DOT has released the first in another round of ads for its "Your Choices Matter" Vision Zero education campaign. It's an effective and reality-based video spot that targets drivers who speed and fail to yield -- leading causes of death and injury for people who walk and bike in NYC.
The 30-second PSA depicts a driver adjusting his radio and accelerating down a city street before making a fast right turn into a crosswalk and striking a child on a bike. “He wasn’t racing," reads the title card. "The driver was. Slow down. Your choices matter.”
A DOT press release says the new ads "specifically identify driver behaviors," and that "[r]eckless or dangerous driving decisions by motorists are key factors in 70 percent of pedestrian fatalities citywide."
Motorists hurt and kill thousands of pedestrians on city streets every year, and most victims who are struck in crosswalks have the walk signal.
“While NYC DOT redesigned more streets than ever and NYPD increased traffic enforcement, bringing safer streets to the five boroughs is also the responsibility of drivers,” Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in the press release. “Drivers’ choices behind the wheel matter and these television advertisements will remind millions of people that their actions can have fatal consequences for New Yorkers and their families.”
A second video ad will be released later this week, according to DOT. The video spots will run on broadcast and cable television through the end of June.
Other ads "will feature images of items found at crash scenes and tell the stories of the pedestrian-victims," and relate findings from DOT borough pedestrian safety action plans, the press release says. Ads will be placed on radio, in newspapers, online, on billboards, and at street-level locations including busses and bus shelters, phone kiosks, and along priority corridors identified in the pedestrian safety action plans.
Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.
Sixty people died in the first three months of the year, 50 percent more than the first quarter of 2018, which was the safest opening three months of any Vision Zero year.
