Mitigation of Lane Departure Crashes in the Pacific Northwest through Coordinated Outreach Phase I, Final Project Report

Hurwitz, David; Barlow, Zach; Abdel-Rahim, Ahmed; Belz, Nathan; Boyle, Linda; Hajibabai, Leila · 2016 · ROSA P / Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans) (UTC)

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Summary

This report details Phase I of a project by the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans) aimed at mitigating lane departure crashes through coordinated public outreach. Lane departure crashes account for over 54% of traffic fatalities in the United States, with particularly high rates in the Pacific Northwest; for instance, 66% of traffic fatalities in Oregon in 2010 were caused by such incidents. While infrastructure improvements like rumble strips and signage are effective, they are costly. To address human factors such as distracted or impaired driving in a cost-effective manner, the project utilizes Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to influence driver behavior. The report focuses on the planning and implementation of a student competition designed to engage high school and college students in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington in creating safety campaigns. The methodology involved designing a structured competition where students submitted multimedia PSAs targeting lane departure safety. Participants were required to submit three specific components: a 20–30 second video, a series of five social media posts (Twitter or Instagram), and a physical poster. The competition was divided into high school and college categories, with separate submission deadlines in October 2016. To promote the initiative, the researchers developed targeted advertising materials, including flyers and a dedicated website featuring resources on lane departure crashes and examples of effective social media campaigns. These materials were distributed through university listserves and directly to high schools across the four participating states. The project leveraged social media platforms to maximize reach, recognizing their capacity to disseminate information to large populations inexpensively. The findings presented in this Phase I report are procedural rather than empirical, as the study focuses on the establishment of the outreach framework. The report confirms the successful creation of competition guidelines, submission portals, and promotional materials. It outlines the judging criteria, which will be applied by Principal Investigators and transportation professionals in Phase II. The structure ensures that submissions are categorized by academic level and state, with prize money allocated for the top three entries in each category per state. The report also documents the distribution strategy, noting that while some states distributed flyers to all high schools, others targeted specific institutions based on population density or existing contacts. The significance of this work lies in its approach to engaging younger drivers, a demographic identified by the CDC as being at the highest risk for motor vehicle crashes. By involving students in the creation of safety messages, the project aims to foster long-term behavioral shifts and increase awareness of lane departure risks. The mixed-media approach ensures that the resulting PSAs can be widely distributed through various social media outlets. Phase II of the project will involve the collection of submissions, selection of winners, and the promotion of the winning materials to the broader public, thereby extending the educational impact beyond the student participants to the general traveling public in the Pacific Northwest.

Key finding

Phase I of the project established the planning framework, guidelines, and distribution channels for a student PSA competition targeting lane departure crashes in the Pacific Northwest, with Phase II designated for entry collection and winner selection.

Methodology

other

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• public messaging

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource