers’ aggressiveness, effects of truckdriver fatigue, and traffic congestion as some safety concerns. Passenger 

vehicle drivers also reported feeling outmatched by the size and weight of 

large commercial trucks and said that truck drivers drive too fast, too far, 

and too many hours without proper rest to be safe. They cited the mixing 

of large commercial trucks and other vehicles in congested traffic 

conditions and inclement weather as major concerns. FHWA’s analysis of 

the focus group studies indicated that the number of crashes involving 

passenger vehicles and large commercial trucks might be reduced if 

motorists understood the special characteristics of large commercial 

trucks, such as longer braking distances and larger blind spots. 

In 1992, in response to Congress’ concerns and in support of FHWA’s goal 

of reducing highway fatalities, FHWA began to develop a national public 

service highway safety program called “Share the Road” to educate 

passenger vehicle drivers on how to share the road safely with large 

commercial trucks. The Share the Road program was the first public 

information dissemination program intended to alert passenger vehicle 

drivers about blind spots or “no-zones” around a large commercial truck in 

which the truck driver’s visibility is limited. 

The first phase of the program was popularly known as the “No-Zone 

Campaign.” This campaign was designed to increase passenger vehicle 

drivers’ awareness of commercial drivers’ visibility limitations in an effort 

to influence the passenger vehicle drivers’ behavior and thus decrease the 

number of crashes involving passenger vehicles and large commercial 

 9

In 1998, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) included the same 

requirement to educate the motoring public on how to share the road safely with 

commercial motor vehicles, but TEA-21 authorized at least $500,000 to be appropriated 

from the Highway Trust Fund for fiscal years 1998 through 2003. 
Page 7 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

trucks and, ultimately, reduce fatalities, injuries, and property damage. 

Figure 2 shows no-zones, or blind spots, around a large commercial truck. 

Figure 2: No-Zones, or Blind Spots, around a Large Commercial Truck 

On January 1, 2000, FMCSA was established within DOT pursuant to the 

Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, and its mission was to 

reduce the number and severity of large-truck involved crashes. FMCSA 

became responsible for developing and implementing initiatives for the 

Share the Road program as well as other commercial vehicle safety 

programs. FMCSA changed the focus of the Share the Road program from 

a public outreach initiative emphasizing the No-Zone Campaign to a 

discrete program within its Safety Actions Program Division and renamed 

it “Share the Road Safely.” The Share the Road Safely program is intended 

to target all highway users10 to increase their awareness about the inherent 

danger of driving in and around large commercial trucks and modify driver 

behaviors. FMCSA officials believe that through education and outreach to 

specific target audiences, highway users will be persuaded to change their 

behavior with the eventual result being a reduction in commercial motor 

vehicle crashes. Consequently, the program has begun educational 

initiatives directed at such discrete audiences as senior drivers, new or 

problem drivers, commercial motor vehicle drivers, school trip planners, 

and drivers in specific geographic areas. 

The Share the Road Safely program is a small part of a group of truck 

safety programs administered by FMCSA to reduce large commercial 

truck-related injuries and fatalities. In 2003, FMCSA set an overall goal of 

reducing the rate of large commercial truck-related fatalities from the 1996 

rate of 2.8 fatalities per 100 million truck miles traveled to 1.65 fatalities 

 10Include pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers of commercial vehicles, cars, motorcyclists, 

and recreational vehicles. 
Page 8 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

per 100 million truck miles traveled by 2008.11 FMCSA programs are 

intended to contribute to this goal by addressing safety in motor carrier 

operations through identifying and enforcing safety regulations that target 

high-risk carriers and large commercial truck drivers, improving safety 

information systems and commercial motor vehicle technologies, 

strengthening commercial motor vehicle equipment and operating 

standards, and increasing safety awareness. According to agency officials, 

FMCSA coordinates its programs with other federal, state, and local 

enforcement agencies, the motor carrier industry, highway safety 

advocacy groups, and others. 

The fiscal year 2003 funding for the Share the Road Safely program 

represents less than 1 percent of FMCSA’s total budget. From fiscal year 

1992 through 2003, about $6.8 million, or an average of $569,000 per year, 

was spent on the program.12 Figure 3 illustrates the funding for the Share 

the Road Safely program since its inception in fiscal year 1992. 

 11In 1999, DOT had set a goal of reducing large commercial truck-related fatalities by 50 

percent, from 5,380 to 2,690, by the year 2010. According to FMCSA officials, the agency 

revised its goal to better align it with the DOT Highway Safety performance goal and FHWA 

and NHTSA measures. 

12From fiscal year 1992 through fiscal year 1999, the program’s initiatives were funded 

primarily in the form of grants through the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program. 

However, since fiscal year 2000 the program’s budget has come primarily as a $500,000 

annual “pass through” funding from NHTSA; other funding—about $125,000 annually—

comes through funding from the Research and Technology Office. 
Page 9 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

Figure 3: Share the Road Safely Program Funding (Fiscal Year 1992 – 2003) 

Note: TEA-21 directed the Secretary of Transportation to obligate $500,000 for each of fiscal years 

1998 through 2003 for the Share the Road program. However, the program did not receive these 

funds in fiscal year 1998 because the funding had already been committed by the time the act was 

passed in June 1998. 

According to FMCSA officials, the agency partners with public and private 

organizations nationwide to promote the Share the Road Safely program’s 

mission, pool safety ideas and resources, and minimize the duplication of 

efforts. For example, FMCSA works with a coalition that includes such 

members as the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators,13

AAA,14 and the American Trucking Associations,15 and state and local 

agencies. The coalition provides FMCSA with feedback on and assistance 

with the program’s goal. In addition to these efforts, most Share the Road 

resources are used to hire contractors to develop and implement the 

 13The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators is a tax-exempt, nonprofit 

organization that works to develop model programs in motor vehicle administration, police 

traffic services, and highway safety. 

14AAA, formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a not-for-profit, taxpaying federation of 77 motor clubs serving 46 million members in the United States and 

Canada. 

15American Trucking Associations, Inc., is the national trade association of the trucking 

industry. 
Page 10 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

products and services (for example, maintaining a Web site and 

developing educational materials) for the Share the Road Safely program. 

The contracts for these products and services have ranged from $25,000 to 

$300,000 since 2000 and are generally awarded for 1 year periods, but they 

can be modified and extended with approval from FMCSA. Since fiscal 

year 2000, FMCSA has awarded 13 contracts for various products and 

services for the Share the Road Safely program.16

Although a clear rationale exists for several Share the Road Safely 

initiatives, a few initiatives are not clearly linked to the program’s safety 

goal. The program has begun to target specific driving behaviors more 

likely to have a direct safety impact. Finally, public educational 

approaches are generally considered more effective when combined with 

other safety efforts, such as enhanced enforcement of traffic laws, and 

FMCSA is beginning to combine these initiatives in the Share the Road 

Safely program. 

Several of the initiatives in the Share the Road Safely program are 

generally linked to the program’s goal, as established in the Intermodal 

Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, to educate the public about 

sharing the road safely with large commercial vehicles. Examples of clear 

links to the program goal includes (1) targeting Share the Road Safely 

messages at specific groups, such as new or problem drivers, pedestrians, 

or motorcyclists; (2) using radio and print public service announcements 

as well as interactive CD-ROMs; (3) developing and maintaining a Share 

the Road Safely Web site that provides downloadable information suitable 

for specific audiences; and (4) introducing more information about sharing 

the road with large commercial trucks into state driver education manuals 

and driver training curricula. 

Yet not all the program’s initiatives are directly linked to its goal. For 

example, in recent years the program has awarded contracts for such 

initiatives as educating school trip planners on using safe bus companies 

for students’ field trips and providing the Share the Road Safely message 

to schoolchildren. According to FMCSA officials, these initiatives 

accounted for about $255,000 for fiscal years 2001 through 2002, or 

 16FMCSA officials told us that they did not have contract information for fiscal years 1992 

through 1999. 

Many Share the Road 

Safely Program 

Initiatives Are Linked 

to the Program’s Goal 

but a Few Lack Clear 

Linkage 

A Few Program Initiatives 

Are Not Clearly Linked to 

the Program’s Goal 
Page 11 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

approximately 20 percent of the program’s budget for that period. 

According to an FMCSA official, one of the Share the Road Safely 

initiatives—Moving Kids Safely—educates school trip planners about how 

to select safe bus companies to transport students on field trips. According 

to this official, the initiative stresses the importance of choosing a charter 

transportation company that has a satisfactory safety record in order to 

reduce the risk of crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving schoolchildren. 

FMCSA officials pointed out that this can change the way bus companies 

are hired for school trips and contribute to the goal of reducing school bus 

crashes. However, it is not clear how the initiative contributes to the 

program’s goal of educating the public about sharing the road with 

commercial motor vehicles. 

Similarly, according to program officials, FMCSA joined the ongoing 

“Trucker Buddy” initiative, a national program sponsored by the trucking 

industry. The initiative’s purpose was to test the effectiveness of targeting 

students at various stages of the public education system to determine 

how much the children had learned about the safety issues concerning 

large commercial trucks, to improve their knowledge of the truck driving 

profession, and to assess whether this information was communicated to 

their parents. The initiative included such activities as truckers visiting 

elementary school classrooms and students establishing pen-pal 

relationships with truckers. While these activities may prove to have some 

long-term effect on the children’s behavior when they become drivers, or 

may have affected their parents’ driving behaviors, the connection 

between the initiative and the goal of educating the motoring public is 

indirect. According to FMCSA officials, FMCSA’s participation in this joint 

initiative ended in March 2003. 

Research conducted in the late 1990s enabled FMCSA to broaden the 

Share the Road program beyond the No-Zone Campaign to include other 

initiatives related to sharing the road with large commercial vehicles. The 

driving behaviors targeted by the pre-2000 Share the Road program were 

not sufficiently specific to allow drivers to take effective actions to reduce 

crashes. Because police reports cited the behavior of passenger vehicle 

drivers in crashes more frequently than the behavior of large commercial 

truck drivers, Share the Road initially emphasized its “no-zone” theme and 

focused its efforts on passenger vehicle drivers. However, subsequent 

research sponsored by FHWA concluded that, at most, only 35 percent of 

fatal passenger vehicle and large commercial truck collisions are 

attributable to passenger vehicles traveling in the no-zone. According to 

FMCSA officials, since 2000 the Share the Road Safely program has 

Program Currently Targets 

More Specific Driver 

Behaviors than in Earlier 

Phase 
Page 12 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

recognized the need to shift its focus from a “no-zone” approach to one 

that better addresses the causes of passenger vehicle and large 

commercial truck collisions in order to develop stronger links between 

Share the Road Safely program goal and its initiatives. A 1999 FHWA 

report concluded that “more comprehensive data on the causes of 

passenger vehicle and large commercial truck crashes of all severities 

would enhance FHWA’s ability to develop effective countermeasures and 

prevent future crashes.” Since then, FMCSA and NHTSA’s National Center 

for Statistics and Analysis have begun a Large Truck Crash Causation 

Study to determine the causes and associated factors contributing to 

serious large commercial truck crashes so that agencies within DOT and 

others can implement effective countermeasures to reduce the occurrence 

and severity of such crashes. This is the first national study of its kind and 

is designed to code all factors that might be crash related for later analysis. 

FMCSA expects to release the study’s database to the public early in 2005. 

Highway safety researchers and safety advocates we interviewed agreed 

that attempts to modify the behavior of drivers are more effective when 

educational approaches are combined with enforcement efforts. This 

conclusion is supported by the evaluation of past educational efforts to 

change driver behavior, in particular efforts to reduce drunk driving or 

increase safety belt usage.17 For this reason, according to a NHTSA official, 

NHTSA public information campaigns are frequently combined with wellpublicized local police activities to enforce compliance with traffic 

ordinances prohibiting behaviors such as driving while impaired or driving 

without a safety belt. 

FMCSA recently began an initiative that would link educational outreach 

with enforcement. It plans to pilot test the effectiveness of combining 

Share the Road Safely messages with local outreach and enforcement 

 17U.S. General Accounting Office, Motor Vehicle Safety: Comprehensive State Programs 

Offer Best Opportunity for Increasing Use of Safety Belts, GAO/RCED-96-24 (Washington,

D.C.: Jan 3, 1996); U.S. General Accounting Office, Highway Safety: Effectiveness of State

.08 Blood Alcohol Laws, GAO/RCED-99-179 (Washington, D.C.: June 23, 1999). See also 

“Education Alone Won’t Make Drivers Safer,” Status Report: Insurance Institute for

Highway Safety 36:5 (May 19, 2001); Adrian K. Lund and Allan F. Williams, “A Review of 

the Literature Evaluating the Defensive Driving Course,” Accident Analysis and 

Prevention 17:6 (1985); Carolyn B. Liban et al., “The Canadian Drinking-Driving 

Countermeasure Experience,” Accident Analysis and Prevention 19:3 (1987); James B. 

Jacobs, Drunk Driving, An American Dilemma (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 

1989). 

Successful Initiatives 

Combine Educational 

Outreach with Local 

Enforcement Efforts 
Page 13 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

initiatives. The pilot test will include outreach material, such as outdoor 

advertising and brochures, to educate and increase the awareness of 

passenger vehicle drivers on roads that have a disproportionately high 

number of large commercial truck crashes. The primary emphasis will be 

on the inability of large trucks to stop as quickly as cars and the hazard 

created when cars cut in front of trucks on the highway. The pilot will also 

emphasize to large commercial truck drivers the need for greater patience 

and defensive driving in these high crash corridors. In June 2003, FMCSA 

plans to pilot test these Share the Road Safely messages in conjunction 

with enhanced state-level enforcement of traffic violations, such as 

aggressive driving and tailgating in six corridors throughout the country 

that have a high volume of large commercial truck crashes. According to a 

FMCSA official, as part of this initiative, FMCSA will measure the relative 

safety improvements in these high-volume, truck crash corridors in order 

to identify effective safety strategies that could lead to the development of 

community-based programs to reduce the number of crashes between 

large commercial trucks and passenger vehicles. 

A program’s effectiveness can be determined by assessing how far a 

program has progressed toward achieving its intended outcomes. FMCSA 

has attempted to measure the effectiveness of some of the program’s 

initiatives, but these evaluations provide only limited information on the 

program’s success in changing driver behavior. FMCSA has not attempted 

to evaluate the Share the Road Safely program since 2000; however, it has 

taken steps that may help it improve its evaluations of the program’s 

effectiveness in the future. In addition, practices used by other entities 

both within and outside DOT to evaluate information dissemination 

programs illustrate strategies that FMCSA could use to improve its 

evaluations. 

Evaluations by 

FMCSA Provided 

Little Information on 

the Effectiveness of 

the Share the Road 

Program 
Page 14 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

A program evaluation is a systematic process that uses objective measures 

to analyze how well a program is achieving its goals. In a recent report,18

we noted that articulating the logic—or strategy—of an information 

dissemination program like Share the Road Safely could help the agency 

identify expected short-term, intermediate, or long-term outcomes and 

how to measure them. A clearly stated program strategy that articulates 

how a program’s initiatives are expected to achieve its desired goals 

enables the program’s managers to measure activities (for example, the 

number of TV advertisements broadcast or workshops held); outputs (for 

example, the portion of the target audience exposed to TV advertisements 

or participating in workshops); and outcomes—the changes effected in the 

target audience by the program. Many programs routinely track their 

activities and outputs; however, an outcome program evaluation19 assesses 

actual changes in the audience’s knowledge, attitude, and behavior that 

lead to an improvement in the conditions the program was designed to 

improve. Such an evaluation measures the extent to which a program has 

achieved its intended short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes. 

For an information dissemination program, short-term outcomes would 

typically include gains in the audience’s knowledge and changes in its 

attitude about the issue addressed by the program. For Share the Road 

Safely, short-term outcomes would include positive changes in motorists’ 

or pedestrians’ beliefs and positive reactions to the program’s safety 

messages. Intermediate outcomes would include positive changes in the 

audience’s behavior, such as not cutting in front of large trucks or 

tailgating. Long-term outcomes represent the ultimate objective of the 

program. For the Share the Road Safely program, a long-term outcome 

would be contributing to a reduction in the number of fatal collisions 

involving large commercial trucks and other vehicles or pedestrians. 

Changes in this outcome, while easy to measure, can be difficult to ascribe 

to the program because alternative explanations, such as improvements in 

the design of trucks and other vehicles, safety improvements in roadway 

design, or safety initiatives of other FMCSA safety programs can also be 

credited with contributing toward any progress. 

 18U.S. General Accounting Office, Program Evaluation: Strategies for Assessing How 

Information Dissemination Contributes to Agency Goals, GAO-02-923 (Washington, D.C.: 

September 2002). 

19U.S. General Accounting Office, Performance Measurement and Evaluation: Definitions 

and Relationships, GAO/GGD-98-26 (Washington, D.C.: April 1998). 

Program Evaluation Uses 

Objective Measures to 

Examine the Effectiveness 

of a Program’s 

Contributions to ShortTerm, Intermediate, or 

Long-Term Outcomes 
Page 15 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

We recently reviewed a number of federally sponsored information 

dissemination programs, including efforts to enhance compliance with 

environmental regulations and reduce youth drug use.20 We identified 

several strategies that were used to improve the evaluations of such 

programs. They included such practices as 

• developing common measures for national evaluations, 

• comparing before-and-after reports to assess change, 

• using statistical methods to limit external influences, and 

• adjusting the wording of survey questions to reduce potential bias. 

The programs we reviewed were substantially more costly efforts than the 

initiatives conducted for Share the Road Safely program and consequently 

their evaluations were correspondingly more extensive. However, the 

strategies these programs developed to improve their evaluations can be 

scaled appropriately to smaller initiatives like those in the Share the Road 

Safely program. 

FMCSA has issued three reports21 about the Share the Road program’s 

progress and initiatives. In 1997 and 1999, FMCSA reported on the 

program’s progress toward achieving its goal and concluded that the 

program was effective in communicating the dangers inherent in large 

commercial truck interaction with passenger vehicles and on providing 

useful information on safe driving behaviors for the target audience. 

FMCSA also reported that since 1994, the program has made significant 

accomplishments in implementing its planned activities. For example, 

Share the Road messages were seen and heard throughout the country on 

billboards, radio, and television and in schools and driver education 

classes. 

 20GAO-02-923. 

21No-Zone Campaign Goals and Activities Summary Report (March 1997), Share the 

Road Campaign Research Study Final Report (June 1999), U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Office of Motor Carrier and Highway 

Safety; and No-Zone Campaign Assessment (October 2000) U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. 

Evaluations of the Share 

the Road Program Did Not 

Fully Measure the 

Program’s Outcomes 
Page 16 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

In 2000, FMCSA issued a report that addressed changes in drivers’ 

knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors while driving in the vicinity of large 

trucks as a result of its Share the Road initiatives to that point. The agency 

surveyed 1,100 licensed drivers and found that 58 percent of the 

respondents had seen or heard the phrase “Share the Road”; and 59 

percent said they changed their behavior when they learned about some of 

the special characteristics of large trucks, such as longer braking distances 

and larger blind spots. However, FMCSA could not directly link these 

behavior changes to the Share the Road program. Only 13 percent of 

respondents had seen or heard the phrase “No-Zone”—the major focus of 

the program’s initiatives at that time. 

Although these studies shed some light on the extent of the Share the 

Road program’s outputs, they did not fully measure the program’s 

outcomes. The studies provide some information on the initiatives the 

program has sponsored and on drivers’ familiarity with some concepts and 

behaviors promoted by the program. They shed little light on the shortterm, intermediate, and long-term outcomes for three reasons. First, 

FMCSA’s evaluations relied heavily on self-reports of the target audience’s 

attitude and behavior change that were highly subject to positively biased 

responses; that is, respondents are likely to provide socially desirable 

responses.22 For example, when a positive-sounding program such as 

“Share the Road” is mentioned, respondents are likely to report being 

familiar with and heeding its message.23 Second, because no baseline of 

driver knowledge and behavior prior to the program had been established, 

FMCSA could not determine the extent to which any changes in these 

intended short-term outcomes actually occurred.24 Third, if changes did 

occur, FMCSA had no way of knowing whether these changes were the 

result of program activities or other influences.25

 22GAO-02-923. 

23The fact that 58 percent of respondents reported being familiar with “Share the Road,” but 

only 13 percent were familiar with “No-Zone”—the program’s primary initiative—suggests 

the likely influence of a positive bias. 

24The Trucker Buddy program is a small exception. As part of the program, elementary 

schoolchildren were tested on their knowledge of trucks before and after instruction on the 

subject. They demonstrated a 21 percent improvement. 

25Other similar programs, such as those sponsored by trucking organizations, automobile 

associations, and insurance companies, strive for goals similar to those in FMCSA’s Share 

the Road Safely program. These organizations and associations have programs that 

specifically address the needs of passenger and commercial vehicle drivers. 
Page 17 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

There are other methods that can be used to assess the effectiveness of 

information dissemination programs such as Share the Road Safely. For 

example, the Office of National Drug Control Policy used a media 

campaign to counteract images that were perceived as glamorizing or 

condoning drug use. Under the direction of the National Institute on Drug 

Abuse, a contractor conducted a national evaluation of the campaign. The 

evaluation surveyed households in the targeted markets to assess 

advertisement awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, including 

drug use, in a representative sample of youths and their parents or other 

caretakers. The evaluation could not compare its sample with a control 

group that had not been exposed to the media campaign because the 

campaign ran nationally. Therefore, the evaluation used a “dose-response” 

design to measure the degree of respondents’ exposure to the campaign 

and assess whether adoption of the desired attitudes and behaviors was 

positively correlated with their exposure. 

The experiences of other administrations within DOT, such as NHTSA, 

could also help FMCSA in its evaluations of the Share the Road Safely 

program. FMCSA officials acknowledged that NHTSA possesses expertise 

in developing and evaluating information dissemination programs aimed at 

improving drivers’ safety consciousness and driving behaviors. For 

example, in May 2001, NHTSA conducted a regional “Click It or Ticket” 

campaign in several southeastern states to increase safety belt use through 

media outreach combined with intense state-level enforcement of safety 

belt use laws. Evaluation of the campaign found an increase in safety belt 

use that was correlated with the amount of advertisements publicizing the 

campaign and consequent public awareness of the heightened 

enforcement activities. 

FMCSA officials told us that they have performed no evaluation of the 

Share the Road Safely program since 2000. However, they also told us that 

they recognize the need for improved evaluation of the program’s 

outcomes and that this was one factor considered in the refocus of the 

program beginning in 2000. Prior evaluations had attempted to measure 

the national penetration of the Share the Road program message, 

particularly its no-zone message. Because their post-2000 strategy has 

emphasized specific target groups or geographic areas, officials expect 

that they will be better able to measure the effectiveness of focused pilot 

tests and determine the relative effectiveness of different initiatives before 

expanding them or offering them as models for state or local emulation. 

FMCSA officials pointed to the combined education/enforcement initiative 

planned for six corridors with high numbers of truck crashes as a recent 

Other Methods for 

Evaluating Information 

Dissemination Programs 

Exist 

FMCSA Expects to 

Perform More Meaningful 

Evaluations of the Share 

the Road Safely Program 

in the Future 
Page 18 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

example of this more targeted approach that they expect will allow them 

to make more meaningful evaluations of changes in driver behavior and, 

ultimately, in car/truck crash frequency. However, because none of the 

pilot initiatives undertaken during the post-2000 Share the Road Safely 

program has been completed, FMCSA has no outcome measures to assess 

the effectiveness of the program. 

The Share the Road Safely program currently consists of a number of 

relatively new pilot initiatives in various stages of implementation. These 

initiatives are designed to contribute to FMCSA’s goal of reducing the 

fatality rate associated with large commercial vehicles; however, we found 

that in some cases their link to the program’s goal of educating the public 

about driving safely around large commercial vehicles was tenuous. Given 

that findings from DOT’s research—which may help identify specific 

behaviors contributing to car/truck crashes—will soon be available and 

that FMCSA’s pilot initiatives are still not fully implemented, FMCSA has 

an opportunity to ensure that the initiatives are organized into a program 

strategy that explicitly links them to the program’s overall goal. 

In addition, FMCSA has not evaluated the effectiveness of Share the Road 

Safely since 2000. We recognize that the program’s relatively small budget 

demands that its evaluation activities be scaled appropriately to the size of 

its initiatives. Yet it is important that FMCSA incorporate the best 

evaluation practices that are available from federal and other sources to 

the extent practicable to ensure that the agency does not expend its 

limited resources on initiatives of uncertain or unknown effectiveness. 

The program’s shift to more limited pilot initiatives offers the opportunity 

for appropriately scaled evaluations. More rigorous evaluations than those 

conducted in the past could be used to enhance FMCSA’s ability to direct 

its resources to more cost-effective initiatives that are clearly linked to the 

program’s goal. 

To ensure that FMCSA’s Share the Road Safely program initiatives 

contribute to the agency’s goal to reduce the number of collisions between 

large commercial trucks and other highway users, we recommend that the 

Secretary of Transportation direct the FMCSA administrator to 

• develop an explicit program strategy that clearly and directly links 

FMCSA’s Share the Road Safely program initiatives to its goal and uses the 

results of the Large Truck Crash Causation Study as they become 

available, as well as other relevant highway safety data, in order to identify 

Conclusion 

Recommendations for 

Executive Action 
Page 19 GAO-03-680 Truck Safety 

specific behaviors that contribute to passenger vehicle and large 

commercial truck crashes, thus more effectively targeting the limited 

resources of the Share the Road Safely program; and 

• establish a systematic strategy for evaluating the Share the Road Safely 

program’s initiatives that makes greater use where practical of DOT’s 

experience in designing and evaluating information dissemination 

programs to enhance highway safety. 

DOT officials reviewed a draft of this report and generally agreed with our 

recommendations. They also made some technical comments that we have 

incorporated into this report as appropriate. 

We are sending copies of this report to congressional committees and 

subcommittees with responsibilities for transportation and the Secretary 

of Transportation. We will make copies available to others upon request. 

In addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site 

at http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact 

either Robert White at whitere@gao.gov or me at siggerudk@gao.gov. 

Alternatively, we may be reached at (202) 512-2834. Key contributors to 

this report were Sally Gilley, Brandon Haller, Octavia Parks, Jason 

Schwartz, and Susan Michal-Smith. 

Katherine Siggerud 

Acting Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues 

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation 

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