L.A. County Is Seeking Words to Slow Down By

In Los Angeles County, drunk drivers are responsible for about 200 deaths each year.

An additional 230 pedestrians are killed annually in the county, just crossing the streets.

Speeding is rampant on residential roads and road rage is out of control.

What to do?

Los Angeles transportation officials are considering a countywide advertising campaign, following in the path of other campaigns with catchy phrases such as “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk” and “Buckle up.”

The campaign, targeting speeding and other reckless driving habits, is tentatively scheduled to start in the spring. It will likely be patterned after a traffic safety campaign launched last month in San Jose.

Traffic safety is a favorite subject of public safety campaigns, and every campaign, it seems, must adopt a catch phrase.

In Oklahoma, the motto for the state’s seat-belt campaign is, “What’s holding you back, Oklahoma?”

“Take it easy” is the slogan for a campaign aimed at putting the brakes on aggressive driving in Delaware.

In Colorado, state officials, worried about the low rate of seat-belt use among African American males, recently launched a campaign with the slogan, “Brother, keep it together: Don’t risk it.”

Snappy phrases. But do such campaigns work?

The record has been mixed. Studies show that advertising campaigns alone can increase public awareness about a problem, such as seat-belt use or drunk driving. But studies also show that such campaigns work better when paired with a tough law enforcement crackdown.

Consider this: Eight southeastern states (Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and South Carolina) launched the “Click it or ticket” campaign last year to increase seat-belt use. A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that, after an advertising campaign kicked off, seat-belt use among motorists increased only slightly above the starting level of 65%. But seat-belt use shot up to 74% a couple of weeks later, when police launched a crackdown, according to the study.

Another study by the same agency found that those theoretically catchy phrases are not always memorable.

The agency hired a firm in 1997 to survey 6,000 adult drivers. Although 35% of the drivers said they had seen or heard a public service announcement about speeding, nearly 70% could not recall the slogan or anything else about the announcement, according to the study.

Given such drawbacks, why do we still see so many public safety campaigns urging us to drive safely?

One reason could be that a lot of people, including advertising companies and public relations firms, have a vested interest in the launching of big-budget advertising campaigns, said Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach, a USC professor at the Annenberg School for Communication. Another reason, she said, is that few public safety campaigns are evaluated to see how effective they have been.

Scott Gardner, president of Liquid Agency, the brand marketing agency that helped develop San Jose’s “Street Smarts” campaign, stands by such campaigns, saying they are effective in building public awareness over time -- usually several years -- and can lead to changes in behavior.

Besides, he said, the alternative -- posting a police officer on every street -- is too expensive.

“We can’t speed-bump the entire city, so you have to increase education,” Gardner said.

San Jose’s “Street Smarts” relies on signs, newspaper ads, radio spots and television ads to spread such messages as “Red-light running has to stop” and “Want to meet cops? Drive fast.”

In Los Angeles, the idea for the new public safety campaign has been promoted by Wayne Tanda, the newly appointed general manager for the city’s Department of Transportation. (He formerly worked in San Jose.)

Tanda said he would like to team up with county officials to launch the campaign throughout the county.

He suggested the campaign could reduce traffic congestion. He said nearly half of all traffic delays are the result of automobile accidents. If a public safety campaign can improve drivers’ behavior, Tanda said, auto accidents will drop and traffic flow will improve.

“That’s like adding many lanes to our streets or like adding another freeway,” he said.

Asked how he could be so sure a campaign can change driver behavior, Tanda pointed to the “Got milk” campaign. For years, milk sales in the U.S. declined by about 2% or 3% per year. Since the campaign was launched in 1994, milk sales have remained steady.

Tanda’s campaign has yet to adopt a catch phrase but perhaps he can borrow from San Jose’s slogan: “Got smarts?”

*

If you have a question, gripe or story idea about driving in Southern California, send an e-mail to behindthewheel@latimes.com.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Traffic Safety Catch Phrases

Traffic safety campaigns rely heavily on catch phrases -- mottos designed to educate drivers about certain bad driving behaviors. The following are examples of catch phrases used in safety campaigns the United States in recent years.

*--* * Arizona: “Operation Chill” (aggressive driving)

* Colorado: “Chill” (aggressive driving)

* Colorado: “Brother, keep it together. Don’t risk it” (low seat-belt use among black males)

* Delaware: “Take it easy” (aggressive driving)

* Illinois: “Operation Cool” (high accident rates among teen drivers)

* Hawaii: “Drive Akamai [smart]” (aggressive driving)

* Kansas: “Share the road” (high accident rates involving motorcycles)

* Maryland: “Smooth operator” (aggressive driving)

* Michigan: “Click it. Don’t risk it” (low seat-belt use)

* New Jersey: “Drive friendly” (aggressive driving)

* Oklahoma: “What’s holding you back, Oklahoma?” (low seat-belt use)

*--*

* U.S.: “Buckle-up America” (low seat-belt use)

Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Los Angeles Times