Safe Phone Zones

Public-Private Partnerships.

Uniting public and private sectors

to benefit the public and driver safety.

Rest Areas.

Rest Areas have outlived their originally intended purpose and States are challenged to maintain them. In the early days of the Interstate, Rest Areas served as safe places to pull off the highway to use rest rooms, picnic, and otherwise take a break. With many more options for rest and relief and extreme budgetary pressures, states are closing Rest Areas or are seeking alternative, sustainable, marketing-based revenue to support them.

Distracted Driving.

Distracted driving is a national epidemic, especially among teens and commercial drivers. New studies and stories in the media are published every week demonstrating the dangers of distracted driving and particularly the dangers of using a cell phone for talking, texting or surfing the web while driving. Communities increasingly feel the negative impact of distracted driving and are working to offer solutions that combat distracted driving.

Why It Works.

The combination of positioning/branding state travel facilities as Safe Phone Zones with the opportunity for states to generate sponsorship revenue creates a powerful public-private partnership opportunity that benefits all stakeholders including DOTs, policy makers and politicians and the traveling public.

The Benefits.

Thoughtfully conceived and consistently implemented, Safe Phone Zone Sponsorship can provide new, non-toll and non-tax revenue to states that offsets the cost of maintaining travel facilities, while simultaneously advancing highway safety by promoting Rest Areas as places where drivers can stop to safely use communication devices during their travels.

Safe Phone Zone Sponsorship also delivers a marketing platform never before available to the private sector. This sponsorship offers enormous reach at a cost far less than traditional media in a clutter-free marketplace. This form of brand exposure is underwritten by the public sector and serves the entire business organization from marketing and public relations to employees and consumers.

Rest Area Importance.

According to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP):

1) The absence of rest areas increases shoulder-related accidents due to parked vehicles on the side of the road by 52%.

2) Motorist's use of rest areas reduced accidents by 3.7% representing a benefit to society of 148 million dollars.

FHWA Support.

FHWA Order issued April 7, 2014 explicitly allows for the placement of sponsorship acknowledgment signs to be placed on the mainline of the freeway or expressway.