Phone in One Hand. Ticket in the Other.
“Phone in One Hand. Ticket in the Other.”
NHTSA distracted-driving high-visibility enforcement demonstration, April 2010-April 2011 in Hartford, Connecticut and Syracuse, New York (later Delaware and California), testing whether the Click It or Ticket model of publicized enforcement could cut handheld phone use and texting while driving.
- Years
- 2010–2013
- Country
- United States
- Budget
- NHTSA task orders under the Tombras Group contract DTNH22-08-C-00066: 'Distracted driving high visibility enforcement project', Aug 2010-Jul 2011, USD 159,699; 'Statewide distracted driving demonstration project', Sep 2011-Sep 2013, USD 1,190,346 (USAspending)
- Topic
- Traffic safety
- Asks people to
- Stop
- Strategy
- Policy paired
- Channel
- OutdoorRadioTV
- Audience
- Adults
Evidence
Quasi-experimentalPositive
Four enforcement waves with paid and earned media vs comparison sites. Observed handheld phone use fell from 6.6% to 2.9% in Hartford (control: 6.6% to 5.6%) and from 3.7% to 2.5% in Syracuse (control: 5% to 3%, possibly contaminated by other enforcement). Driver surveys showed higher awareness of enforcement and slogan recognition.
Sponsor (who paid)
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (U.S. DOT) Federal government, funder and evaluator
- Connecticut and New York state and local police State local government, enforcement
Credits (who made it)
- The Tombras Group Media, 2010-2013 source
Related campaigns
- U Drive. U Text. U Pay. 2014–now
- Click It or Ticket 2003–now
Sources
- Evaluation of NHTSA Distracted Driving Demonstration Projects in Connecticut and New York (DOT HS 811 635) evaluation
- HVE demonstration waves in Connecticut and New York (Traffic Safety Facts, July 2011) evaluation · 2011
- Two community distracted driving programs reduce handheld phone use (Traffic Tech) evaluation
Research notes
End year 2013 covers the later Delaware/California pilots described in 2014 coverage; confirm. Credits from contract records, 2026-10-22 procurement pass (USAspending API): the demonstration's paid media ran as task orders 0001 and 0007 under NHTSA's contract with Charles Tombras Advertising (the Tombras Group); the records name the distracted-driving high-visibility enforcement and statewide demonstration projects, not the slogan. Evaluation vendor: Preusser Research Group ('Evaluation of a distracted driving demonstration project' 2009-2011; 'Evaluating a statewide distracted driving enforcement program demonstration' 2011-2014). Reuse terms checked 2026-10-23 by an AI research pass for #47; not yet reviewed by a person.
Record cases/nhtsa-phone-in-one-hand-ticket-in-the-other.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign