Share the Road Campaign Spreads the Word

Print advertisement for Share The Road For A Healthy Maine campaign

Share the Road for a Healthy Maine, the Bicycle Coalition of Maine's two-year grant awarded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is an research effort to test best practices for educating motorists and bicyclists. In September, Pete Phair, Share the Road Project Coordinator, and Jeff Miller, Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine (BCM), presented at the Pro Bike/Pro Walk Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, to a national audience of bicycle and pedestrian advocates and government officials.

The project began with a poll of residents in the greater Portland area to find out what they know and do not know about sharing the road and where they go to get their information. The polling also looked at four specific populations: young drivers, seniors, immigrants, and parents. Based on information gathered from their questionnaires, a media campaign was then designed to address areas most in need of attention. The New England School of Communication helped develop message content and five 30-second radio spots, and the audio tracks for the video spots. Working with WCSH 6 we produced two video spots with one geared to bicyclists and one to motorists. With funding from NHTSA and the MaineDOT, a $28,000 media blitz in the Portland market was aired during the last two weeks of May. The campaign ran 115 television ads, 236 radio ads, and 10 print ads in local newspapers (see By the Numbers).

Share the Road by the Numbers 8   Project partners 4   Demographic groups polled 2   TV spots produced 5   Radio spots produced 14   # of hours in one day Jeff used to produce TV spots 10   Specific STR messages shared in spots 115   TV ads broadcast 236   Radio ads broadcast 10   Newspaper ads 500,000   Web hits 752   Pre & post surveys administered 14   Days of media blitz 1   $500 gift certificate awarded to a lucky person who completed the survey

After the media campaign, another poll was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the two-week blitz. In terms of motorists' behavior, the data shows that the campaign slightly influenced the groups (overall) with behaviors such as yielding to bicyclists when turning, not honking at cyclists, and looking for cyclists when opening car doors. Bicycling behaviors show slight improvements with respondents indicating they were more likely to use hand signals, use head & tail lights at night, stop at stop signs, and follow the same rules of the road as other vehicles.

A number of challenges in the post polling seem to be causing problems with the results. There were fewer numbers of respondents overall and we struggled with untimely staff turnover at certain partner organizations, and difficulty synthesizing data. Perhaps some of the most valuable information gleaned from the effort is a terrific degree of insight on how to proceed from here with a statewide campaign. The NHTSA project allowed the BCM to determine which bicycling and car safety behaviors are most in need of public attention, and it also helped to define how Maines get their information.

Keep an eye out for a final part of the project with a full-page color advertisement in the 2007 Maine Invites You (Maine Tourism Association's magazine in 350,000 copies) and if you want to help spread the word, contact the BCM for a free Share the Road bumper sticker.

For more information on the Share the Road Campaign, check out our website or contact us at 623-4511 or info@BikeMaine.org.

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