An evaluation of the effectiveness of citizen's band radio in the highway safety environment

Abstract

This paper describes the operational experiment being performed and the evaluation methodology being employed to measure the effectiveness of CB radio as a means to improve highway safety. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation/ National Highway Safety Administration(DOT/ NHTSA) [1] and is being performed for DOT/NHTSA by the New York State Police (NYSP) with support from its technical consultant, Advanced Technology Systems, Inc. (ATS). The operational experiment is being conducted in a seven county region in north central New York State which includes the cities of Syracuse, Utica and Watertown. In this region CB radios have been installed in 150 State Police vehicles and 21 base stations. The experiment is measuring response times and is tracking response media being employed in reacting to roadway incidences requiring assistance to the motoring public. The paper contains three sections. The first section describes the design of the experiment and the steps taken to prepare for and conduct the experiment. The second section describes the data collection and processing system designed to handle and evaluate the large quantities of data collected during the experiment. The third section covers the evaluation of the outcomes of the experiment. It describes the parameters measured and the statistical tests used to determine the significance of differences obtained in the parameter values with and without the use of CB radios by the State Police.