Online Program

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Occupant Protection Programs (302803)

Keywords: Traffic Safety, Occupant Protection, Transportation, Generalized Linear Mixed Effects Models, Logistic Regression

Vehicle occupant protection, and especially seat restraint use, are widely accepted as critical to public health. Recently, transportation agencies have confronted stagnation in seat belt compliance rates with a suite of programs designed to increase use. It is of interest to these agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs across jurisdictions, but the required analytical methods are typically beyond their scope. This project attempted to bridge that gap by working in collaboration with the Montana Department of Transportation to analyze a set of metrics corresponding to occupant protection program efficacy. Information was leveraged from existing, but previously unpaired, data streams (state-level program activity maps and budgets and nationally standardized seat belt survey data) to estimate the effects of occupant protection programs in Montana on seat belt compliance rates. Data were assembled in a GIS and analyzed via a logistic regression model with mixed effects. The findings provide quantitative estimates of specific programs’ contribution to seat restraint use with critical insights for future resource allocation.