Part A - Supporting Statement R Atkins

Motivations for Speeding

Supporting Statement for Information Collection Request

Approval is requested to conduct the focus groups for Motivations for Speeding.

A. JUSTIFICATION

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposes to conduct follow-up focus groups with participants from an earlier on-road instrumented vehicle data collection conducted that looked at both urban (Seattle, WA) and rural (College Station, TX) driving patterns with regard to speed. Based on speeding patterns in the data from the instrumented vehicle phase of this study, NHTSA plans to follow-up with these same subjects in focus groups to develop a better understanding of speeding and speeders, to look at urban/rural speeding and age-related differences, to develop a more accurate taxonomy of high/low speed driver subgroups (n=72), and to gain a better understanding of the motives – as well as attitudes and habits – of these subgroups, and explore attitudes and behavioral influences pertinent to various countermeasures (e.g., points reduction courses, speed awareness courses, engineering countermeasures, and automated enforcement) and the acceptance and potential effectiveness of the countermeasures. The focus groups will include discussions of speed choices and speeding behaviors and the factors that influence them, discussions of beliefs and attitudes toward speeding, reactions to and discussions about specific driving scenarios, and individual / group responses to various speeding countermeasures. The focus groups are expected to provide data relevant to descriptions of key motivations, attitudes, normative commitment to law, driving habits relevant to speeding and speeding countermeasures; descriptions of countermeasures with the greatest likely benefits; implementation issues and concerns associated with the countermeasures; and key advantages and disadvantages associated with various countermeasures. These focus groups, directly linked to the driving speed patterns of drivers in on-road vehicle data, will provide important new information on the reasons drivers choose to drive at certain speeds and what countermeasures would be most effective in reducing their speeding behaviors.

A.1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary. Identify any legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. Attach a copy of the appropriate section of each statute and regulation mandating or authorizing the collection of information.

a. Circumstances necessitating the data collection.

1. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) mission

The NHTSA was established by the Highway Safety Act of 1970 (23 U.S.C. 101). Its Congressional mandate is to reduce the number of deaths, injuries, and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes on our nation’s highways. To accomplish this mission, NHTSA sets and enforces safety performance standards for motor vehicle equipment and provides funding to State and local governments for their use in supporting highway safety activities, including demonstration and evaluation programs. NHTSA also conducts research on driver behavior and traffic safety to develop efficient and effective means of bringing about safety improvements.

2. Severity of Speeding Problem

Traffic crashes are complex; often, they have multiple contributing factors, in which speeding is one of the primary factors leading to a crash. Over thirty percent of all fatal crashes are estimated to be speeding-related crashes, defined as racing, exceeding the speed limit, or driving too fast for conditions. Speeding-related crashes resulted in 11,674 lives lost in 2008 and an estimated cost of $40.4 billion in 2000. Speeding is especially dangerous because it reduces the driver’s ability to maneuver around obstacles in a timely manner, increases the distance a vehicle requires to stop, and increases the severity of injuries¹².

Drivers’ speed choices impose risks that affect severity of crashes. Speeding is directly related to injury severity in a crash. The relationship between speeding and crash severity is indisputable. Reflecting the laws of physics, injury severity increases as the speed of the vehicle increases. However, this is not a linear relationship; rather, the energy release is proportional to the square of the impact speed. Therefore, decrease in driving speed can decrease the severity of injury.

Speeding is a pervasive behavior with about three-quarters of drivers reporting in the 2002 Speeding and Unsafe Driving Survey that they drove over the speed limit on all types of roads within the past month, and one-quarter reported speeding over the limit on the day of interview³.

Controlling speed is difficult to address because most drivers do not see speeding as a risky or dangerous behavior. An interdisciplinary approach involving engineering, enforcement, and education is needed to change drivers’ speeding behavior, thereby, reducing speeding-related crashes, fatalities and injuries.

To design interventions and countermeasure strategies that are likely to lead to behavior change, it is important to focus studies on factors underlying behaviors such as attitudes or perceptions of norms that are changeable. This study has provided a great opportunity to take a close look at these factors. The on-road study produced a unique data set measuring the speeding behavior of drivers during several weeks of naturalistic driving. Based on the patterns in this driving data several distinct patterns of speed behavior were recorded. The focus groups will allow us to take a close look at the motivations, perceptions and attitudes of both drivers who habitually comply with speed laws and drivers that habitually violate these laws and pose serious safety risks to themselves and the public around them. Linking the information from the on-road study participants on these underlying factors to actual speeding behavior rather than self-report data has the potential to provide significant new information for the development of countermeasures to reduce speeding-related crashes, fatalities, and injuries. These focus groups provide a unique opportunity to link this driving data with the underlying factors affecting speed choice.

b. Legal basis for collecting data

NHTSA has statutory authority to conduct crash injury research and collect relevant data in the interest of public health (see Attachment A). Specifically, NHTSA is authorized to: (1) engage in research on all phases of highway safety and traffic conditions; (2) undertake collaborative research and development projects with non-federal entities for the purposes of crash data collection and analysis; and (3) conduct research and collect information to determine the relationship between motor vehicles and accidents, and personal injury or deaths resulting from such accidents (See 23 U.S.C. 403(a)(1), 23 U.S.C. 403(f) and 49 U.S.C. 30168(a)). The term “safety” is defined as “highway safety and highway safety-related research and development, including research and development relating to highway and driver characteristics, crash investigations, communications, emergency medical care, and transportation of the injured” (23 U.S.C. 403(a)(3)).

A.2. Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used. Except for a new collection, indicate the actual use the agency has made of the information received from the current collection.

NHTSA will use this new collection to supplement the information that is available in existing databases related to speeding. The purpose of this data collection is to obtain detailed information about drivers’ key motivations, attitudes, and beliefs about speeding, in addition to their opinions regarding various existing and new countermeasures aimed at reducing speeding behavior. These focus groups provide an important opportunity to link the actual speeding behaviors from the naturalistic driving data collected in the in-vehicle data collection to underlying factors affecting drivers’ choices of speed when driving on various types of roadways. Other databases, such as survey data, generally provide self-report measures on speeding behavior. These focus groups allow a link between actual driving / speeding behavior and these underlying factors influencing their driving decisions, something that cannot be accomplish though self-report surveys. The focus groups would provide key information for developing future countermeasures for speeding.

A key aspect of these data is that focus group composition will be based on types of speeders identified using previously collected on-road driving data. More specifically, this data collection will address the following areas of interest:

• Speed choices and speeding behaviors and the factors that influence them,

• Motivations, beliefs, and attitudes toward speeding,

• Reactions to specific driving scenarios involving speeding,

• Reactions to various speeding countermeasures (e.g., points reduction courses, speed awareness courses, engineering countermeasures, and automated enforcement), and

• Driver acceptance and perceived effectiveness of various countermeasures

The data collected in the focus groups will be used to assist NHTSA in its ongoing responsibilities for: (a) planning and designing program activities which reduce speeding on our nation’s roadways; (b) providing support to groups involved in carrying out speeding management programs and public safety; and (c) identifying countermeasure strategies that are most acceptable and effective in deterring speeding.

The results will assist governmental agencies and private organizations in directing the implementation of strategies and action plans that will reduce the incidence of speeding-related crashes.

NHTSA will use the data to help State Highway Safety Offices, law enforcement agencies, and other organizations with establishing and sustaining programs aimed at speed regulation and to reduce the number of speeding-related crashes. The data will be used for planning and policy-related issues as they arise.

A.3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Also describe any consideration of using information technology to reduce burden.

The contractor conducting the data collection will make a video recording of the focus group proceedings and transcribe the participant responses for data analysis. This is the industry-standard approach for minimizing the data-recording burden on participants. Specifically, they can express their opinions freely and unencumbered by the need to write down information.

The contractor will digitize the video, and use appropriate security measures (e.g., strong data encryption, password protection, restricted hard-drive access) to ensure that only project staff who need to work with the data have access to it.  The physical video recordings will be kept in locked file cabinets when not in use and destroyed once the digital copy is produced, and all digital recordings (i.e., the digital copy and all working copies or excerpts that may be extracted) will be password protected and destroyed upon completion of the project.

A.4. Describe efforts to identify duplication. Show specifically why any similar information already available cannot be used or modified for use for the purposes described in Item 2 above.

Twenty-six existing focus group studies related to driver speeding were reviewed and evaluated based on the criteria listed below to determine whether existing information may be duplicative. The majority of the studies reviewed were not primarily focused on driver motivations for speeding, but they did address speed in some way.

• Content: There are several focus group studies that cover attitudes and beliefs or countermeasures related to speeding at a general level, but none covered the same aspects as the proposed work, and only one obtained this information from a comparable driver sample

• Participant Sample: Only a few focus groups covered younger and older adult drivers, but none of the studies separately examined urban-rural differences

• Link to Driving Behavior: None of the existing studies provided information that could be linked to observed driving behavior of the participants.

The focus groups for this study will provide more detailed information on speeding motivations, attitudes, and behaviors than previous focus group related to driver speeding. They will be the first to address rural / urban differences in factors related to speeding behaviors. The focus groups in this study will also be the first to be linked directly to naturalistic driving data that focuses on speeding.

A.5. If the collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities, describe methods used to minimize burden.

There will be no impact on small businesses or other small entities. The collection of information involves a convenience sample of individual drivers, not small businesses.

A.6. Describe the consequence to Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.

The speed management program at NHTSA plays a crucial role in providing guidance for State and local governments in designing and applying a balanced and effective speed management program to reduce speeding-related crashes. Speeding is a complex problem, involving the interaction of many factors including public attitudes, road user behavior, vehicle performance, roadway design and characteristics, posted speed limits and enforcement strategies. In order to reduce speeding-related crashes, fatalities and injuries, an interdisciplinary approach involving engineering, enforcement, and education is needed. The results of the data collection findings will provide crucial information on applying enforcement efforts and appropriate technology that effectively target speeders; marketing communication and educational messages that focus on high-risk drivers; soliciting the cooperation, support and leadership of traffic safety stakeholders; and providing updated speed trend and safety statistics. This information is necessary to support safety programs both at the local and national levels. Without such results, programs for addressing the speeding problem cannot be addressed and designed optimally and dedicating additional resources to the problem will be difficult to justify.

This will be a one-time data collection of focus group data. It represents a unique opportunity to gather detailed information from partipants in an earlier on-road vehicle data collection. If the focus groups are not conducted, it will be impossible to go back later and collect appropriate data to match up with the existing on-road vehicle data. The focus group data is expected to provide information that will significantly impact future speeding related programs. The participants are volunteers, so the burden of the information collection is quite small.

A.7. Explain any special circumstances that would cause the information collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines set forth in 5 CFR 1320.6.

No special circumstances require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

A.8. Provide a copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the agency’s notice, required by 5 CFR 1320.8 (d), soliciting comments on the information collection prior to submission to OMB. Summarize public comments received in response to that notice and describe actions taken by the agency in response to these comments. Describe efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views.

1. Federal Register Notice

NHTSA published a notice in the Federal Register with a 60-day public comment period to announce this proposed information collection on March 31, 2010, Volume 75, Number 61, pages 16227-16228. A copy of the Federal Register Notice is provided in Attachment B.

NHTSA published a notice in the Federal Register on July 6, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 128, page 38863) with a 30-day public comment period to announce forwarding of the information collection request to OMB for approval.

2. Responses to the Federal Register Notice

We received one comment from the public, an email dated 7/16/2010. It stated:

“there is absolutely no reason to survey for this subject. this is extremely wasteful in these times of recession to ask this stupid, insipid question and spend valuable tax dollars on this effort. the time and money and effort involved here is a real waste for america.”
 
“america dos not need this worthless survey. our govt should be spending less and letting go of some employes. it is called downsizing. this is an xample of worthless spending. 
jeanpublic 8 winterberry court whitehouse station nj 08889” 

NHTSA responded to the comment as follows:

Dear Ms. Public,

Thank you for your comment. Your input is greatly appreciated and your comment will be included in the record and the OMB request for this information collection.

Sincerely,

Randolph Atkins

Randolph G. Atkins, Jr., Ph.D.

Social Science Researcher

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NTI-131

1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E., West Bldg. 46-500

Washington, D.C. 20590

Phone: 202-366-5597

Fax: 202-366-7394

email: [email protected]

It should be noted that this information collection request is not a survey. It is a set of focus groups to gather information from people who participated in an on-road vehicle study.

3. Consultation with outside experts

National experts at NHTSA and Battelle Memorial Institute’s Center for Human Performance and Safety have collaborated on the data collection methodology.

A.9. Explain any decision to provide any payment or gift to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.

Each participant will be presented with a $75.00 honorarium in appreciation of their participation and to compensate them for the time and effort required to participate. This is standard practice to ensure adequate response rates for focus group invitations. The participants in these focus groups come from a small pool of people who participated in an earlier on-road study. It is very important to have an adequate number of the selected on-road participants also participate in the follow-up focus groups. The $75.00 should provide an adequate incentive to accomplish this.

Participants in the previous on-road phase of the study were paid $50-100 at the Seattle data collection location, and $50-200 at the Texas location. The variations in honorarium amounts for the on-road study depended on level of completion of the study data collection and on recruiting difficulty. Amounts had to be increased after the initial recruitment phase in order to recruit an adequate sample size for the on-road study and a sufficient number of older males for the study.

Providing incentives, such as cash honorariums, is a standard practice for recruiting focus groups. They are necessary to compensate participants for their time and costs to participate. Without such compensation it is highly unlikely that an adequate number of people could be recruited for the focus groups. The need for focus group honorariums is addressed in NHTSA’s Traffic Safety Marketing Plan⁴

A.10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents.

Participants are informed that their answers will be used only for research purposes. At the start of the focus group, the facilitator will tell the participants that their names will not be used in any report. The facilitator will also explain that the report to NHTSA will contain only a summary of the comments that reflects both consensus and minority opinions. Participation in the data collection is voluntary. There will not be any identifying information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, or social security numbers in the database delivered to NHTSA.

A.11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

The data collection does not contain any questions related to matters that are commonly considered sensitive or private. Participants are also anonymous during each focus group session and any identifying information is obscured and/or protected using protocols approved by the contractor’s Institutional Review Board (Federalwide Assurance Number 00004696).

A.12. Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information on the respondents.

Data collection will involve conducting seven focus groups comprised of an average of 10 participant drivers in each session.

NHTSA estimates that the focus groups will require an average of 80 minutes (approximately 1.33 hours) per session or a total of 93.1 hours for the 70 respondents. The total estimated burden is shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1

ESTIMATED BURDEN HOURS

	TOTAL
Respondents	70
Hours	1.33
Burden Hours	93.1

While the participants will be remunerated, the time they spend in the debriefing sessions can still be looked at in terms of what it would have cost if the respondents had spent that amount of time on a task while on the job. The total number of estimated reporting burden hours on the general public would be 70 for the proposed debriefing sessions.  At $20.90* per hour, the total annual estimated cost associated with the burden hours is: $20.90 x 93.1 hours for a total of $1,945.79.  Respondents would not incur any other reporting cost from the information collection.

TABLE 2. COST BURDEN ON RESPONDENTS
Population	N	Cost per Hour	Focus Group Length (hr)	Total Cost
Focus group participants	70	$20.90	1.33	$1,945.79
TOTAL	70	$20.90	1.33	$1,945.79

*From http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#b00-0000, All occupations, Mean Hourly Wage Estimate; viewed June 24, 2010.

A.13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to respondents or record keepers resulting from the collection of information.

There are no record keeping or reporting costs to the respondents. Respondents will be contacted based on their participation in an earlier driving study and asked if they would like to volunteer to participate in focus group sessions at the contractor’s research offices. Each respondent only participates once in the focus group data collection. Thus there is no preparation of data required or expected of respondents. Respondents do not incur: (a) capital and start up costs, or (b) operation, maintenance, and purchase costs as a result of participating in the survey.

A.14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.

Total estimated cost to the government for conducting the data collection is as follows:

Number of completed focus group sessions 7

Total estimated cost of focus groups $70,000

Cost per completed focus group session $10,000

This estimate is based on the total cost of budgeted for focus groups in the awarded research contract divided by the specified number of focus group sessions.

A.15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported in Items 13 or 14 of the OMB Form 83-1.

This is a new information collection that will add 93 burden hours to NHTSA overall burden hour total.

A.16. For collections of information whose results will be published, outline plans for tabulation, and publication.

NHTSA plans to publish results of the study in two volumes:

• Volume I: Findings

• Volume II: Methodology Report

The Methodology Report will include descriptions of the protocols used for recruiting participants, conducting the focus groups and analyzing the data. It will also contain the materials used during the focus groups, such as the moderator’s guide and speeding countermeasure examples.

Reports and summary sheets will be published at the conclusion of the study, along with the on-road data collected earlier. The report will contain the findings of the focus group sessions. These will involve a content analysis of participant discussions to identify recurring themes and issues regarding driver motivations, attitudes, and beliefs regarding speeding behaviors, in addition to opinions regarding the effectiveness of various countermeasures. Comparisons of key themes and issues will be made across focus group sessions and geographic location.

A.17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons that display would be inappropriate.

No such approval is sought. The OMB approval number and expiration date will be displayed on the informed consent documents that participants will complete prior to the focus groups.

A.18. Explain each exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19, Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions,” of OMB Form 83-1.

No exceptions to the certification statement are made.

1 NHTSA (2009). Traffic Safety Facts-2008: Speeding DOT HS 810 814

2 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determines it to be speeding-relating crashes, if the driver was charged with or if an officer indicated that racing, driving too fast for conditions, or exceeding the posted speed limit was a contributing factor in the crash.

3 National Survey of Speeding and Other Unsafe Driving Actions (2002).

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/Traffic%20Injury%20Control/Articles/Associated%20Files/
HS809730.pdf

4 NHTSA Traffic Safety Marketing Plan, http://trafficsafetymarketing.gov/tools.cfm?tool=Market%20Research&page=Pre-Testing%20Your%20Communications%20Plan

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